how can splitting a tiny piece of an even tinier atom create such a vast explosion?

Question

how can splitting a tiny piece of an even tinier atom create such a vast explosion?

In: Physics

Answer 1

When you cut through something with a knife (an onion, piece of paper, lump of lithium, a log, whatever), aren’t you sometimes purely by chance slicing through atoms? Why isn’t there a reaction when splitting these atoms?