Eli5 Do nukes really split an atom to explode?

Question

Eli5 Do nukes really split an atom to explode?

In: Technology

Answer 1

The nukes used in World War II split about a trillion trillion atoms each, in less than a millisecond, to produce that power. So it’s not “an atom.” But it is many atoms.

The trick of it is, some atoms are pretty easy to split, and their splitting can cause more atoms of the same type to split. So the splitting of a few dozens of atoms (which you can do sort of on command with what is known as a neutron initiator) quickly escalates into the splitting of trillions and trillions of atoms.