How does simply splitting one atom expel so much energy? There’s no way that much energy could fit into a hydrogen atom. There’s only one electron, which has the energy. How does one atom make a big explosion?
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H-bombs work by joining atoms together, not by splitting them.
Imagine you have a bunch of magnets arranged on a table. Give them the right kind of nudge, and suddenly they all stick together, and give a lot of energy off in the form of sound (and heat, which we can’t see directly without the right equipment)
If you want to pull the magnets apart, you have to spend energy to do so.
If you had a *lot* of magnets, you’d get a lot of energy. I suppose one day a YouTuber will make a video “I arranged 1 million magnets and nudged them!” which will be fun to watch.
A bunch of hydrogen atoms might not look like it has a lot of energy, but nor did the magnets arranged on the table. Given the right kind of nudge though (unbelievably high pressure, and multi-million degree temperatures), the Hydrogen atoms join together to form larger atoms, and give off a lot of energy.
(Unlike magnets, there are limits to this: if the atoms get big enough, it costs energy to merge them, and we can get energy by splitting them)
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