Eli5: Before the first atom bomb was detonated, there was some speculation that the chain reaction would keep continuing and lead to burning up the atmosphere. So what actually limits the size of the explosion?

Question

Eli5: Before the first atom bomb was detonated, there was some speculation that the chain reaction would keep continuing and lead to burning up the atmosphere. So what actually limits the size of the explosion?

In: Physics

Answer 1

> So what actually limits the size of the explosion?

The size of the bomb. The bombs don’t heat the surrounding atmosphere enough to produce many reactions there, and these reactions don’t release enough energy to trigger more reactions in the atmosphere. Essentially all the power of the explosion comes from the bomb.