• Question: how long will it take for a nuke to destroy the world

    Asked by to Aled, Ellie, Kev, Willem on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Willem Heijltjes

      Willem Heijltjes answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Hi Taris!
      A single nuclear bomb (of the kind we have built today) can’t destroy the world. After it goes off, and the dust settles, things will only get better, the longer you wait! (So please, there’s no need to try this experiment for real 😉 )

    • Photo: Aled Roberts

      Aled Roberts answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Hi Taris…

      Willem is spot on! It wouldn’t take long to wipe out the world (when I say this I mean life – humans – etc…). And what will most likely happen is one person will detonate the nuke and then there will be retaliation until no one is left!

      It is very scary and we came very close to that scenario in 1983 when Stanislav Petrov (in charge of russias nukes) saw on his computer that USA had fired a nuke at them! They hadn’t, but the computer had a malfunction and showed it anyway! He was meant to retaliate and fire back… but he didn’t! His act of defiance stopped nuclear war! The wiki article is well worth a read!

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

      Hope that helps ! Don’t forget to vote 🙂

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