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From: bl@hplabsb.UUCP (Bruce T. Lowerre)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.sci
Subject: Re: Plutonium, Water, Tactical vs. Strategic
Message-ID: <3498@hplabsb.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-May-86 19:28:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: hplabsb.3498
Posted: Fri May 23 19:28:26 1986
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> > ...
> > go down with the CUBE root of radius, not the Square root. Thus a 20 Mt
> > bomb (about as big as anyone bothers to build) would wipe out an area
> > with only 10 times the radius of the Hiroshima bomb.
> Pretty good estimate. I've got one of those handy dandy calculators.
> Assuming a 20 megaton bomb detonated at optimum burst height, with
> peak pressure to destroy buildings (not hardened) set at 50 psi,
> the destruction radius will be 2.6 miles.

All very true.  However, 50 psi overpressure is overkill!  An overpressure
of just 5 psi is enough to cause distruction and damage to non-reinforced
buildings.  At 5 psi, the radius of destruction is 12 miles.