how can splitting a tiny piece of an even tinier atom create such a vast explosion?
In: Physics
The thing here is it is the chain reaction that your missing. While splitting one individual atom does not release a lot of energy, the splitting of that atom splits two more. That splits 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 532, 1064, 2128. This all happens in a fraction of a second and as you can see ten reactions later we can now splitting two thousands of atoms at a time. In ten more reactions we will be splitting two million atoms at a time.
If we can control the reaction so each atom only splits one other atom we have a very good source of power. But if it splits two instead of one it can quickly get out of control and explode.
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