The Tsar Bomba: Building the World's Biggest Nuke

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  • Опубликовано: 2 май 2021
  • I don't know, comrades. We built this nuke that can kill hundreds of thousands of people... I'm just not sure it's big enough.
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Комментарии • 1,2 тыс.

  • @JerryCrow
    @JerryCrow 3 года назад +847

    You know the bomb is big, when the human lives of the operators are taken into consideration when calculating the cost of operation.

    • @gudmunduringigudmundsson9287
      @gudmunduringigudmundsson9287 3 года назад +6

      Well.. when all they had to deliver it was that plane and ... I rather like to believe they did not .. ofcourse they did not want to kill .. humans.. pilots.. theyre pilots.. theyre publi... anyways... it would also over a drunken stoober be decided and accurately so that claiming truthfully it could have been twice as big but they didnt bother cause htey had common sense... would be much cooler. THAT WAS AN AWESOME BOOM AND IT KILLED NO,... human... directly at least. Cool explosion though.. horrifying enough to put an end to that madness. Thank the BOOM.. or as he so eloquently put it.. Dr. Strangelove, or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb.
      For science sake I recommend we build a series of them blowing up stuff on jupiter´s moon Io .. we could stress test bunkers in all kinds of scenarios. in case aliens invade ;))) .. ending up with the iggest detonated in our solar system to blow up a man made replica of the death star in 1/1 scale :)

    • @steeljawX
      @steeljawX 3 года назад +5

      I'm not sure this is an absolute standard. I think the method of delivery is a big factor in the equation. Remember the "Davy Crockett" nuclear recoil-less rifle had the optimistic words along the lines of "users are probably safe, but should still take cover after firing" within its operating manual. Sure it's a big bomb, but is it really the size that's the issue or the fact that ordinance and delivery tech did not actually match up like they ought to have? I am also definitely not condoning that everyone should create better delivery methods for nuclear ordinance, I'm just pointing out sometimes it's the boom, sometimes it's the moron pulling the trigger.

    • @gudmunduringigudmundsson9287
      @gudmunduringigudmundsson9287 3 года назад +1

      @@steeljawX I am sure that a cool hoopy frood that is pulling the trigger on a 1000 times faster and larger device in a preannounced public science experiment is a much much much better thing --- than a non hoopy frood pulling the trigger on anything bigger than firecracker.

    • @patrickscalia5088
      @patrickscalia5088 3 года назад +7

      Well at least the Soviets were able to accurately predict the yield and plan accordingly. The biggest US detonation, the Castle Bravo test was a huge fuckup that nearly got scientists killed and irradiated inhabitants of nearby islands as well as the crew of the ironically named "Lucky Dragon," a Japanese fishing vessel.
      You see somebody didn't properly do his homework, or fubared up the math, or both, and anyway hugely miscalculated the fusion potential of lithium deuteride, the primary fusion fuel of modern thermonuclear bombs. These brainiac scientists calculated the yield of Castle Bravo to be around 5 MT. Which is still a huge, apocalyptic explosion and even at that size would have been the most powerful man-made explosion the world had ever seen.
      Imagine the surprise and professional embarrassment when Castle Bravo detonated with FIFTEEN FUCKING MEGATONS instead of five. Observers on ships dozens of miles away talked about expecting to see an impressive explosion far away, when instead they felt like they were standing in the open door of a blast furnace and instead of having the mushroom cloud on the horizon, they had one so huge and so close it looked like, as they said "it had gone off in our laps." Instead of a far away vantage, they were so close that they actually fell under the umbrella of the mushroom cloud. A group of scientists who were monitoring the explosion in a "bombproof bunker" on the other end of the atoll, some 23 miles away, had to be emergency evacuated because the radioactivity falling on their shelter was skyrocketing to the point that it would have roasted every one of them alive, even in their so-called bombproof bunker if they'd remained much longer.
      I think you could call Castle Bravo the Biggest Fuckup in Human History. That's not to say it wasn't scientifically useful. Once the scientists learned just how little lithium deuteride you had to put in your secondary to create an apocalyptic explosion, US warheads began to get much smaller and far, far more powerful. In the days of bomber-borne gravity bombs and huge but dumb rockets, a megaton-plus warhead was on practically every weapon the US deployed in the 50s and early 60s.
      Without doubt Tsar Bomba was a smashing success in its assigned role, that of propaganda tool rather than a useful weapon. Which it was not. But it was never designed to be. Khrushchev was nothing if not brilliant and Tsar Bomba had the exact effect on the USA that it was planned to have.
      Honestly though, even a fleet of planes carrying a couple dozen Tsar Bombas wouldn't have even made it to Canada before every one of them was a smoking wreck on the ground. Too big and too slow and no match at all for NORAD interceptors and surface-to-air missiles. I doubt that more than a handful would have even made it much past the north pole.
      So now nobody but the Chinese are mounting megaton-range warheads on their missiles or in their strategic bombers (which is, save only stealth aircraft, an obsolete concept.) The only reason the Chinese use them is because their missiles are big and dumb and are only considered a deterrent. As in China has no capacity for a first strike to, say, destroy an enemy's missiles in the ground. What they do have is enough big dumb missiles to drop a megaton-plus warhead on every major city of any country in the world. When it comes to nuclear deterrence the Chinese are probably the smartest of us all. Their arsenal is all about punishment. Swift, unavoidable punishment on a huge scale. They don't need to be able to destroy an enemy's missiles in the ground so long as the enemy knows that ANY launch on China will result in smoking holes in the ground where enemy cities used to be.
      Nowadays between the US and Russia most strategic warheads run from about 100-800 KT in yield, just a pinch of the power of both Castle Bravo and Tsar Bomba. Does that make you feel safer? It shouldn't. Ten or fifteen 150 KT detonations in the right pattern over a city or other target is going to cause far, far more destruction than any single Tsar Bomba ever could. And that's EXACTLY how war plans on both the Russian and US side would work. Massive swarms of small warheads. According to the now-declassified SIOP plan of the USA for attacking the Soviet Union in the late 60s, the area of central Moscow where the Kremlin and other government agencies were located was slated to get 65 (!) goddamn warheads. That's not for all of Moscow. That was just for downtown. With plenty of others to flatten everything else. We have to assume that the USSR had similar plans for Washington DC and other important areas. Hell you could probably skateboard from North Carolina all the way to Philadelphia on the radioactive glass that would be all you'd see for hundreds of square miles after a Soviet or Russian attack. You'd drop dead from radiation in just a few hours, but it wouldn't be the skateboard's fault you couldn't skate the entire distance.
      Everything you need to know about how a nuclear attack would come about, and why. ruclips.net/video/u4Wb2p28tlY/видео.html. The most dread-inducing documentary you'll ever watch.
      And as a bonus, in that video you find out why the Moscow Metro would have been a mass grave in WW3 , instead of the sheltered underground world of the magnificent Metro series of PC games. As explained by a cold-war Soviet medical official, so you can't doubt the source.
      Hey Simon, how's that for a Megaproject? Do one on the declassified 1960s SIOP US war plans for attacking the USSR. Any plan that calls for detonating dozens or hundreds of thermonuclear warheads over a single city is as fucking MEGA as it gets.
      If he does it you know who to thank, folks.

    • @jwenting
      @jwenting 3 года назад +5

      @@patrickscalia5088 Wrong there. Castle Bravo went haywire because of an unknown property of the Lithium isotope used for most of the fusion fuel.
      It wasn't known until after the results of that test were analysed that the isotope making up the bulk of the Lithium in the Lithium-Deuteride fuel could initiate fusion, so that component was not taken into consideration when calculating the projected yield.
      The Soviets no doubts got their hands on that data (it may even have been in the open by the time) so they knew better what to expect.

  • @MrCTruck
    @MrCTruck 3 года назад +1246

    "yeah we gotta cut the blast power in half because if we don't, pretty sure we're gonna blow up the atmosphere"- Russian scientists

    • @carso1500
      @carso1500 3 года назад +139

      It was more like "we gotta cut the blast power in half or the pilot is not going to return"

    • @pbdye1607
      @pbdye1607 3 года назад +76

      @@carso1500 Yeah, combined with the fact that they discovered the full-up 100 megaton yield would have been impossible to make *clean*, since it would've been impossible to keep the fireball from irradiating countless tons of debris, turning it into fallout, and thanks to the sheer yield and construction of the full yield's tamper, put a LOT of people in danger from high altitude, highly radioactive fallout. They also found out that 50 megatons was the "sweet spot" for high-yield detonations as anything more tended to lose more blast energy out into space, rather than where they wanted it.

    • @redram5150
      @redram5150 3 года назад +34

      When the Trinity test was going on, they were worried they’d ignite the ionosphere and burn the planet to a crisp.

    • @carso1500
      @carso1500 3 года назад +35

      @@redram5150 thats actually a myth, the scientists did discuss the posibility initially but after doing some mathematics they discovered they would need a REALLY Big bomb to do something like that

    • @pbdye1607
      @pbdye1607 3 года назад +26

      @@carso1500 Even then, initial calculations suggest not even a large antimatter explosion could do this. You'd sooner create a crack in the mantle that'd arguably do just as much damage on a global scale. There was honestly more paranoia about the underwater shots than anything detonated intra-atmospherically - there's a video by the guy in charge of the first Bikini atoll tests where he deadpans into the camera that the tests won't vaporize the oceans and that he is "NOT an 'Atomic Playboy.'"

  • @petrolhead4503
    @petrolhead4503 3 года назад +884

    Imagine signing up as a photographer for the Russian Air Force because it was the safest assignment possible and then you pull this short straw

    • @jesusjozi1990
      @jesusjozi1990 3 года назад +83

      Go big or go to the Gulag

    • @USSAnimeNCC-
      @USSAnimeNCC- 3 года назад +3

      That like being a politician and you have to be the security at your place

    • @achiltsompanos447
      @achiltsompanos447 3 года назад +2

      Big or bust.

    • @isa-lp5rn
      @isa-lp5rn 3 года назад

      What do you think american airforce was safeset job?

    • @florians9949
      @florians9949 3 года назад +3

      The US: blowing up the atmosphere? Sounds like a good idea right?
      Ps: they actually tried to do something like this, I don’t know if it was beffore or after the Tsar Bomba but it was wnvuentually pulled off because someone so ewhere figueres out this was a dumb idea.

  • @TheCorpsehatch
    @TheCorpsehatch 3 года назад +316

    The fact the scientists decided to lower the payload because they thought it was too powerful is insane.

    • @Stale_Mahoney
      @Stale_Mahoney 3 года назад +28

      well when the fear of blowing the atmosphere of the planet, comes from someone it kind of defeats the purpose of protecting a country xD

    • @MrVacicak
      @MrVacicak 3 года назад +5

      @@Stale_Mahoney no they reached the point of usefullness of the weaon, most of the blast of 100megaton one would escape to space, also it would create so much of radioactive debris it would bassically do more harm than use.

    • @Stale_Mahoney
      @Stale_Mahoney 3 года назад +1

      @@MrVacicak guess you have not heard that they did actually fear for the atmosphere itself if it was to be the original chosen size?

    • @tomdecuca3627
      @tomdecuca3627 2 года назад +1

      @@Stale_Mahoney no the designer cut the yield because in order to attain another 50 megatons they would have to employ a uranium tamper of U238 to fast fission from the fusion. As such it was too much contamination. He also assumed over 500 hundred thousand people worldwide would die from the amount of fission used to ignite the weapon which was already over a megaton. There have been much bigger explosions than Tsar Bomba. Krakatoa was 200 megatons.

    • @robertpaulsen5114
      @robertpaulsen5114 2 года назад

      The next question is.... Just how many of them pushing for a full power test.... SHAT then selves, and suddenly decided that 50% is a DAMN good number after all?

  • @notorioushkm97
    @notorioushkm97 3 года назад +408

    You know the bomb was humongous when even the US said "I like big bombs that's too much"

    • @IggyStardust1967
      @IggyStardust1967 3 года назад +14

      Am I the only one who sang that to "I like big butts but I cannot lie"....??
      "I like big bombs but that's too much".... yeah.... the beats match perfectly.

    • @kevinfreeman3098
      @kevinfreeman3098 3 года назад +3

      You ain't never been to Texas...

    • @rusudanielflorinphotograph6940
      @rusudanielflorinphotograph6940 3 года назад +1

      They should bomb USA with 1000 like this ;)

    • @vonfaustien3957
      @vonfaustien3957 3 года назад +6

      The USA focused more on targeting and minturiazation. Why drop one bomb when a MIRV can carpet bomb several targets at once

    • @kevinfreeman3098
      @kevinfreeman3098 3 года назад +4

      @@vonfaustien3957 sure, that's what we did... Which is why there are only like four or so planes that are large enough to transport/deliver/service targets with our "standard" tactical nuke... You almost got it right, nice try though, thinking you're thinking of our intercontinental ballistics that have multiple reentry vehicles for target servicing. You've never heard of Texas huh, everything is bigger in Texas.

  • @tncorgi92
    @tncorgi92 3 года назад +748

    It finally happened... ALL of the RUclips recommendations on my screen are for Simon Whistler channels.

    • @liam3044
      @liam3044 3 года назад +34

      Simp

    • @coreytaylor447
      @coreytaylor447 3 года назад +89

      you have collected all 10 channels, now shave your head to claim the prize of becoming the head of the Simon cult

    • @Elliewright18
      @Elliewright18 3 года назад +30

      You have a choice of videos to watch - Simon, Simon, Simon and Simon

    • @theBlankScroll
      @theBlankScroll 3 года назад +15

      He favors you, the chosen one.

    • @Zeithri
      @Zeithri 3 года назад +9

      Someone's a Simonoholic here.
      Or maybe a Whistkie x)

  • @k23turbo80
    @k23turbo80 3 года назад +225

    "More power than all the munitions in WWII" , as a vet that puts this things power into perspective for me and it's kinda scary

    • @nicwilson89
      @nicwilson89 3 года назад +42

      10x more power than all the munitions in a 6 year war...and this was the bomb at half it's designed power. It's absolutely fucking terrifying haha

    • @kimskis
      @kimskis 3 года назад +14

      10 times more powerful mate...while still (thankfully) half reduced of it's potential yield lmao. Those russkies were totally insane allrite

    • @thegunslinger1363
      @thegunslinger1363 3 года назад +5

      Imagine counting every bullet, missle, torpedo, artillery shell, and bomb. Fired during those 6 long years? Truly a terrifying scale of destruction.

    • @francoislacombe9071
      @francoislacombe9071 3 года назад +8

      And that includes the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan.

    • @LucarioBoricua
      @LucarioBoricua 3 года назад +10

      @@nicwilson89 And WWII was no average war, it was the pinnacle of madness involving human-on-human violence.

  • @nts821
    @nts821 3 года назад +268

    Tu 95 deserves its own episode.

    • @EtzEchad
      @EtzEchad 3 года назад +5

      Agreed.

    • @1992AC
      @1992AC 3 года назад +9

      Agreed! He did an episode on the B-52 a year ago, but it boggles my mind that he hasn't done an episode on it's rival, Da Bear! Between the B-52 and the TU-95, my favorite has to be the TU-95. I'm an American Aviation nerd and I'm proud to say that.

    • @atony1400
      @atony1400 3 года назад

      He do the B29 yet?

    • @patdohrety2940
      @patdohrety2940 3 года назад

      I thought I read it's the loudest aircraft in the world.

    • @EtzEchad
      @EtzEchad 3 года назад +8

      @@patdohrety2940
      It certainly is when it drops a 57 MT bomb...

  • @SparkBerry
    @SparkBerry 3 года назад +183

    Castle Bravo would make a good follow up to this considering the literal fallout from that spectacularly awesome screwup!

    • @jameswhitehead6758
      @jameswhitehead6758 3 года назад +3

      ruclips.net/video/WzAe7t_o0Mw/видео.html

    • @METAL1ON
      @METAL1ON 3 года назад +3

      I have been pestering him for ages to do Castle Bravo alas still no though.

    • @stefanschleps8758
      @stefanschleps8758 3 года назад +5

      They bungled this. They should have gone into detail about how long it took the Soviets to pool those resources together necessary to make the bomb. We know this part of the story. And they did Castle Bravo to death. lol

    • @METAL1ON
      @METAL1ON 3 года назад +7

      @@stefanschleps8758 Tsar Bomba has been done to death but here we are watching another, besides I feel the CB one is more interesting in that it was a major goof and not just the testing of a big bomb.

    • @jwenting
      @jwenting 3 года назад

      @E Van they know now, they didn't know at the time. We know now because of Castle Bravo

  • @WasabiSniffer
    @WasabiSniffer 3 года назад +66

    You know it’s bad when even the Russians put the brakes on it.
    “We could make it bigger.”
    “We SHOULD make it bigger!”
    *some math and a weapons test later
    “We should make it even bigger!”
    *lead scientist steps back
    “... we need to stop.”

    • @dzenacs2011
      @dzenacs2011 Год назад

      Even russians. Too bad americans was not russians when they start atomic war with Japan and kill thousands of children with atomic bombs. Should put a break on it

  • @dbrew2u
    @dbrew2u 3 года назад +55

    It's said that the Russian Scientists watching the Tsar Bomba explosion were frightened that it would not stop . That fear also helped to end above ground Nuclear Testing .

  • @adrianfrift7571
    @adrianfrift7571 3 года назад +19

    To quote skulker, "We attacked a few boats, they dropped the sun on us twice"

  • @ZippoX05
    @ZippoX05 3 года назад +82

    One day Simon is going to have a mega projects video about how many RUclips accounts he has

    • @McRizzle23
      @McRizzle23 Год назад +2

      How the fuck does he find the time to do this

    • @mikaelbiilmann6826
      @mikaelbiilmann6826 Год назад +1

      Hmmm.. maybe they’re robots and androids… ever seen Simon and Simon at the same place at the same time…. Hmmmm…. 🤔

  • @ervinm.5065
    @ervinm.5065 3 года назад +242

    Imagine an alien starship approaching Earth to visit humanity and seeing that
    Alien: "I can't wait to clap some human chee- HOLY SHIT"

    • @thegunslinger1363
      @thegunslinger1363 3 года назад +32

      To quote George Carlin. "And then we wonder why. A UFO doesn't just land and say hello."

    • @remo27
      @remo27 3 года назад +15

      Actually, unless hyperspace or some other method that we (currently) don't think is scientifically possible exists to travel the vast interstellar distances, any ship going anywhere near the speed of light has to worry about shielding from even dust particles? Why? Because at speeds greater than roughly 50 percent of C dust particles act like gamma rays and even larger things (like a pebble) are basically nukes. So any interstellar ship will have to have SHIELDING of some kind and such shielding would largely make it immune to our puny nukes, as they would have traveled 100s of trillions or even quadrillions or more of miles to get here and had to be prepared to take a near constant bombardment of gamma rays and small nukes, esp when they were near or entered a solar system, ours or others.

    • @YeeSoest
      @YeeSoest 3 года назад +8

      @@remo27 yeah but that's just like...your opinion, bro ;)
      No, you're right, if they got interstellar travel down, they're not shocked by a nuke. Their toddler's probably play with scarier stuff in our perception, they're totally different beings. More likely they'll rate us a "Stage 2 Civilization" with Ants at Stage 1 and we're probably not even able to grasp Stages 7 and above

    • @carso1500
      @carso1500 3 года назад +8

      @@YeeSoest the tsar bomba liberated roughly the same amount of energy that hits the earth from the sun in a second, so for roughly one second suddenly energy spiked on earth and we reached kardashev 1 civ status to then fall down again to kardashev 0.7 or around that, the tsar bomba was a fucking monster

    • @auerbacher69
      @auerbacher69 3 года назад +3

      "nope nope nope nope nope "
      *puts spaceship in reverse*

  • @Nefville
    @Nefville 3 года назад +68

    Andrei Sakharov is one of the greatest Soviets to ever live. He is like the 20th century equivalent of Alfred Nobel. Incredible person.

    • @comradecenturio2761
      @comradecenturio2761 2 года назад +7

      He was one of the inventors of the Tokamak, the fusion reactor with the biggest potential.

  • @dernvader6876
    @dernvader6876 3 года назад +22

    You missed the reason for the change from 100mt... they figured anything beyond 50 mt. was a waste because the blast would be so big that it would just go into space...

  • @mols89
    @mols89 3 года назад +53

    What about a Geographics video on Krakatoa? That'd be neat!

  • @singular9
    @singular9 3 года назад +19

    USA: We make nuke.
    USSR: Hold my vodka.

  • @Theguy17513
    @Theguy17513 3 года назад +24

    Do one on the BelAZ-75710 the largest dump truck ever

  • @indylockheart3082
    @indylockheart3082 3 года назад +56

    Im glad we live in the timeline where after this test the Americans and the Soviets were like...."ok yeah we should prob just stop there...that seemed a bit much" because you know the timeline where America responded with their own apocalypse bomb everybody's dead

    • @jamesaritchie1
      @jamesaritchie1 2 года назад

      What makes you think anything stopped except the testing? You don't really believe research in how to make ever more powerful bombs that weighed a tenth as much, do you? America and Russia both tightened their security until neither side knew what the other was doing, and research is still ongoing after all these decades.
      Research split into two directions, higher yield bombs in smaller packages, and low yield bombs that could be used with artillery. One could even be fired from a mortar.
      No one who's talking knows how well the research went, but there is no doubt that the Czar bomd is the largest ever exploded, but nowhere near the most powerful ever built. The Czar bomb is ancient history. Modern science has made it little more than a toy.

    • @shaunoleary9774
      @shaunoleary9774 2 года назад +2

      Looking at the history of nuclear weapons development I disagree. After the colossal miscalculation with Castle Bravo and the Tsar Bomba I don't think anyone wanted something more powerful to be manufactured and stored inside their territory unless war was declared and they found it absolutely necessary to use as a last line of defense. Also, by the time these bombs were being developed it became apparent that such a massively huge and heavy bomb would be much harder to deploy successfully against an enemy far away than to build a multitude of ICBMs with smaller, less powerful, but much more effectively deployed nuclear warheads than trying to fly a slow, loud airplane over a vast distance to deliver on target.

  • @francoislacombe9071
    @francoislacombe9071 3 года назад +45

    "The nuclear weapon's age began on the 6th of august 1945." Actually, it began on 16th july of the same year with the Trinity nuclear test of a plutonium bomb.

    • @jaybee9269
      @jaybee9269 3 года назад +1

      Quite.

    • @musicman8270
      @musicman8270 2 года назад +1

      It didn't become a weapon until it was used.

  • @benjaminlopez541
    @benjaminlopez541 3 года назад +85

    At this point, Simon might as well make a channel and call it Cold War Projects. These cold war vids are sick

  • @That_Thicc_Cat
    @That_Thicc_Cat 3 года назад +69

    Hey could you guys please consider doing a video on the Pennsylvania T1? It was supposedly the fastest steam locomotive to ever exist and it took around 20 years of development

    • @bazzingabomb
      @bazzingabomb 3 года назад +4

      LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard at 126 mph still is the train to beat the record has stood since july 1938.

    • @That_Thicc_Cat
      @That_Thicc_Cat 3 года назад +2

      @@bazzingabomb yes I’m aware, but the T1 could supposedly go over 140mph

    • @bazzingabomb
      @bazzingabomb 3 года назад +2

      @@That_Thicc_Cat yeah i know, but its supposedly 140mhp was only word and mouth. the fan club is building one now should be ready in 2030 at a cost of 10 million seems a high price to pay to take the record.

    • @That_Thicc_Cat
      @That_Thicc_Cat 3 года назад +2

      @@bazzingabomb I agree with everything that you are saying and I love Mallard! But I just think the history of the T1 is rather interesting. Hence why I would like an in depth video on it

    • @bazzingabomb
      @bazzingabomb 3 года назад +2

      @@That_Thicc_Cat i agree it would make a great story keep your fingers crossed bud.

  • @SovereignwindVODs
    @SovereignwindVODs 3 года назад +33

    I was shocked and impressed when you mentioned the height of the mushroom cloud...and then you compared it to Everest. Holy fuck! My eyes nearly popped out of my head, that's insane!

  • @bradhobbs6196
    @bradhobbs6196 3 года назад +42

    Simon has a crush on "Big Bombs", cause he knows we like that

    • @addisoneller1789
      @addisoneller1789 3 года назад

      We like blowing things up :3

    • @FonicsSuck
      @FonicsSuck 3 года назад +3

      I like big bombs and I can not lie.

    • @thorzyan
      @thorzyan 3 года назад

      FonicsSuck damn you! Lol took my line 👍

    • @InflatablePlane
      @InflatablePlane 3 года назад

      He likes big bombs and he cannot lie.

  • @joeylawn36111
    @joeylawn36111 3 года назад +63

    The first nuclear bomb detonation was not at Hiroshima, it was the Trinity test on July 16, 1945 in the New Mexico desert.

    • @colormedubious4747
      @colormedubious4747 3 года назад +5

      @@TheInfidel_SlavaUA Technically, that's a Fuel-Air Explosive weapon, not a nuke. The More You Know...

    • @alimohammad1934
      @alimohammad1934 3 года назад

      Its not really a nuke

    • @JV-lq3tx
      @JV-lq3tx 3 года назад +4

      @@alimohammad1934 Little Boy and Fat Man weren't nuclear either. They were considered atomic.

    • @alankrebs856
      @alankrebs856 3 года назад +2

      I believe it happened before that... in Germany during WWII. It also explains where we got all the "material" for the 2 "B"'s used on Japan. The Germans had it before we did. No one, including us, knew about it.

    • @joeylawn36111
      @joeylawn36111 3 года назад +1

      @@alankrebs856 I believe the German explosion you mentioned was a chemical one with the release of radioactive materials. The Trinity test was the first ever nuclear fission explosion.

  • @leandrochavez6480
    @leandrochavez6480 3 года назад +18

    "Has yet seen" Good phrase when we are 100 seconds to midnight

    • @stefanschleps8758
      @stefanschleps8758 3 года назад +1

      Let us pray.

    • @jedaaa
      @jedaaa 3 года назад

      @@stefanschleps8758 I'm sure that'll be effective...

  • @Robslondon
    @Robslondon 3 года назад +13

    The ultimate ‘hold my beer’...

    • @ervinm.5065
      @ervinm.5065 3 года назад +4

      *vodka

    • @Robslondon
      @Robslondon 3 года назад

      @@ervinm.5065 Good point ;-)

    • @queenannsrevenge100
      @queenannsrevenge100 3 года назад +2

      It was more like:
      “Hold my b...DAAAAAAAAMN! OK, let’s back up for a second...”😳😳😳

  • @thorzyan
    @thorzyan 3 года назад +45

    I'm a simple man: i see tsar bomba and I click.
    Well-played👍

    • @allevant
      @allevant Год назад

      I see nuke and i click

    • @clearcreek69
      @clearcreek69 Год назад

      I know nuclear weapons have been lost in the USA but if this bomb was ever lost, you couldn't pay me all the money in the world to look for it

  • @stephenlane9168
    @stephenlane9168 3 года назад +3

    Simon you should convince the RUclips CEO to make you the international Chief Marketing Officer. Your channels keep me busy most days, the back catalogue has kept me going through UK lockdown. I’ve got your viewing numbers up 👌

  • @jamesbodnarchuk3322
    @jamesbodnarchuk3322 3 года назад +52

    Hello Dimitri. Well it seems one of our base commanders well he went a little funny in the head. He launched a bomber strike!

    • @jamesbodnarchuk3322
      @jamesbodnarchuk3322 3 года назад

      @HVAC Quality Assurance great sene

    • @danielmarshall4587
      @danielmarshall4587 3 года назад

      I thought I told you to take it easy, THERE'S NOTHING ANYONE CAN DO NOW.

    • @mattburnett4185
      @mattburnett4185 3 года назад +1

      Gentlemen. You can't fight in here. This is the War Room

    • @johnconnor2572
      @johnconnor2572 3 года назад

      @HVAC Quality Assurance "Well, listen, how do you think I feel about it? Can you imagine how I feel about it, Dimitri? Why do you think I'm calling you? Just to say hello? Of course I like to speak to you. Of course I like to say hello. Not now, but any time, Dimitri. I'm just calling up to tell you something terrible has happened. It's a friendly call."

    • @isa-lp5rn
      @isa-lp5rn 3 года назад

      @@johnconnor2572 How you know his name is Dimitri?

  • @adorimable9690
    @adorimable9690 3 года назад +19

    Comrade Strangelove; How we learned to love our bomb

  • @SEAZNDragon
    @SEAZNDragon 3 года назад +26

    I think Simon mentioned the Tsar Bomba so many times in other videos I thought he already made a video about it.

  • @tylervanorman492
    @tylervanorman492 3 года назад +16

    I also "Like Big Bombs and Cannot Lie!!!" Simon is amazing.

    • @KendlickLama
      @KendlickLama 3 года назад +1

      That’s why you should get yourself some BeardBlaze! What s glorious beard he has (his own beard articals)

    • @FIRE_STORMFOX-3692
      @FIRE_STORMFOX-3692 3 года назад

      @@KendlickLama hahaha

  • @justme-ij2qy
    @justme-ij2qy 3 года назад +6

    Perhaps a video on the U.S. electrical grid, which I believe started with the Pearl street station, would be a worthwhile venture.

  • @gitpicker9933
    @gitpicker9933 10 месяцев назад +3

    Someone should create a video recreating this bombs detonation. To better show what it really was, these short glimpses of actual footage from outdated cameras jus doesn't do it justice. CGI or something to that effect of course lol

  • @keepcalmyouexist358
    @keepcalmyouexist358 2 года назад +5

    I wasn't scared when I saw this 9 months ago, but youbet your ass i am now.

  • @ignitionfrn2223
    @ignitionfrn2223 3 года назад +13

    1:20 - Chapter 1 - The nuclear age emerges
    3:40 - Chapter 2 - The soviet nuclear program
    5:30 - Chapter 3 - A bomb to rule them all
    6:10 - Chapter 4 - The tsar bomba
    9:25 - Chapter 5 - The test
    12:05 - Chapter 6 - Fallout

  • @michaelhiggins7365
    @michaelhiggins7365 11 месяцев назад

    This was super interesting and I learned a great deal ! Please keep these types of videos coming.

  • @TheYacu
    @TheYacu 3 года назад

    Yay I was so hoping for Simon to cover this! Liked it before I even started watching it. ^_^

  • @mr.pavone9719
    @mr.pavone9719 10 месяцев назад +3

    I remember feeling the shockwave from this and I was born 12 years after it was tested.

  • @coffeeroaster99
    @coffeeroaster99 3 года назад +5

    The nuc age startled in July 1945, in New Mexico,

    • @winwoodmayall
      @winwoodmayall 3 года назад

      I'd just wanted to write that, and started to browse comments to see if someone had already noticed the error.
      On July 16, to be precise...

    • @alankrebs856
      @alankrebs856 3 года назад

      Way before that if you look in German history.... we just didn't know it.

    • @winwoodmayall
      @winwoodmayall 3 года назад

      @@alankrebs856 Then we would have to establish what the phrase nuclear age means. Radioactivity was discovered several decades earlier, the word being coined by Maria and Pierre Curie back in 1898. British scientists made first artificial nuclear transmutations in 1920's and early '30s. Germans discovered nuclear fission in 1938.
      But in this video, I suppose the phrase was meant to be - detonation of the first nuclear bomb.

  • @suleimanbaba-ahmed91
    @suleimanbaba-ahmed91 3 года назад

    Simon, you never get old,nice video bro

  • @rustybell2722
    @rustybell2722 3 года назад

    Thank you for explaining events which I lived through but was too young to understand at the time.

  • @JaguarBST
    @JaguarBST 3 года назад +9

    Imagine for some reason Soviet Union couldn’t develop nuclear weapons. Cold war would be a much different picture. Even with the power to wipe out humanity, nuclear deterrent did play a massively important role in avoiding wars in the scale of WWI & WWII.

  • @mateuszyko4412
    @mateuszyko4412 3 года назад +6

    Simon, do a video on the Warsaw Uprising. It's somewhat a megaproject itself

  • @scottyford4224
    @scottyford4224 3 года назад

    Simon always great videos. Mega Project idea. First dreadnought ships.

  • @codyhoward7640
    @codyhoward7640 3 года назад +13

    Good god, I knew the Tsar Bomba was big, but I didn't know it was THAT big. O_O

  • @markmh835
    @markmh835 3 года назад +8

    Is it my imagination, or is Simon's beard growing longer, darker and more luxurious? Surely there is some sort of beard product that could be a sponsor of Simon's videos. 😲

    • @MuffinMammoth
      @MuffinMammoth 2 года назад +1

      He has his own brand of beard products. Called Beard Blaze if I remember correct.

  • @Taurickk
    @Taurickk 3 года назад +5

    Hey fact boy, have you heard of the Belgorod class of Russian subs? Commissioned in 2019 to do one thing only: Launch the bus-sized Poseidon class Intercontinental Nuclear Torpedo, these can be launched clear across the ocean at 70 knots to hit coastal targets. Original design was for a 100MT warhead with the goal of inundating the coastal city with a radioactive tsunami and render it uninhabitable for decades.
    The sub itself is big enough to carry 6 of these things, and also a whole other submarine docked to the underside.
    Sounds perfect for Megaprojects. Giant absurd russian vehicle + giant absurd russian doomsday device.

  • @jbgraham4041
    @jbgraham4041 3 года назад

    Possible Cold War annihilation always seems more interesting and humorous when Simon gives you his take on it. Continue doing what you do and I'll keep watching it.

  • @PantheraOnca60
    @PantheraOnca60 2 года назад +1

    Great opening: "Some bombs are simply too big." 🤣

  • @Primedwhite
    @Primedwhite 3 года назад +5

    Interesting fact I heard, the Tsar at twice the yield wouldn't have been that much more effective. At 50ish megatons a lot of the blast blew out more of Earth's atmosphere into space. So a bigger blast wouldn't necessarily be that much more effective because it would simply be blowing out more air into space rather than having the air carry the blast wave onward. ... still scary as heck though!

  • @adamlomas8479
    @adamlomas8479 3 года назад +4

    Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds.

  • @TracyA123
    @TracyA123 2 года назад +1

    Wow! I knew of this bomb test but never knew how big it actually was. That's insane

  • @chrisyanover1777
    @chrisyanover1777 3 года назад

    I am really glad you did the Tsar Bomba for Megaprojects. I thought you wouldn't do it since you did a Geographics on Novaya Zemlya

  • @Snowwie88
    @Snowwie88 3 года назад +3

    Nuclear weapons are good for one thing: Maintaining PEACE through deterrence (and Mutual Assured Destruction, aka "MAD").

    • @potita24
      @potita24 2 года назад

      Until the day a crazy man comes to power and decides to use one!

    • @burtb.8536
      @burtb.8536 2 года назад

      That is only western thought. Every citizen of Moscow knows exactly what to do in a limited strike situation !

  • @tropicalshadow3817
    @tropicalshadow3817 2 года назад +3

    Oh how this is so relevant

  • @aleksanderpopov5060
    @aleksanderpopov5060 3 года назад

    really great video, thank you

  • @Vandil_the_Rogue
    @Vandil_the_Rogue 3 года назад

    Thanks Simon!

  • @JohnSweevo
    @JohnSweevo 3 года назад +15

    "The Tsar Bomba: Building the World's Biggest Nuke"- Can you get the kit on Ebay, asking for a friend

    • @webserververse5749
      @webserververse5749 3 года назад

      Yes and no; I bought my kit last week but it was a cheap chinese knockoff; only blew up half the town. Useless. I would save your money

    • @TFCBarreto
      @TFCBarreto 3 года назад

      Welcome guys to the NSA watch list.

    • @AppleReviews
      @AppleReviews 3 года назад

      yes - but my eBay fees would be horrendous

    • @johnnywindsor183
      @johnnywindsor183 3 года назад

      @@TFCBarreto nsa watch list I love it 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

    • @JohnSweevo
      @JohnSweevo 3 года назад +1

      @@webserververse5749 Pity BBC kids programme Blue Peter wasn't a round. They would show you how to make one from sticky-backed-plastic and loo rolls

  • @joesantos2455
    @joesantos2455 3 года назад +4

    I caught YOU SIMON! You referenced this video in the past but it DID NOT EXIST UNTIL NOW!! Ya suspect Whistler!

  • @comradeiosif2794
    @comradeiosif2794 3 года назад +1

    Great vid Simon! The world's largest nuclear bomb, perhaps you could do the USAF's largest nuclear bomber the B-36 Peacemaker.

  • @TheWuffball
    @TheWuffball 3 года назад +2

    9:57 The white paint would have been to repel the heat

  • @Extremeredfox
    @Extremeredfox 3 года назад +7

    I wouldn't at all be surprised if the US and Russia have the full powered version of this bomb, just sitting somewhere, waiting to be used.

    • @thomasshepard6030
      @thomasshepard6030 10 месяцев назад

      The modern bombs America have are far more destructive than that old Russian bomb

    • @RJALEXANDER777
      @RJALEXANDER777 10 месяцев назад

      Honestly they probably don't. The simple matter is that the larger a blast the less efficient it is. It's better to use cluster munitions that can target multiple targets simultaneously. The bombs used in the 40's could wipe out cities, bigger than that was already seeing diminishing returns.

  • @batlos
    @batlos 10 месяцев назад +3

    The algorithm knows to push Cold War content after Oppenheimer’s release

    • @rogerwilco5918
      @rogerwilco5918 10 месяцев назад

      Because people are searching for it

  • @jackmehoffe9372
    @jackmehoffe9372 Год назад

    Thoroughly enjoyed that

  • @ABaumstumpf
    @ABaumstumpf 3 года назад

    Also very interesting:
    The full 3stage designed would likely have been had way higher than its intended yield as the material used as foam initially used for keeping the 3rd layer at a distance was later theorised and shown to be able to increase the yield of the inner stages by slowing down the expansion as well as acting as a moderatot increasing the yield of the 3rd stage. As most information about the exact construction and workings of nuclear weapons are still secrets heavily guarded by the respective governments there are only rough estimates about just how large the effect would be. Some sources say it would be just as low as a 20% increase, others go as high as suggesting 3x increase.

  • @victorzvyagintsev1325
    @victorzvyagintsev1325 3 года назад +15

    Few things
    1 - this was actually one of the "cleanest" nukes as far as fallout is concerned.
    2 - at 3:05 you are dead wrong. Soviets lost half a tank army trying to quickly take Warsaw(Battle of Radzymin). The tank army was decimated and was not in any shape to continue fighting. When you lose something like a tank army, you tend to take things slow for a while.

    • @Robertslawno
      @Robertslawno 2 года назад

      1 Tsar bomba cleanest bomb omfg.2 No more lies about real history of WW2 You know that's the Soviets propaganda right? Soviets have still lots of man ( and tank power) they simply use this as excuse to not help the Armia Krajowa in Warsaw uprising.They waited for them to bleed out fighting the Nazis.

  • @benhewitt4293
    @benhewitt4293 3 года назад +3

    "No mouse would ever create the mousetrap"

  • @darthball2723
    @darthball2723 3 года назад

    Finally I knew you would do it I'm happy now

  • @JohnSmith-xi9qt
    @JohnSmith-xi9qt 2 года назад

    Interesting video, thank you!

  • @x_hibernia
    @x_hibernia 3 года назад +13

    I heard that the reason the bomb was scaled down was because they didn't want to accidentally set the atmosphere a blaze

    • @remo27
      @remo27 3 года назад +1

      Wrong. The people who created the first ATOMIC (not thermonuclear aka hydrogen) bombs worried about that, there was some very small chance based on their calculation that the Trinity Test (first nuclear test ever) might do that due to some chain reaction in the air, but it never happened. By the time this bomb rolled around 10 to 15 years later, it was known that nukes, no matter how large, don't 'set the atmosphere on fire'. This was due not just to all the hundreds of tests that both superpowers had done by that time, but also the fact that digital computers h ad not only been invented but their were far more of them and they could handle all the theoretical calculations faster and better and more accurate than humans could. What the Soviets didn't want was trouble with their neighbors. This island was a test island (where they exploded the Tsar Bomba) but even so the shockwave was felt (and shattered windows) in places like Norway and Sweden. A twice as powerful bomb might have caused considerably more damage plus they didn't want to risk fallout all over Europe which might lead to war or , at best, embarrassment.

    • @alankrebs856
      @alankrebs856 3 года назад

      Oh poo! What's a little atmospheric FIRE!!!! It's all in the name of "fun"!!! :))) I don't know what I like more.... Tesla Resonance Oscillators.... or cracking Hydrogen from ordinary tap water! Da bigga da boom da betta!

    • @jwenting
      @jwenting 3 года назад

      @@remo27 that, and they didn't really need to do the full scale blast to test if the thing worked.
      The effects of using a Uranium tamper instead of a steel tamper were not that hard to calculate, and didn't affect the overall design, so using a steel tamper was both more safe, cheaper, and enough for the purpose of the test.

  • @eskanderx1027
    @eskanderx1027 3 года назад +3

    3:25 Yet he never ordered to drop a nuclear bomb on a city.

  • @HSS_yt
    @HSS_yt 3 года назад

    Hell ya.
    We all wanted this one

  • @jve89
    @jve89 3 года назад +2

    Maybe you should do a complete video on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg! Would be very interesting!

  • @danielladwein2570
    @danielladwein2570 3 года назад +7

    The bomb just dropped. Lets gooooo!!!

  • @glengearhart5298
    @glengearhart5298 3 года назад +4

    I thank God that we have mostly pulled away from the nuclear war mindset. Being a realist, I know that nuclear is always a threat, but nothing near like it was when I served in the Army.

    • @shrimpflea
      @shrimpflea 10 месяцев назад

      Hold that thought

  • @LordMcKrakenVonLittleBits
    @LordMcKrakenVonLittleBits 3 года назад +2

    This is the best Tsar Bomba video. Not biased at all.....allegedly. 🤞

  • @WhyneedanAlias
    @WhyneedanAlias 10 месяцев назад +1

    The mushroom cloud reached well beyond the troposphere, the lower atmosphere where most of our weather events take place (probably had a height of around 15km or so) and trough the stratosphere which goes to aroung 50km and into the Mesosphere. The region where small meteorites burn up. It's height was 67km as he said in the video and for comparison space is defined as anything above 100km and the ISS orbits at around 400km. It reached 16% the height of the ISS!!

  • @sundoga4961
    @sundoga4961 3 года назад +15

    Americans: Our biggest bomb was designed to have half that yield.
    Russians: Our biggest bomb was designed to have TWICE that yield!

    • @jwenting
      @jwenting 3 года назад +1

      yeah, and be three times the size of yours too even at half its design yield

    • @dale116dot7
      @dale116dot7 10 месяцев назад

      Why so wasteful of a big bomb? It wastes most of its yield to look big instead of performing architectural renovation. Because it is better to aim a bunch of smaller ones more accurately and they can fit on a SLBM.

  • @dreamcast649
    @dreamcast649 3 года назад +7

    Woah this is the earliest i’ve been on a video

    • @MK-tt5xy
      @MK-tt5xy 3 года назад

      Well done

    • @spirevr8907
      @spirevr8907 3 года назад +2

      for me I've been 6 seconds early

    • @arshias4532
      @arshias4532 3 года назад

      7 minutes

    • @howhigh0521
      @howhigh0521 3 года назад

      You’re grounded go to your room.

  • @paulmaher7683
    @paulmaher7683 9 месяцев назад +1

    6:06 pretty sure this is half the back sound from the original Quake game.

  • @odinfromcentr2
    @odinfromcentr2 11 месяцев назад +1

    Thanks be to God that the reaction in Washington was "Yeah, maybe we should, like, ease up a bit" instead of "We need something bigger."

  • @OMGtheEbolaVirus
    @OMGtheEbolaVirus 3 года назад +6

    Megaprojects suggestion: Buran-Energia.

  • @iVardensphere
    @iVardensphere 3 года назад +4

    Tzar Bomb: Basically my wife but in the USSR

    • @TheGranicd
      @TheGranicd 3 года назад +2

      So you had 50/50 to survive eh?

  • @arzen9835
    @arzen9835 3 года назад +2

    Проект "Посейдон": просто здравствуй, просто как дела...
    (Project "Poseidon": hello there...)

  • @jeffagain7516
    @jeffagain7516 Год назад

    Any folks as fascinated by the history of nukes as I am, should look into purchasing two dvds that I believe are still available; "Trinity and Beyond" and "The Atomic Cafe".
    Shatner narrates the 1st one and both are incredibly good, straight simple facts, no judgemental drama attached. Excellent documentaries that are highly recommended.
    Oh, and of course, thanks again Simon.

  • @Real28
    @Real28 3 года назад +8

    I see Cold War video about Tsar Bomba, I click.

  • @xpusostomos
    @xpusostomos 3 года назад +12

    The nuclear age didn't begin with Hiroshima, it began in the New Mexico desert with the first nuclear explosion.

    • @shrimpflea
      @shrimpflea 10 месяцев назад

      True but I think he meant nuclear war.

  • @peterg.8245
    @peterg.8245 3 года назад +1

    At 114Mt. predicted yield how much atmosphere would be blasted into space? Tectonic shifts? These are somethings we never need to verify.

  • @19RaxR91
    @19RaxR91 3 года назад +5

    "We've never seen anything like the Tsar Bomba since, and always remember - it was supposed to be twice as big!"
    Is that a challenge meant towards some crazy billionaire to make Atomic Bombs Great again?

    • @jwenting
      @jwenting 3 года назад

      nah, the Russian military has already done that. They're fielding 2 weapons systems with 100MT warheads, nuclear propulsion, and fully autonomous navigation systems.
      Set a target, a desired date to hit it up to several months in the future, press the button, and it will fly around for a while before looking for the best way to get there undetected and blow up a city.
      The Americans with their SLAM project in the 1950s weren't anywhere near that crazy, and they canceled theirs because it was too crazy.

    • @ryanchowdhary965
      @ryanchowdhary965 2 года назад

      @@jwenting posidon torpedoes

    • @toddsimpson2141
      @toddsimpson2141 2 года назад

      Seriously ? T.D.S much

  • @nielslund5959
    @nielslund5959 3 года назад +8

    This is a reminder of what humans can do but shouldn't.

  • @destinytroll1374
    @destinytroll1374 3 года назад +1

    13:08 Poseidon torpedo has entered the chat

  • @AstrayGS
    @AstrayGS 3 года назад

    This video bombed my notifications

  • @johnathanadams6378
    @johnathanadams6378 3 года назад +15

    Russia has recently redeveloped their 100 megaton warheads. They’re installed on the newer Poseidon supermassive autonomous torpedoes. The intent is to have self-guided torpedos attack an enemy’s coast and with the detonation causing a massive artificial tsunami. It’s a confusing and scary second-strike weapon. They’re installed on the Belgorod and Khabarovsk submarines.

    • @tomdecuca3627
      @tomdecuca3627 2 года назад

      Yes. More posturing. They could do something like that but as you said it would a second strike doomsday weapon. The U.S. has a second strike doomsday weapon that is set to go off 2 weeks after the smoke clears. lol I guess that is to make sure all the people that have shelters, don't get too cocky and think they are ok.

    • @madkoala2130
      @madkoala2130 10 месяцев назад

      Now they made its military into joke last year. I doubt they have more then 1 or even worse, they didn't even build it (money most likely went into someone's pocket).

  • @Espi0nage_Ninja
    @Espi0nage_Ninja 3 года назад +3

    Yo have you done a video on the a10 warthog?
    If so, I’ll try find it.
    If not, you should definitely do one because it would do pretty well

    • @dunneincrewgear
      @dunneincrewgear 3 года назад

      Real Engineering have an excellent video on the A10. Check it out!

  • @METAL1ON
    @METAL1ON 3 года назад

    You are just teasing now!!! Do Castle Bravo please ;)

  • @zwparchman
    @zwparchman 3 года назад

    Fantastic intro. I truly believe you meant every word.

  • @HistoLabRat
    @HistoLabRat 3 года назад +4

    Please make a video about the flood defences along the Mississippi constructed by the US Army Corps of Engineers