This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The images on the page are under the PD-Soviet lisence which is being phased out on Commons, so we must find suitable tags and upload them to WP. (TV fair use should work for the images of the bomb explsion they were taken from Discovery Channel program on Tsar Bomba or something like that) -- Saint-Paddy 17:14, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
the map shows current borders. Shouldn't it show borders at the time of the detenation?
I removed the following: "Its enormous size made the bomb impractical for warfare purposes, and American historians believe it was constructed primarily for propaganda use in the Cold War." because:
Please restore it only if such claims can be substantiated. Thanks. -- Guinnog 07:32, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
Sarakov said something pretty similar in his autobiograpy, IIRC - basically that it was too big and heavy to be deployed, and the very short development schedule (16 weeks) meant that it had to be designed in an extremely conservative manner meaning that it didn't really even produce any useful scientific information. I will try and find the book. TriMesh ( talk) 23:43, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
i am removing the statement which says the power output is 1% the power output of the sun!!. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.63.133.104 ( talk) 23:56, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Sakharov offered the effective project to did surroundings of the USA by super-bombs (100 or even 500 megatons TNT) using vulnerability of marine border. This project can do to absurd of any idea missile defence? He wanted to cure the US neocons from an fixed idea about Russia! It can help russophobes to forget about any problems of border of Russia. Sergeispb-10 ( talk) 11:58, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage Teller–Ulam design ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.24.174.65 ( talk) 03:44, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
"To limit fallout, the third stage, consisting of a uranium 238 fission tamper (which greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction), was replaced with one made of lead." This sentence is wrong. First, it implies that three-stage device necessarily means fission-fusion-fission device. It does not. A quote from http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/chemistry/NuclearChemistry/NuclearWeapons/FirstChainReaction/TypesofNuclear/CombinedFission.htm "The fast fission of the secondary jacket in a fission-fusion-fission bomb is sometimes thought of, or referred to, as a "third stage" in the bomb, and it is in a sense. But care must be taken not to confuse this with the true three-stage thermonuclear design in which there is another complete tertiary fusion stage." The Tsar Bomba was a true three-stage device with a complete tertiary fusion stage. I strongly doubt it would be even possible to achieve 50 Mt yield with a single fusion stage without fast fission of the pusher/tamper of that stage. And it was the uranium pusher/tamper of the tertiary stage and possibly the pusher/tamper of the secondary stage which was(were) replaced with one(s) made of lead. The correct term would be fusion pusher/tamper as those stages were fusion stages. Fission tamper means the tamper of the primary stage, the fission trigger. Also the next sentence have to be changed to reflect the plurality of the fusion stages. I suggest someone else edit the article as my English is kinda crappy. 130.234.5.136 17:13, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
An interesting aspect is what happened with ecology at the site of the explosion. Is any information available? I've heard a strange rumour that 100-megaton bomb wasn't exploded due to it would have caused irreversible extermination of local biosphere. Could it be true? ellol 15:47, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Were any studies done in the aftermath of the explosion on the effects of the presumably large amounts of dust, smoke, vapours and gasses pushed into the upper athmosphere on the weather/climate in the months and years afterwards ? 80.229.222.48 12:06, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
The article mentions that communication with the plane was lost following the explosion and it was about an hour before it could be verified that the crew were safe. How exactly did this occur ? Disruption to the ionosphere (if so was the effect localised or global and how long did it last) ? or EMP ? 80.229.222.48 12:06, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
We need to add the info on the size of the seismic wave generated. Currently, it just says it was still detectable after three rounds but doesn't give a figure on the Ritcher scale Nil Einne 15:50, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The "small" parachute seen in the article photo (barely larger then the diameter of the bomb casing) is not THE parachute, but only the drag chute! It was opened 2 seconds after releasing bomb from the Tu-95 airplane and served to stabilize the bomb casing nose-first and guide it away from the mother aircraft safely.
After several dozen seconds, this small drag chute separated, pulling out the main parachute, the legendary big one. I saw the film footage of an automatic ground TV zoom camera. At an altitude of 5000 meters the bomb case looked like a ladybug in the middle of a handkerchief, that big was that parachute!
(There are two versions of the Discovery Channel footage on Tsar Bomb, the rarely shown one features a single second of this, where the huge parachute is visible from below).
This is logical. If you consider the 27 metric ton weight of the bomb casing, that smallish drag chute, seen in the current article photo, could not slow the fall of the bomb long enough so that the dropping plane has time to escape while the bomb descends from 10,500 meters to 4,000 meters to detonate. So the parachute industry story is not a hoax. 195.70.32.136 17:01, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
About the sentence in the chapter "Test", saying: "This is equivalent to approximately 1% of the power output of the Sun." I think the matter is still not quite clear.
According to the Wikipedia article about the Sun, the energy output of the Sun is 3.8×1026 Watts per second. This is not directly comparable to the total power output of the bomb without doing some time conversions:
The duration of energy release of the Tsar Bomb cited was 3.9×10-8 seconds, during which time the total energy of the bomb was released. However, during this same time, the Sun releases energy in the amount of
3.8×1026 W/s * 3.9×10-8 s = 1.5×1019 W,
which is 35000 times less than the energy released by the bomb (5.3×1024 Watts) in the same amount of time. Now I'm not sure if I'm entirely correct with my calculation, as mathematics is not my strength. Please check the calculation if necessary.
What I wanted to say, however, that the article still needs clarification in the comparison to the Sun.
- Didi7 17:08, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
-I removed the 1% claim. That would mean that sophisticated weaponry and large scale meteorite impacts create flashes comparable to stars. Present day radio astronomy enables us to view much smaller flashes. Astronomy is not my field of expertize, but as far as I know, this phenomenum is yet unrecorded. Please correct me if I am mistaken but 1% seems to be the most unrealistically high number. There must be a calculation error somewhere.
Let's calculate the actual energy release compared to the sun:
Sun is 3.8 x 10^23 kiloWatts/sec Divide by 1.0 x 10^9 sec to get the net output per nanosecond give us: Sun output = 3.8 x 10^14 kiloWatts/nanosec x 1000 to get watts. Sun output per nanosec = 3.8 x 10^17 watts Sun output for 39 nanosecs = 3.8 x 10^17 watts x 39 = 1.482 x 10^19 watts over 39 nanoseconds Claimed Tzar Bomba output = 5.4 x 10^24 watts for 39 nanoseconds
Either my physics is rusty, or something doesn't add up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zencat01 ( talk • contribs) 05:15, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
73.85 N 54.50 E is on the North Island of Novaya Zemlya. On the Google Earth satellite imagery of that area, there appears to be a somewhat darkened eliptical area with jagged edges which is some 2,7 km wide and about twice that long, but it could just be valleys lying in the shadow. This area is some 50 km to the northeast of the Mityushikha Bay.
The link to Google Maps, where you can see the "4 km depression" on the satellite image, points to a location about 230 km away from 73.85 N 54.50 E, on the South Island. It is located at 72.00 N 52.06, which is some 175 km south of Mityushikha Bay.
Can anybody resolve these contradictions?-- Cancun771 12:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree, that source seems to be the best available. I just thought I'd mention that in a video of the buildup to the explosion and the explosion itself [2] Soviet officers are shown looking at a map, which then has locations for the plane take-off and bomb release superimposed (02:02). The approximate coordinates for the explosion predicted are 72°28'N 54°55'E. The Russians never actually released coordinates for their airburst tests on the island, so could this be an accidental giveaway, or perhaps a purposeful misleading of the viewer? (or some guy splicing together file footage) Howboutpete 01:28, 21 April 2007 (UTC) Why somebody insist on location of 16 km NW of Severny to be the detonation site? http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html says that the dedtnation location was at "All buildings in Severny (both wooden and brick), at a distance of 55 km, were completely destroyed." I am active in Goole Earth Community where many enthusiasts agree and with you use Goole Earth the exact location appears to be sure many times. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.83.157.9 ( talk) 18:21, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
This is highly improbable. Why didn't it break all the windows in the homes of millions of people closer to the blast site than Finland? If this is true, the article needs a source for it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.173.68.215 ( talk) 03:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC).
The article says: "However, the advent of ICBMs accurate to 500 meters or better, and especially the advent of satellite navigation, made such a design philosophy obsolete" How would this work in a nuclear war? Not for very long I think. 82.181.150.151 20:25, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
An interesting note is that, in addition to reducing fallout, the Soviet government was forced to reduce it to a 40 megaton shell. Why? At 100 megatons there was no platform that could properly carry it. So it was a test of a large bomb. Research and propoganda, but not a practical device.
-- Hrimpurstala 18:36, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
An image to compare the size of the Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud to the Hiroshima mushroom cloud would be a good addition to the article. Then it would give readers a general idea on how powerful the bomb was and how such a large bomb was such a mistake. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TheOtherSiguy ( talk • contribs) 20:14, 7 April 2007 (UTC).
The sizes shown in the illustration are most probably the radii rather than the diameters. According to Image:Nuclear_Fireball_Radius_and_Temperature.png (which uses data from Glasstone and Dolan, 1977) and several other sources, the final diameter of the glowing fireball of a 20 kiloton air burst is about 400 to 500 metres. The diameter scales with approx. Yield0.39 which implies a diameter of about 9500 metres for a 50 megaton air burst (and even larger due to the lower air pressure at higher altitudes). Thus, the sizes given on the image description page of Image:Comparative_nuclear_fireball_sizes.svg are actually half radii or quarters of diameters. According to the Tsar Bomba article at Nuclear Weapon Archive the fireball reached the ground despite the burst altitude of 4000 m, thus the downward radius must have been at least 4000 m. The upward radius may have been even larger for reasons given above resulting in a diameter of probably larger than 8000 m. However, the diagram may refer to the diameter at an early stage of the fireball, but that would be somewhat arbitrary since the minimum possible size of the initial fireball is just the size of the bomb itself (a few metres).-- SiriusB 20:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
I think the codename may actually have been "BIG IVAN" [3] Is there a source for IVAN? Howboutpete 01:09, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
I think this page would be greatly improved with a couple of images, specifically:
Though morbid, this would provide an immediate understanding of the significance of the weapon. Witty Lama 15:40, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Before the development of spreadsheet graphing, the most common graphical mistake was the use of artist-drawn 3-D images with the height of 3-D objects representing the magnitude of the data points. In these charts, both the height and the width of the drawn object increase proportionate to the magnitude of the data points. The effect is to exaggerate the differences in magnitude as the viewer tends to perceive the area of the figures rather than just the height as representing the magnitude. ( Source)
The soviets could not obtain the materials in time to make the Uranium tamper, so they used lead. They didnt reduce the fallout as a gesture of goodwill. This article reaks of communist propaganda.
please put youre signature after your remark-- Cbennett0811 22:31, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
Goodwill or not, I seriously doubt they would've wanted all that fallout land on their own backyards! Takeshi357 23:45, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
Former United States Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, indicates in this video that the United States designed and tested a 100MT bomb in the atmosphere during the Kennedy administration. Does anyone have any information about this? If this is correct, this would have been about twice as powerful as Tzar Bomba. Squideshi 18:25, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
"An apocryphal story has it that the fabrication of this parachute required so much raw nylon that the small Soviet nylon hosiery industry was noticeably disrupted." Are we sure "apocryphal" is the best word to use here? Also I find that hard to believe. The parachute wasn't -that- big.
I think the word 'apocryphal' is appropriate to use, as it eludes to the books of the apocrypha, a collection of stories included in some bibles that are regarded by many Christians to be unverified and therefore suspect. 67.215.150.227 ( talk) 02:30, 8 August 2011 (UTC)Freddy V
The Chicxulub impact is an excellent basis for comparison, but wouldn't it make more sense to put all the information into the same units? That would make it easier for people to understand. Katami ( talk) 07:33, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
The infobox claims that the bomb was 8m long and 2m in diameter but the photograph shows a bomb casing that is around 4m long and 1m in diameter. Dricherby ( talk) 00:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
Tsar Bomb was not the biggest. The United States tested 100MT nuclear bomb in the atmosphere. Here is proof, watch this video: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJixvAYPxE0&feature=related . Sorry Russians, the U.S. wins this round. Bosniak ( talk) 05:07, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
This discussion is transcluded from Talk:Tsar Bomba/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.
This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force in an effort to ensure all listed Good articles continue to meet the Good article criteria. In reviewing the article, I have found there are some issues that may need to be addressed.
I will check back in no less than seven days. If progress is being made and issues are being addressed, the article will remain listed as a Good article. Otherwise, it may be delisted (such a decision may be challenged through WP:GAR). If improved after it has been delisted, it may be nominated at WP:GAN. Feel free to drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions, and many thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this article thus far. Regards, Jackyd101 ( talk) 09:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
The internet inline citations used in this article are improperly formatted. Internet citations require at the very least information on the title, publisher and last access date of any webpages used. If the source is a news article then the date of publication and the author are also important. This information is useful because it allows a reader to a) rapidly identify a source's origin b) ascertain the reliability of that source and c) find other copies of the source should the website that hosts it become unavaliable for any reason. It may also in some circumstances aid in determining the existance or status of potential copyright infringments. Finally, it looks much tidier, making the article appear more professional. There are various ways in which this information can be represented in the citation, listed at length at Wikipedia:Citing sources. The simplest way of doing this is in the following format:
<ref>{{cite web|(insert URL)|title=|publisher=|work=|date=|author=|accessdate=}}</ref>
As an example:
which looks like:
If any information is unknown then simply omit it, but title, publisher and last access dates are always required. I strongly recommend that all internet inline references in this article be formatted properly. If you have any further questions please contact me and as mentioned above, more information on this issue can be found at Wikipedia:Citing sources. Regards
It would take the weight of approximately 8.3 Khufu Pyramids constructed out of TNT to equal the explosive power of the Tsar Bomba. The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) weighs approximately 6,000,000 tons at a height of 140 meters (482 feet). GodGnipael August 6, 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by GodGnipael ( talk • contribs) 03:00, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, this has been here in this state for sometime. Thankyou to everyone who worked on it, but this article is no longer a GA.-- Jackyd101 ( talk) 22:21, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
An anon IP just changed the seismic shock wave to 7.1 on the richter scale (from the previous 5.4). Let me explain here why that was a mistake...
Yes, the energy released by a 7.1 earthquake is equivalent to 50 megatons. However, a 50 megaton bomb going off does not equal a 7.1 earthquake, in terms of the seismic energy released.... For a high altitude airburst, most of the 50 megaton bomb's energy (80%) comes off in the thermal pulse, which for a 50 megaton bomb is released over on the order of 10 seconds. Most of the rest is the blast shockwave. Most of the rest is gamma and neutron radiation.
Some of the thermal and shockwave energy couple into the ground, and cause a seismic wave similar to that of an earthquake. But for a high airburst, that earthquake energy is only a small fraction of the total blast energy, which is only a small fraction of the total. So the 50 megaton bomb produced (in addition to heat and blast wave and radiation) a 5.4 earthquake as a minor third-order effect.
If you detonate a nuclear bomb underground far enough, then the coupling is much better (close to 100%). But Tsar Bomba was a high altitude airburst.
Hopefully this clarifies the situation and explains things... Thanks. Georgewilliamherbert ( talk) 04:39, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Usually translated as "emperor," like its German equivalent, Kaiser — both versions of Caesar. Sca ( talk) 18:01, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
Здесь вроде была дискуссия по этому вопросу.
Конечно же никакая бомба не может произвести энергию, равную 1% от энергии Солнца. Это полная чушь. Такой энергии хватит, чтобы расплавить всю Землю несколько раз. Так что это просто кто-то придумал миф, а его подхватили и распостранили. Standart12 ( talk) 08:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC) там было не 1% а примерно 0,65%, а энергию солнца ты преувеличил. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.17.194.206 ( talk) 01:51, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
You the racist? 91.143.4.148 ( talk) 07:45, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
Anonymous editor at Hudson Valley Community College -
Please stop changing the yield information, it's sourced to multiple reliable published sources. If you have other sources with other information please provide us a reference for those. Please discuss your information here before changing the article again. Thank you. Georgewilliamherbert ( talk) 19:25, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Citation [2] is probably not correct as it is partially contradicting citation [16]. They both references the same source. 81.167.169.16 ( talk) 19:18, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
As I am observing for a long time, there is a constant trickle of changes in the math. I am inclined to consider as a piece of original research and to delete it from wikipedia altogether, unless a reliable reference is provided which does this comparison with sun. - 7-bubёn >t 20:44, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
Cunning stuff! DaveyHume ( talk) 05:21, 22 July 2015 (UTC) DaveyHume ( talk) 05:39, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
The "analysis section says " Parachute retardation would only worsen the bomb's accuracy." Is there any military purpose in parachute retardation? Is there any wikipedia article about it? If yes , please kill the red link. If no, I am inclined to delete this unreferenced sentence. - 7-bubёn >t 23:59, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
Regarding the following:
the U.S. had already announced that it considered itself free to resume testing after further notice
the U.S. had already announced that it considered itself free to resume testing without further notice
Which is it? Did the U.S. claim a right to do tests without further notice, or did it say it would give notice? -- Rob ( talk) 04:16, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
According to the article, the heat from the explosion could cause third-degree burns at 62 miles away. However, according to an online simulator, the range of third-degree burns for a 50 MT explosion is only around ten miles. Does anyone know why the range given in the article is so high? -- Ixfd64 ( talk) 09:42, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
I noticed several references and links to http://www.atomicforum.org/ in this article, but that site no longer seems to be registered. I think these should have dead link tags added to them? Or maybe new references found? Cody-7 ( talk) 03:21, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
While this is certainly a good-quality Wikipedia article, I regret that it does hardly deal with the most obvious and most important question: What were the effects of the explosion on humans, human infrastructure and the environment ? The article states "The heat from the explosion could have caused third degree burns 100 km (62 miles) away from ground zero." First and second degree burns are even more far-reaching. How far ? Were people wounded ? "The explosion [...] in Finland, even breaking windows there and in Sweden. [...] caused blast damage up to 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away." 1000 km, that reaches into Norway, Sweden, Finland, and far into the mainland of Russia. If windows are shattered there, obviously people could get wounded. Were people killed or wounded as a result from the blast? How much was damaged (damage sum?) ? And most importantly: how much nuclear fallout was there? How widespread ? Which regions are still contaminated today ? Were people contaminated ? Are there any long-term studies about contamination-related illnesses (cancer,etc.) in the affected regions ?
I find it hard to understand why all these vital informations are not answered at the very beginning of the otherwise very complete wikipedia article and are even completely missing ! -- boarders paradise ( talk) 10:30, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
_ Pblaq ( talk) 22:35, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
The article makes no mention of human casualties. Does this mean that there were none? All that area all those buildings totally destroyed and no one harmed? If that enormous area successfully evacuated and no one was harmed, I think a mention is needed.-- Gibson Flying V ( talk) 02:48, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
No RDS-220. It AN602 name (АН602 Russian). http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C_%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%B0
"product code 202 (Izdeliye 202); article designations RDS-220 (РДС-220), RDS-202 (РДС-202), RN202 (PH202)"
The article currently reads thus -
"The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage hydrogen bomb with a yield of 57 megatons (Mt).[2] This is equivalent to 10 times the explosives used in World War II combined, including Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[3] "
Little Boy was 14 kilotons and Fat Man was 21 kilotons. If Tsar Bomba was 57 megatons, it would be 1,629 as the two of them combined (1 mt = 1000 kt. 57,000kt / 35kt = 1628.57). ? and where is the problem? that statement sais nothing more, than 162 times more TNT equivalent were used during WW2 than both japanese explosions together. if you combine all of them, its 10 time less than tsar bomb. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.75.189.10 ( talk) 21:20, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
NewArgus ( talk) 06:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
Article about Tungus meteorit mention that Tungus impact was three times weaker than this bomb. I think, it's interesting fact to mention it in article, to compare theese events and their effects - bomb tested in tundra, while Tungus impact was in taiga, both impacts were in atmosphere. Ходок ( talk) 07:34, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Why is this article in its Russian name and not in English "Tsar Bomb"? Gryffindor ( talk) 22:56, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
What about cultural impact of event? Russian call this device Kuzma's_mother, due to contemproral replic of Khrutschev. Ходок ( talk) 19:00, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
Strangely this is no mentioned in the article, but the literal translation of "Tsar Bomba" is "Bomb King". A tsar is a Russian king and this is the direct translation from Russian. I can confirm this because I can speak Russian, however there is also the wikipedia article that proves that Tsar translates to "king". Can that be used as reference to prove this fact?
Arafitos ( talk) 18:41, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Конструкция noun1-noun2 в русском языке обычно обозначает нечто, имеющее черты как от объектов noun1, так и от объектов noun2, и никаким образом более не конкретизирует связь noun1-noun2 с noun1 и noun2. Иногда она даже этого не означает, а просто связывает два понятия. Поэтому перевод "царь-бомба" как "Tsar of bombs" -- домысел. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.80.65.253 ( talk) 12:51, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
http://sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=236 I changed Sweden to Norway, obvious geographical error. Look at a map. The two (citation needed) in that sentence can probably be removed referring to the link above. (Roger Johansson) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.249.177.148 ( talk) 11:29, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
Will people kindly stop saying the yield was 57MT? Modern sources say it was 50MT. 57MT was the American estimate which the Soviets did not deny at the time. Man with two legs ( talk) 21:19, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
This problem seems to be cropping up again. When the Tsar Bomba exploded, it was done in secret. The US first found out about it because of seismic data. For an atmospheric explosion seismic data is highly leveraged against the height of the explosion and the density and depth of the rocks underneath. The original US estimate of 57 Mt was not disputed by the Soviets, but it was found out in the 90s that their own estimates, taken with appropriate instruments at appropriate locations, was 50 Mt. That is the accepted value in most publications. However, sine there is some ambiguity, the value used on this page is 50-57 (or 58). Changing it around from that is not a good idea, as no one, it's believed, had better data on the explosion than the Soviets themselves. SkoreKeep ( talk) 07:30, 3 May 2014 (UTC)
Зиг Хекер, в бытность еще директором Лос-Аламоса, во время визита в Арзамас спросил у Трутнева [вроде бы у него], какая на самом деле была мощность. Расхождение, говорит, есть - у вас получается 50 Мт, а по нашим оценкам - 57. Как рассказывал Хекер, Трутнев на него посмотрел и сказал - "Sig, It doesn't matter"
The Tsar Bomba's page on the nuclearweaponsarchive claims that it was the "'cleanest' weapon ever tested with 97% of the energy coming from fusion reactions". I know this is meant to be relative, but how does the bomb compare to others, esp. given its sheer yield? Has a comparison of the fallout by all deployed bombs ever been made (i. e. is it possible to say if it was the dirtiest bomb tested, and if not, which other is it)? -- 131.188.24.20 ( talk) 16:08, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
Please don't put uncited "conspiracy theory" nonsense on the Talk Pages - they are for the discussion of Reliable Sources for the improvement of the article. HammerFilmFan ( talk) 19:50, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
According to A Review of Nuclear Testing by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, 1955--1990, (page 18 of 42) the device exploded at 73.85◦ N, 54.50◦ E.
-- One Salient Oversight ( talk) 01:56, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
This edit removed an uncited claim that an equivalent volume of the Sun's core would take millions of years to produce the same energy. Carefully read, the claim is plausible because fusion in the Sun does occur at a very low rate, but as it is uncited, it seems reasonable to leave it out.
Starting with the fact the bomb volume cannot exceed 32 cubic metres (it's evidently less than this), the calculation is simple: the Core section of Wikipedia's Sun article shows that the "Fusion Power Density " at the Sun's centre is approximately 276.5 Joules per second per cubic metre; [1] and 50 megatons of TNT-equivalent at 4.2e9 J/ton TNT-equivalent equal 2.1e17 Joules; divide by 32 and get 6.56e15 Joules per cubic metre; divide by 276.5 to get 2.372e13 seconds, which is 751,657 years. To get the uncited claim of 10 million years one would need to assume a total nuclear assembly volume of 2.4 cubic metres.
We would need a cite for that total assembly volume; and we would need to decide whether such comparisons are useful to the reader (it's more an observation that the Sun does not really produce much energy per unit volume, so I suspect not).
- 84user ( talk) 12:51, 30 June 2012 (UTC)
Was the Tsar Bomba a "weapon" or a "device"? If it couldn't realistically be used as a deliverable weapon, should it still be considered a weapon? Not sure I'm explaining this as well as I wish to, but I'm not sure whether there are any references suggesting this was actually tested with an aim to make a weapon from it, but rather tested as a show of strength SirTrunkerton ( talk) 20:50, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
There seems to be confusions with the result of the incident. It says the Fireball radius is 3.5km which is 7km in diameter, but part of it says 'about' 8km. It should be close to probably 7.8km diameter. Another thing is how high the fireball reached, which said 10.5km above ground zero. But in this sentence of the page: "The fireball reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane and was seen almost 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from ground zero" is incorrect as 1000km is outer space.
If it is possible, add specifications in one section for it to be understandable:
Fireball diameter and height
Fallout diameter
Mushroom cloud height and diameter
How long until the cloud faded
How far did the shockwave travel — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.238.63.98 ( talk) 07:44, 16 July 2013 (UTC)
"One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 kilometres (170 mi). " Said this way, this sentence contains an untruth. "Bright flash" and "thermal pulse" travel at the speed of light, so he saw it and felt it immediately, and the distance at which he saw it was about 45-50 kilometres that the drop place had flown so far. Elsewhere in this article they mention the turbulence caused by the shock wave. My quick calculation shows that the plane was about 270 kilometers away when the shock wave, which travels at about 300 metres/second in the plane's altitude, reached it. Mattstonelake ( talk) 14:17, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
The article links to an external video saying "available on-line". But when I load the video page from Greece I get a page saying the video can't play in my country due to copyright. Therefore the video is not generally available on-line as the article suggests, and therefore the article misinforms the reader. I believe that an explanation after the link like "not available in all countries due to copyright" is necessary to enable the reader to get accurate info form Wikipedia, as the video page is essentially the equivalent of a dead link for people outside the countries where the video is available. Cogiati ( talk) 11:20, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
There are details in this article about the impact of this bomb test, how powerful it was, blowing down houses and windows. But there is nothing about people dying from the impact or subsequent radiation. Was this testing area even habitable afterward? Is it because this occurred during the Cold War that this information isn't available? It's hard to imagine that the most powerful bomb ever created in history being detonated had no human casualties. Liz Read! Talk! 23:35, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
What's A.E.C. in the phrase "The original, November 1961 A.E.C. estimate of the yield was 55–60 Mt"? Is it listed on the Atomic_Energy_Commission_(disambiguation) page, or something else? If not, should there be another entry in the AEC page? - ZeniffMartineau ( talk) 04:49, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
Comes 222.154.102.53, wanting to warn that there is only one KNOWN Tsar Bomba, implying that others may be hidden in some dark cavern, ready to devastate the US. I reverted it; there is documentary evidence for the number created, starting with Sakharov's autobiography, which does not mention any other such bombs. The one was hand made by Sakharov's team under Khrushchev's mandate. If this change is to stand one would need some pretty good evidence for it; speculation won't do. SkoreKeep ( talk) 15:46, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
Same change, second try. Asked editor to come discuss reason. I made a faux pas above - the team was Khariton's, Sakharov was a member. SkoreKeep ( talk) 21:51, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
The images on the page are under the PD-Soviet lisence which is being phased out on Commons, so we must find suitable tags and upload them to WP. (TV fair use should work for the images of the bomb explsion they were taken from Discovery Channel program on Tsar Bomba or something like that) -- Saint-Paddy 17:14, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
the map shows current borders. Shouldn't it show borders at the time of the detenation?
I removed the following: "Its enormous size made the bomb impractical for warfare purposes, and American historians believe it was constructed primarily for propaganda use in the Cold War." because:
Please restore it only if such claims can be substantiated. Thanks. -- Guinnog 07:32, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
Sarakov said something pretty similar in his autobiograpy, IIRC - basically that it was too big and heavy to be deployed, and the very short development schedule (16 weeks) meant that it had to be designed in an extremely conservative manner meaning that it didn't really even produce any useful scientific information. I will try and find the book. TriMesh ( talk) 23:43, 13 May 2008 (UTC)
i am removing the statement which says the power output is 1% the power output of the sun!!. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.63.133.104 ( talk) 23:56, 23 September 2007 (UTC)
Sakharov offered the effective project to did surroundings of the USA by super-bombs (100 or even 500 megatons TNT) using vulnerability of marine border. This project can do to absurd of any idea missile defence? He wanted to cure the US neocons from an fixed idea about Russia! It can help russophobes to forget about any problems of border of Russia. Sergeispb-10 ( talk) 11:58, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage Teller–Ulam design ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.24.174.65 ( talk) 03:44, 17 January 2013 (UTC)
"To limit fallout, the third stage, consisting of a uranium 238 fission tamper (which greatly amplifies the reaction by fissioning uranium atoms with fast neutrons from the fusion reaction), was replaced with one made of lead." This sentence is wrong. First, it implies that three-stage device necessarily means fission-fusion-fission device. It does not. A quote from http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/sciences/chemistry/NuclearChemistry/NuclearWeapons/FirstChainReaction/TypesofNuclear/CombinedFission.htm "The fast fission of the secondary jacket in a fission-fusion-fission bomb is sometimes thought of, or referred to, as a "third stage" in the bomb, and it is in a sense. But care must be taken not to confuse this with the true three-stage thermonuclear design in which there is another complete tertiary fusion stage." The Tsar Bomba was a true three-stage device with a complete tertiary fusion stage. I strongly doubt it would be even possible to achieve 50 Mt yield with a single fusion stage without fast fission of the pusher/tamper of that stage. And it was the uranium pusher/tamper of the tertiary stage and possibly the pusher/tamper of the secondary stage which was(were) replaced with one(s) made of lead. The correct term would be fusion pusher/tamper as those stages were fusion stages. Fission tamper means the tamper of the primary stage, the fission trigger. Also the next sentence have to be changed to reflect the plurality of the fusion stages. I suggest someone else edit the article as my English is kinda crappy. 130.234.5.136 17:13, 21 October 2006 (UTC)
An interesting aspect is what happened with ecology at the site of the explosion. Is any information available? I've heard a strange rumour that 100-megaton bomb wasn't exploded due to it would have caused irreversible extermination of local biosphere. Could it be true? ellol 15:47, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
Were any studies done in the aftermath of the explosion on the effects of the presumably large amounts of dust, smoke, vapours and gasses pushed into the upper athmosphere on the weather/climate in the months and years afterwards ? 80.229.222.48 12:06, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
The article mentions that communication with the plane was lost following the explosion and it was about an hour before it could be verified that the crew were safe. How exactly did this occur ? Disruption to the ionosphere (if so was the effect localised or global and how long did it last) ? or EMP ? 80.229.222.48 12:06, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
We need to add the info on the size of the seismic wave generated. Currently, it just says it was still detectable after three rounds but doesn't give a figure on the Ritcher scale Nil Einne 15:50, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
The "small" parachute seen in the article photo (barely larger then the diameter of the bomb casing) is not THE parachute, but only the drag chute! It was opened 2 seconds after releasing bomb from the Tu-95 airplane and served to stabilize the bomb casing nose-first and guide it away from the mother aircraft safely.
After several dozen seconds, this small drag chute separated, pulling out the main parachute, the legendary big one. I saw the film footage of an automatic ground TV zoom camera. At an altitude of 5000 meters the bomb case looked like a ladybug in the middle of a handkerchief, that big was that parachute!
(There are two versions of the Discovery Channel footage on Tsar Bomb, the rarely shown one features a single second of this, where the huge parachute is visible from below).
This is logical. If you consider the 27 metric ton weight of the bomb casing, that smallish drag chute, seen in the current article photo, could not slow the fall of the bomb long enough so that the dropping plane has time to escape while the bomb descends from 10,500 meters to 4,000 meters to detonate. So the parachute industry story is not a hoax. 195.70.32.136 17:01, 30 October 2006 (UTC)
About the sentence in the chapter "Test", saying: "This is equivalent to approximately 1% of the power output of the Sun." I think the matter is still not quite clear.
According to the Wikipedia article about the Sun, the energy output of the Sun is 3.8×1026 Watts per second. This is not directly comparable to the total power output of the bomb without doing some time conversions:
The duration of energy release of the Tsar Bomb cited was 3.9×10-8 seconds, during which time the total energy of the bomb was released. However, during this same time, the Sun releases energy in the amount of
3.8×1026 W/s * 3.9×10-8 s = 1.5×1019 W,
which is 35000 times less than the energy released by the bomb (5.3×1024 Watts) in the same amount of time. Now I'm not sure if I'm entirely correct with my calculation, as mathematics is not my strength. Please check the calculation if necessary.
What I wanted to say, however, that the article still needs clarification in the comparison to the Sun.
- Didi7 17:08, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
-I removed the 1% claim. That would mean that sophisticated weaponry and large scale meteorite impacts create flashes comparable to stars. Present day radio astronomy enables us to view much smaller flashes. Astronomy is not my field of expertize, but as far as I know, this phenomenum is yet unrecorded. Please correct me if I am mistaken but 1% seems to be the most unrealistically high number. There must be a calculation error somewhere.
Let's calculate the actual energy release compared to the sun:
Sun is 3.8 x 10^23 kiloWatts/sec Divide by 1.0 x 10^9 sec to get the net output per nanosecond give us: Sun output = 3.8 x 10^14 kiloWatts/nanosec x 1000 to get watts. Sun output per nanosec = 3.8 x 10^17 watts Sun output for 39 nanosecs = 3.8 x 10^17 watts x 39 = 1.482 x 10^19 watts over 39 nanoseconds Claimed Tzar Bomba output = 5.4 x 10^24 watts for 39 nanoseconds
Either my physics is rusty, or something doesn't add up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Zencat01 ( talk • contribs) 05:15, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
73.85 N 54.50 E is on the North Island of Novaya Zemlya. On the Google Earth satellite imagery of that area, there appears to be a somewhat darkened eliptical area with jagged edges which is some 2,7 km wide and about twice that long, but it could just be valleys lying in the shadow. This area is some 50 km to the northeast of the Mityushikha Bay.
The link to Google Maps, where you can see the "4 km depression" on the satellite image, points to a location about 230 km away from 73.85 N 54.50 E, on the South Island. It is located at 72.00 N 52.06, which is some 175 km south of Mityushikha Bay.
Can anybody resolve these contradictions?-- Cancun771 12:16, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
I agree, that source seems to be the best available. I just thought I'd mention that in a video of the buildup to the explosion and the explosion itself [2] Soviet officers are shown looking at a map, which then has locations for the plane take-off and bomb release superimposed (02:02). The approximate coordinates for the explosion predicted are 72°28'N 54°55'E. The Russians never actually released coordinates for their airburst tests on the island, so could this be an accidental giveaway, or perhaps a purposeful misleading of the viewer? (or some guy splicing together file footage) Howboutpete 01:28, 21 April 2007 (UTC) Why somebody insist on location of 16 km NW of Severny to be the detonation site? http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Russia/TsarBomba.html says that the dedtnation location was at "All buildings in Severny (both wooden and brick), at a distance of 55 km, were completely destroyed." I am active in Goole Earth Community where many enthusiasts agree and with you use Goole Earth the exact location appears to be sure many times. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.83.157.9 ( talk) 18:21, 22 July 2008 (UTC)
This is highly improbable. Why didn't it break all the windows in the homes of millions of people closer to the blast site than Finland? If this is true, the article needs a source for it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 76.173.68.215 ( talk) 03:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC).
The article says: "However, the advent of ICBMs accurate to 500 meters or better, and especially the advent of satellite navigation, made such a design philosophy obsolete" How would this work in a nuclear war? Not for very long I think. 82.181.150.151 20:25, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
An interesting note is that, in addition to reducing fallout, the Soviet government was forced to reduce it to a 40 megaton shell. Why? At 100 megatons there was no platform that could properly carry it. So it was a test of a large bomb. Research and propoganda, but not a practical device.
-- Hrimpurstala 18:36, 2 April 2007 (UTC)
An image to compare the size of the Tsar Bomba mushroom cloud to the Hiroshima mushroom cloud would be a good addition to the article. Then it would give readers a general idea on how powerful the bomb was and how such a large bomb was such a mistake. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by TheOtherSiguy ( talk • contribs) 20:14, 7 April 2007 (UTC).
The sizes shown in the illustration are most probably the radii rather than the diameters. According to Image:Nuclear_Fireball_Radius_and_Temperature.png (which uses data from Glasstone and Dolan, 1977) and several other sources, the final diameter of the glowing fireball of a 20 kiloton air burst is about 400 to 500 metres. The diameter scales with approx. Yield0.39 which implies a diameter of about 9500 metres for a 50 megaton air burst (and even larger due to the lower air pressure at higher altitudes). Thus, the sizes given on the image description page of Image:Comparative_nuclear_fireball_sizes.svg are actually half radii or quarters of diameters. According to the Tsar Bomba article at Nuclear Weapon Archive the fireball reached the ground despite the burst altitude of 4000 m, thus the downward radius must have been at least 4000 m. The upward radius may have been even larger for reasons given above resulting in a diameter of probably larger than 8000 m. However, the diagram may refer to the diameter at an early stage of the fireball, but that would be somewhat arbitrary since the minimum possible size of the initial fireball is just the size of the bomb itself (a few metres).-- SiriusB 20:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)
I think the codename may actually have been "BIG IVAN" [3] Is there a source for IVAN? Howboutpete 01:09, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
I think this page would be greatly improved with a couple of images, specifically:
Though morbid, this would provide an immediate understanding of the significance of the weapon. Witty Lama 15:40, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
Before the development of spreadsheet graphing, the most common graphical mistake was the use of artist-drawn 3-D images with the height of 3-D objects representing the magnitude of the data points. In these charts, both the height and the width of the drawn object increase proportionate to the magnitude of the data points. The effect is to exaggerate the differences in magnitude as the viewer tends to perceive the area of the figures rather than just the height as representing the magnitude. ( Source)
The soviets could not obtain the materials in time to make the Uranium tamper, so they used lead. They didnt reduce the fallout as a gesture of goodwill. This article reaks of communist propaganda.
please put youre signature after your remark-- Cbennett0811 22:31, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
Goodwill or not, I seriously doubt they would've wanted all that fallout land on their own backyards! Takeshi357 23:45, 17 October 2007 (UTC)
Former United States Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, indicates in this video that the United States designed and tested a 100MT bomb in the atmosphere during the Kennedy administration. Does anyone have any information about this? If this is correct, this would have been about twice as powerful as Tzar Bomba. Squideshi 18:25, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
"An apocryphal story has it that the fabrication of this parachute required so much raw nylon that the small Soviet nylon hosiery industry was noticeably disrupted." Are we sure "apocryphal" is the best word to use here? Also I find that hard to believe. The parachute wasn't -that- big.
I think the word 'apocryphal' is appropriate to use, as it eludes to the books of the apocrypha, a collection of stories included in some bibles that are regarded by many Christians to be unverified and therefore suspect. 67.215.150.227 ( talk) 02:30, 8 August 2011 (UTC)Freddy V
The Chicxulub impact is an excellent basis for comparison, but wouldn't it make more sense to put all the information into the same units? That would make it easier for people to understand. Katami ( talk) 07:33, 21 November 2007 (UTC)
The infobox claims that the bomb was 8m long and 2m in diameter but the photograph shows a bomb casing that is around 4m long and 1m in diameter. Dricherby ( talk) 00:04, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
Tsar Bomb was not the biggest. The United States tested 100MT nuclear bomb in the atmosphere. Here is proof, watch this video: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJixvAYPxE0&feature=related . Sorry Russians, the U.S. wins this round. Bosniak ( talk) 05:07, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
This discussion is transcluded from Talk:Tsar Bomba/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the reassessment.
This article has been reviewed as part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force in an effort to ensure all listed Good articles continue to meet the Good article criteria. In reviewing the article, I have found there are some issues that may need to be addressed.
I will check back in no less than seven days. If progress is being made and issues are being addressed, the article will remain listed as a Good article. Otherwise, it may be delisted (such a decision may be challenged through WP:GAR). If improved after it has been delisted, it may be nominated at WP:GAN. Feel free to drop a message on my talk page if you have any questions, and many thanks for all the hard work that has gone into this article thus far. Regards, Jackyd101 ( talk) 09:09, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
The internet inline citations used in this article are improperly formatted. Internet citations require at the very least information on the title, publisher and last access date of any webpages used. If the source is a news article then the date of publication and the author are also important. This information is useful because it allows a reader to a) rapidly identify a source's origin b) ascertain the reliability of that source and c) find other copies of the source should the website that hosts it become unavaliable for any reason. It may also in some circumstances aid in determining the existance or status of potential copyright infringments. Finally, it looks much tidier, making the article appear more professional. There are various ways in which this information can be represented in the citation, listed at length at Wikipedia:Citing sources. The simplest way of doing this is in the following format:
<ref>{{cite web|(insert URL)|title=|publisher=|work=|date=|author=|accessdate=}}</ref>
As an example:
which looks like:
If any information is unknown then simply omit it, but title, publisher and last access dates are always required. I strongly recommend that all internet inline references in this article be formatted properly. If you have any further questions please contact me and as mentioned above, more information on this issue can be found at Wikipedia:Citing sources. Regards
It would take the weight of approximately 8.3 Khufu Pyramids constructed out of TNT to equal the explosive power of the Tsar Bomba. The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) weighs approximately 6,000,000 tons at a height of 140 meters (482 feet). GodGnipael August 6, 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by GodGnipael ( talk • contribs) 03:00, 7 August 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, this has been here in this state for sometime. Thankyou to everyone who worked on it, but this article is no longer a GA.-- Jackyd101 ( talk) 22:21, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
An anon IP just changed the seismic shock wave to 7.1 on the richter scale (from the previous 5.4). Let me explain here why that was a mistake...
Yes, the energy released by a 7.1 earthquake is equivalent to 50 megatons. However, a 50 megaton bomb going off does not equal a 7.1 earthquake, in terms of the seismic energy released.... For a high altitude airburst, most of the 50 megaton bomb's energy (80%) comes off in the thermal pulse, which for a 50 megaton bomb is released over on the order of 10 seconds. Most of the rest is the blast shockwave. Most of the rest is gamma and neutron radiation.
Some of the thermal and shockwave energy couple into the ground, and cause a seismic wave similar to that of an earthquake. But for a high airburst, that earthquake energy is only a small fraction of the total blast energy, which is only a small fraction of the total. So the 50 megaton bomb produced (in addition to heat and blast wave and radiation) a 5.4 earthquake as a minor third-order effect.
If you detonate a nuclear bomb underground far enough, then the coupling is much better (close to 100%). But Tsar Bomba was a high altitude airburst.
Hopefully this clarifies the situation and explains things... Thanks. Georgewilliamherbert ( talk) 04:39, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
Usually translated as "emperor," like its German equivalent, Kaiser — both versions of Caesar. Sca ( talk) 18:01, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
Здесь вроде была дискуссия по этому вопросу.
Конечно же никакая бомба не может произвести энергию, равную 1% от энергии Солнца. Это полная чушь. Такой энергии хватит, чтобы расплавить всю Землю несколько раз. Так что это просто кто-то придумал миф, а его подхватили и распостранили. Standart12 ( talk) 08:43, 15 October 2008 (UTC) там было не 1% а примерно 0,65%, а энергию солнца ты преувеличил. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.17.194.206 ( talk) 01:51, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
You the racist? 91.143.4.148 ( talk) 07:45, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
Anonymous editor at Hudson Valley Community College -
Please stop changing the yield information, it's sourced to multiple reliable published sources. If you have other sources with other information please provide us a reference for those. Please discuss your information here before changing the article again. Thank you. Georgewilliamherbert ( talk) 19:25, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Citation [2] is probably not correct as it is partially contradicting citation [16]. They both references the same source. 81.167.169.16 ( talk) 19:18, 22 December 2008 (UTC)
As I am observing for a long time, there is a constant trickle of changes in the math. I am inclined to consider as a piece of original research and to delete it from wikipedia altogether, unless a reliable reference is provided which does this comparison with sun. - 7-bubёn >t 20:44, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
Cunning stuff! DaveyHume ( talk) 05:21, 22 July 2015 (UTC) DaveyHume ( talk) 05:39, 22 July 2015 (UTC)
The "analysis section says " Parachute retardation would only worsen the bomb's accuracy." Is there any military purpose in parachute retardation? Is there any wikipedia article about it? If yes , please kill the red link. If no, I am inclined to delete this unreferenced sentence. - 7-bubёn >t 23:59, 1 March 2009 (UTC)
Regarding the following:
the U.S. had already announced that it considered itself free to resume testing after further notice
the U.S. had already announced that it considered itself free to resume testing without further notice
Which is it? Did the U.S. claim a right to do tests without further notice, or did it say it would give notice? -- Rob ( talk) 04:16, 9 April 2009 (UTC)
According to the article, the heat from the explosion could cause third-degree burns at 62 miles away. However, according to an online simulator, the range of third-degree burns for a 50 MT explosion is only around ten miles. Does anyone know why the range given in the article is so high? -- Ixfd64 ( talk) 09:42, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
I noticed several references and links to http://www.atomicforum.org/ in this article, but that site no longer seems to be registered. I think these should have dead link tags added to them? Or maybe new references found? Cody-7 ( talk) 03:21, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
While this is certainly a good-quality Wikipedia article, I regret that it does hardly deal with the most obvious and most important question: What were the effects of the explosion on humans, human infrastructure and the environment ? The article states "The heat from the explosion could have caused third degree burns 100 km (62 miles) away from ground zero." First and second degree burns are even more far-reaching. How far ? Were people wounded ? "The explosion [...] in Finland, even breaking windows there and in Sweden. [...] caused blast damage up to 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away." 1000 km, that reaches into Norway, Sweden, Finland, and far into the mainland of Russia. If windows are shattered there, obviously people could get wounded. Were people killed or wounded as a result from the blast? How much was damaged (damage sum?) ? And most importantly: how much nuclear fallout was there? How widespread ? Which regions are still contaminated today ? Were people contaminated ? Are there any long-term studies about contamination-related illnesses (cancer,etc.) in the affected regions ?
I find it hard to understand why all these vital informations are not answered at the very beginning of the otherwise very complete wikipedia article and are even completely missing ! -- boarders paradise ( talk) 10:30, 20 May 2009 (UTC)
_ Pblaq ( talk) 22:35, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
The article makes no mention of human casualties. Does this mean that there were none? All that area all those buildings totally destroyed and no one harmed? If that enormous area successfully evacuated and no one was harmed, I think a mention is needed.-- Gibson Flying V ( talk) 02:48, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
No RDS-220. It AN602 name (АН602 Russian). http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A6%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%8C_%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B1%D0%B0
"product code 202 (Izdeliye 202); article designations RDS-220 (РДС-220), RDS-202 (РДС-202), RN202 (PH202)"
The article currently reads thus -
"The Tsar Bomba was a three-stage hydrogen bomb with a yield of 57 megatons (Mt).[2] This is equivalent to 10 times the explosives used in World War II combined, including Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[3] "
Little Boy was 14 kilotons and Fat Man was 21 kilotons. If Tsar Bomba was 57 megatons, it would be 1,629 as the two of them combined (1 mt = 1000 kt. 57,000kt / 35kt = 1628.57). ? and where is the problem? that statement sais nothing more, than 162 times more TNT equivalent were used during WW2 than both japanese explosions together. if you combine all of them, its 10 time less than tsar bomb. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.75.189.10 ( talk) 21:20, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
NewArgus ( talk) 06:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
Article about Tungus meteorit mention that Tungus impact was three times weaker than this bomb. I think, it's interesting fact to mention it in article, to compare theese events and their effects - bomb tested in tundra, while Tungus impact was in taiga, both impacts were in atmosphere. Ходок ( talk) 07:34, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
Why is this article in its Russian name and not in English "Tsar Bomb"? Gryffindor ( talk) 22:56, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
What about cultural impact of event? Russian call this device Kuzma's_mother, due to contemproral replic of Khrutschev. Ходок ( talk) 19:00, 19 December 2009 (UTC)
Strangely this is no mentioned in the article, but the literal translation of "Tsar Bomba" is "Bomb King". A tsar is a Russian king and this is the direct translation from Russian. I can confirm this because I can speak Russian, however there is also the wikipedia article that proves that Tsar translates to "king". Can that be used as reference to prove this fact?
Arafitos ( talk) 18:41, 17 January 2010 (UTC)
Конструкция noun1-noun2 в русском языке обычно обозначает нечто, имеющее черты как от объектов noun1, так и от объектов noun2, и никаким образом более не конкретизирует связь noun1-noun2 с noun1 и noun2. Иногда она даже этого не означает, а просто связывает два понятия. Поэтому перевод "царь-бомба" как "Tsar of bombs" -- домысел. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.80.65.253 ( talk) 12:51, 17 August 2010 (UTC)
http://sonicbomb.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=236 I changed Sweden to Norway, obvious geographical error. Look at a map. The two (citation needed) in that sentence can probably be removed referring to the link above. (Roger Johansson) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.249.177.148 ( talk) 11:29, 3 February 2010 (UTC)
Will people kindly stop saying the yield was 57MT? Modern sources say it was 50MT. 57MT was the American estimate which the Soviets did not deny at the time. Man with two legs ( talk) 21:19, 29 March 2010 (UTC)
This problem seems to be cropping up again. When the Tsar Bomba exploded, it was done in secret. The US first found out about it because of seismic data. For an atmospheric explosion seismic data is highly leveraged against the height of the explosion and the density and depth of the rocks underneath. The original US estimate of 57 Mt was not disputed by the Soviets, but it was found out in the 90s that their own estimates, taken with appropriate instruments at appropriate locations, was 50 Mt. That is the accepted value in most publications. However, sine there is some ambiguity, the value used on this page is 50-57 (or 58). Changing it around from that is not a good idea, as no one, it's believed, had better data on the explosion than the Soviets themselves. SkoreKeep ( talk) 07:30, 3 May 2014 (UTC)
Зиг Хекер, в бытность еще директором Лос-Аламоса, во время визита в Арзамас спросил у Трутнева [вроде бы у него], какая на самом деле была мощность. Расхождение, говорит, есть - у вас получается 50 Мт, а по нашим оценкам - 57. Как рассказывал Хекер, Трутнев на него посмотрел и сказал - "Sig, It doesn't matter"
The Tsar Bomba's page on the nuclearweaponsarchive claims that it was the "'cleanest' weapon ever tested with 97% of the energy coming from fusion reactions". I know this is meant to be relative, but how does the bomb compare to others, esp. given its sheer yield? Has a comparison of the fallout by all deployed bombs ever been made (i. e. is it possible to say if it was the dirtiest bomb tested, and if not, which other is it)? -- 131.188.24.20 ( talk) 16:08, 8 July 2010 (UTC)
Please don't put uncited "conspiracy theory" nonsense on the Talk Pages - they are for the discussion of Reliable Sources for the improvement of the article. HammerFilmFan ( talk) 19:50, 8 August 2012 (UTC)
According to A Review of Nuclear Testing by the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya, 1955--1990, (page 18 of 42) the device exploded at 73.85◦ N, 54.50◦ E.
-- One Salient Oversight ( talk) 01:56, 23 August 2011 (UTC)
This edit removed an uncited claim that an equivalent volume of the Sun's core would take millions of years to produce the same energy. Carefully read, the claim is plausible because fusion in the Sun does occur at a very low rate, but as it is uncited, it seems reasonable to leave it out.
Starting with the fact the bomb volume cannot exceed 32 cubic metres (it's evidently less than this), the calculation is simple: the Core section of Wikipedia's Sun article shows that the "Fusion Power Density " at the Sun's centre is approximately 276.5 Joules per second per cubic metre; [1] and 50 megatons of TNT-equivalent at 4.2e9 J/ton TNT-equivalent equal 2.1e17 Joules; divide by 32 and get 6.56e15 Joules per cubic metre; divide by 276.5 to get 2.372e13 seconds, which is 751,657 years. To get the uncited claim of 10 million years one would need to assume a total nuclear assembly volume of 2.4 cubic metres.
We would need a cite for that total assembly volume; and we would need to decide whether such comparisons are useful to the reader (it's more an observation that the Sun does not really produce much energy per unit volume, so I suspect not).
- 84user ( talk) 12:51, 30 June 2012 (UTC)
Was the Tsar Bomba a "weapon" or a "device"? If it couldn't realistically be used as a deliverable weapon, should it still be considered a weapon? Not sure I'm explaining this as well as I wish to, but I'm not sure whether there are any references suggesting this was actually tested with an aim to make a weapon from it, but rather tested as a show of strength SirTrunkerton ( talk) 20:50, 9 January 2013 (UTC)
There seems to be confusions with the result of the incident. It says the Fireball radius is 3.5km which is 7km in diameter, but part of it says 'about' 8km. It should be close to probably 7.8km diameter. Another thing is how high the fireball reached, which said 10.5km above ground zero. But in this sentence of the page: "The fireball reached nearly as high as the altitude of the release plane and was seen almost 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) from ground zero" is incorrect as 1000km is outer space.
If it is possible, add specifications in one section for it to be understandable:
Fireball diameter and height
Fallout diameter
Mushroom cloud height and diameter
How long until the cloud faded
How far did the shockwave travel — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.238.63.98 ( talk) 07:44, 16 July 2013 (UTC)
"One participant in the test saw a bright flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 kilometres (170 mi). " Said this way, this sentence contains an untruth. "Bright flash" and "thermal pulse" travel at the speed of light, so he saw it and felt it immediately, and the distance at which he saw it was about 45-50 kilometres that the drop place had flown so far. Elsewhere in this article they mention the turbulence caused by the shock wave. My quick calculation shows that the plane was about 270 kilometers away when the shock wave, which travels at about 300 metres/second in the plane's altitude, reached it. Mattstonelake ( talk) 14:17, 1 September 2013 (UTC)
The article links to an external video saying "available on-line". But when I load the video page from Greece I get a page saying the video can't play in my country due to copyright. Therefore the video is not generally available on-line as the article suggests, and therefore the article misinforms the reader. I believe that an explanation after the link like "not available in all countries due to copyright" is necessary to enable the reader to get accurate info form Wikipedia, as the video page is essentially the equivalent of a dead link for people outside the countries where the video is available. Cogiati ( talk) 11:20, 15 September 2013 (UTC)
There are details in this article about the impact of this bomb test, how powerful it was, blowing down houses and windows. But there is nothing about people dying from the impact or subsequent radiation. Was this testing area even habitable afterward? Is it because this occurred during the Cold War that this information isn't available? It's hard to imagine that the most powerful bomb ever created in history being detonated had no human casualties. Liz Read! Talk! 23:35, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
What's A.E.C. in the phrase "The original, November 1961 A.E.C. estimate of the yield was 55–60 Mt"? Is it listed on the Atomic_Energy_Commission_(disambiguation) page, or something else? If not, should there be another entry in the AEC page? - ZeniffMartineau ( talk) 04:49, 16 February 2014 (UTC)
Comes 222.154.102.53, wanting to warn that there is only one KNOWN Tsar Bomba, implying that others may be hidden in some dark cavern, ready to devastate the US. I reverted it; there is documentary evidence for the number created, starting with Sakharov's autobiography, which does not mention any other such bombs. The one was hand made by Sakharov's team under Khrushchev's mandate. If this change is to stand one would need some pretty good evidence for it; speculation won't do. SkoreKeep ( talk) 15:46, 18 July 2014 (UTC)
Same change, second try. Asked editor to come discuss reason. I made a faux pas above - the team was Khariton's, Sakharov was a member. SkoreKeep ( talk) 21:51, 18 July 2014 (UTC)