So I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I haven’t really been able to answer my question no matter how much I look into it, I was wondering if you guys could help.
So I was wondering, the critical mass of nuclear material is easier to achieve if the material is denser. I’m also aware that this is kinda how some nuclear bombs work, by launching a chunk of material at more material to cause the explosion. (I think?)
So in that case, what would happen if you grabbed a ball of Uranium or Einsteinium and threw it at the ground hard enough? Would it go critical? If so, how hard would you have to throw it and how big would the ball need to be?
As an optional bonus if all the aforementioned is possible, if the mass of Uranium were say, the size of a bullet, how fast would you need to fire the bullet in order to achieve criticality by kinetic impact alone?
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The answers you’ve gotten in this thread so far are very specific to nuclear *fission* which wouldn’t happen, *nuclear fusion* however could, depending on how strong your arm is.
See obligatory [XKCD](https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/)
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