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Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Bomb Question
Message-ID: <1990Nov7.035420.12404@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 7 Nov 90 03:54:20 GMT
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From: p14.f7.n391.z8.fidonet.org!Dan.Daetwyler (Dan Daetwyler)

 Sw> Apologies for being ignorant, but can anyone tell me the differences
 Sw> between Hydrogen, Atom and Neutron bombs ?

You'll probably get better responses, but in a simple form, here's mine.

Atom Bomb - Fission weapon.  Uses critical mass of radioactive material
     (eg: Plutonium).  Trick here is to form the critical mass quickly
     enough so that expansion from the heat of reaction does not cause
     a fizzle.  Also, trick is to hold the super compressed crtical
     mass at compressed state.  The longer it is held, the greater the
     yield.  Interesting side note.  The size (mass) of the material
     has little to no bearing on the size of the blast (assuming
     criticality is exceeded).  Length the mass is held compressed has
     a very direct bearing.  

Hydrogen bomb - Fusion weapon.  Uses the detonation of an "atmoic bomb"
     to provide the heat and pressure necessary to cause fusion to 
     take place.  Uses form of heavy hytrogen as fusion material.

Neutron Bomb -  Any nuclear weapon tamped to provide lots of radiation
     with minimal (still nuclear) blast effect.  Takes it's name from
     the radiation of high energy neutrons as it's primary effect.

A bit simplistic, but maybe that's all you wanted to know about alligators?

D Squared