I get the basics, energy equal mass times velocity squared, but how does that create a nuclear reaction large enough to make a bomb?
In: Physics
E=mc^2 doesn’t tell you how to make a nuclear bomb, or even how it really works, or if it is possible to make one. This is a total misconception that has been promulgated since the 1940s.
What it tells you is why a nuclear bomb does not violate the rule that says you can’t make energy come from nothing (the law of conservation of mass and energy). When a nuclear bomb goes off, a HUGE amount of energy is released — way more than you could account for by chemical means. Where does that come from? E=mc^2 tells you that you must be converting some mass to energy, and indeed, you can use E=mc^2 to see exactly how much mass is converted (or how much energy is converted from the mass) every time you split a uranium-235 or plutonium-239 atom.
To understand how to make a nuclear bomb, and how it works, you need to understand the phenomena of nuclear fission (and/or fusion). E=mc^2 tells you why these release so much energy, but it doesn’t tell you that these phenomena exist or how they work (other than the energy release).
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