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
In theory, one of the limiting factors is trying to prevent the fuel from being blasted apart, since you need to maintain a certain density to properly achieve criticality for both fusion and fission, although I’m not sure if that’s the biggest one besides practicality
The speculation about the atmosphere was more a what if hypothetical than an actual concern, like [T. Folse](https://youtu.be/QwcHBize_xI?si=bf8LYHG1Bsp1E4Eo) jokes, in the nuclear industry 1+1=100 to be on the safe side, to make that hypothetical even possible you’d need to multiple that by multiple orders of magnitude, that it’s effective impossible
>The limits were luckily never tested, but in general, I would say, the density of the atmosphere is too low,” Wiescher responded when asked whether a powerful enough bomb to burn the Earth’s atmosphere could ever be built.
>“If one would substantially increase the atmospheric density to Venus values — 100 times denser than Earth — one would still not have the density of water, and the underwater test program did not ignite the oceans, as some people predicted,” he elaborated.
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