The Tsar Bomb
When you absolutely, positively need to kill everyone within a 60-mile radius, accept no substutute.
On October 30, 1961, the Russians tested the most powerful bomb detonated in human history.
Nicknamed the 'Tzar Bomb' by the West, the nuclear weapon packed a punch of 50 megatons of TNT - or 10 times the amount of all the explosives used in World War II, including the two nukes used on Japan, COMBINED.
Dropped over the Mityushikha Bay nuclear testing range, north of the Arctic circle, the bad boy weighed 27 tons and, luckily for all of us, proved to be totally impractical.
Here are some Weird Science Factoids on the biggest bang we've ever seen:
It was dropped from a height of 6.5 miles and detonated 5.5 miles above the surface.
The resultant mushroom cloud was 40 miles high (seven times higher than Mount Everest) and 25 miles wide.
The fireball 'bounced' of the ground and almost reached the height of the release plane - I'm guessing the pilot would have been more than a little alarmed.
Heat from the explosion would have caused third-degree burns 62 miles away, blast damage was reported in Sweden - 620 miles away.
It sent a seismic shock that travelled around the globe three times.
The bomb was originally designed to release a force of about 100 megatons of TNT, but was pared back over worries about the nuclear fall-out.
All in all, it was one hell of a bang.
Click here for a map of all the nuclear bombs ever exploded.
Fancy being the Angel of Death yourself? Click here for nuke 'em simulator. Be careful, it's addictive!
Weird Science Factoids: Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. Another money-saving tip from Weird Science!
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Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
from me to me to read.