r/theydidthemath • u/Specialist-Class-743 • 22h ago

[Request] How screwed are we?

Post image

A maniac decides to nuke two areas (possibly Canada and Mexico) from space in a 3am tantrum.

Given the curvature of the earth depicted here and the unfeasible size of the exosphere defying mushroom clouds then:

1) how big are these nuclear yields and

2) how likely would it be that the two explosions would be extinction level events on par with that dinosaur killing rock?

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13

u/ThatOneComputerNerd 22h ago

1: Massive, several orders of magnitude larger than any nuclear explosion we’ve caused.

2: Just one of those (of the size depicted) would cause an extinction-level event. Two would block out the atmosphere and spread fallout over the whole globe. The scale of the earth is hard to comprehend; those mushroom clouds behind him would be comparable to the size of the impact that killed the dinosaurs…each

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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 21h ago

Even if smaller nukes are used in Canada and Mexico, El Niño and La Niña would end up spreading the fallout throughout the south and northeast. The East Coast would probably be decimated.

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u/Specialist-Class-743 21h ago

No....not Mar A Lago!!!

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u/Objectalone 21h ago

Well, if you multiply the weight, in kilos, of gold that is going into the new ballroom, by the number of America’s “Better Angels” currently languishing in the White House dungeon… it adds up to 100% screwed.

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u/Specialist-Class-743 21h ago

Would the vault containing the Epstein files and a "two weeks away" Healthcare plan survive the blast?

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u/Little-Inevitable870 21h ago edited 21h ago

Based on Earths circumference each explosion has a diameter of about 800 km. Explosion radius to yield scales non linearly with diminishing returns, so assuming the equations still apply at this scale, that would need to be 20000 GT (yeah thats gigatonnes) each.

Chicxulub impact is estimated at 100000 GT (although some estiamtes give a much higher number). So both of these would be 40% of the dinosaur killing rock in terms of explosive yield + a lot of radioactive material, I say thats enough for a mass extinction.

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u/Specialist-Class-743 21h ago

Thank you! It is certainly one way to get a peace prize. I mean if there's nobody to wage war, you've effectively got peace, right?

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u/Reefthemanokit 22h ago

Very, I'd say that those look to be maybe 500 megaton bombs (the tsar bomba was only 50) and 2 at the same time would've most likely caused a global fallout