Comment

Comment by mikeash

According to the NUKEMAP, the survival rate at 10 miles of a 1 megaton bomb should be pretty good:

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

That gives 2.5km as the lethal radius for radiation, 3km as the 100% lethal radius for blast, 7km as the radius for "injuries are universal, fatalities are widespread" and 12.6km as the radius for 3rd degree burns from thermal radiation. At 16 km you'd still get badly burned if you were exposed to the flash and you could get killed by a collapsing building if you weren in something sturdy, but you'd have a decent chance of surviving.

On another note, did you account for the fact that it's only a half sphere since the bomb explodes near the ground? I might have just missed it.

(Incidentally, this is why they used to teach "duck and cover." At this sort of distance, your chances of surviving are much better if you're on the ground and under something sturdy when the shockwave hits. I never understood why "duck and cover" ended up with such a bad reputation.)

parent mikeash 9 years ago

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton