reply to post by violenttorrent
It's incredibly simple. Yeah, atoms split all of the time, and the energy released is actually negligible.
However, the very concept of critical mass dictates that an inconceivably large number of atoms are involved in the fission.
The weight of U-235 divided by the mass of one mol of U-235 (not gonna bother looking that up right now) times Avogadro's Number (also not gonna look
that up right now) is how many atoms you are splitting. It will have at least 23 zeros behind it. Multiply that by the excess energy of U235 and
that's the output of the bomb, not accounting for efficiency problems etc.
There's a big honkin difference between standing next to a small sample of natural uranium and experiencing a few atoms splitting, and having well
over one hundred sextillion (that's 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) atoms split almost simultaneously a few hundred feet above your head.
Here's a really simple way to think about it: it's like having every man woman and child on earth throw several fistfulls of dirt at you at once.
Fun and games on a practical scale, but with large enough numbers and the best efforts of some of the greatest engineers in history, it can get out of
hand quick.




Tah!!! 
