How great the world would be without bombs

[Dagenais]

You know that saying, "imagine how great the world would be without bombs"?

Would it be great?

Bombs must have had to have helped nuclear technology or mankind in some way.

I know guns have lead to important inventions.

I was wondering if you could tell me what some of those inventions are.

 

[enigma]

Tons of airplane and aerodynamics research has been done because of bombs.

Wings are more resistant to flutter when bombs (or engines) are placed underneath and forward. I'm not sure, but it's possible the phenomena was first observed when wind-tunnel tests were done with bombs under the wings.

 

[russ_watters]

Don't forget demolition - not just buildings, but how the heck do you dig a tunnel through solid rock without TNT?

RE: nuclear. Nuclear bomb and power research went hand in hand at the beginning. Each benefited the other.

 

[Nigel]

The universe is better described, according to the latest observations of the Hubble expansion rate from distant supernovae flashes, as a 10^55 megaton bomb detonation for times beyond 3 minutes. Obviously the initial energy release mechanism is different from a fission bomb, although the creation of the heavy elements in supsequent star explosions has some similarities to hydrogen bomb capture reactions. If you look up the history of elements 99 and 100, you see both were isolated first from fallout of the 10 megaton Mike shot at Eniwetok in 1952.

Later, they were duplicated in the laboratory. Successive neutron captures in supernovae explosions created the elements iron and calcium, as well as uranium, found in nature. People moan about nuclear explosion physics without understanding how useful it was in making them. There is also a general misunderstanding about the nuclear radiation environment in space. People seem to think that the radiation level on the moon, which lacks the 10 metres of water (equivalent) radiation shield of the Earth's atmosphere, is less than that on the earth, whereas it was actually found to be something like 100 times higher due to cosmic rays. The universe is basically a nuclear explosion, and this is covered up by force-fitting General Relativity to the Hubble constant, instead of scaling the universe to a nuclear explosion in space such as the starfish detonation at 400 km altitude in 1962. The U.S. Defence Dept has a lot of responsibility for excessive secrecy, since it has spent millions developing computer simulations for nuclear explosions in a vacuum. (see http://members.lycos.co.uk/nigelbryancook/ for more)