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So, currently we use the air blast radius equation (i.e this - Air blast radius (near-total fatalities) Yield: Y = ((x/0.28)^3)/1000 with Y in megatons of TNT and x the radius in km) to find the yield of an explosion that happens mid-air. However, in fiction, there is often no air blast radius, and we have to measure the fireball radius. This often leads to calculations being a massive underestimation of their actual value. For example, according the calculator provided by our website, a 1 megaton bomb has an air-burst radius of 2.7 kilometres, and a minimum fireball radius of 0.4 kilometers (400 meters is how it is represented in the calculator), even a 0.001 megaton bomb has an air-burst radius of 280 meters, and a minimum fireball radius of 30 meters.
Since we already use this website for explosion calculations, I did some data-mining and found these two equations for Fireball Calcs:
Fireball radius (airburst): ((Radius * 30)^(2.5))/1000 = Yield
Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst): (((3300*Radius)/145)^2.5)/1000 = Yield
(Yield is in Megatons, Radius is in km for both)
According to the website creator, they found the equation here. Using their words,
"Fireball radius is based on a scaling law from "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" (1977), Chapter IIc, from excerpts reprinted at EnviroWeb. According to that source, fireball radius scales with (Y^0.4), where Y is yield. Also note that a ground-contact airburst creates a larger fireball because some of the energy is reflected back up from the surface."
I can go more in-depth into how I arrived at this equation, but I first want to make sure this is even a lead worth pursuing.
Edit:
So it was revealed that this issue was already gone over and revised in this thread:
vsbattles.com
but never implemented
Since we already use this website for explosion calculations, I did some data-mining and found these two equations for Fireball Calcs:
Fireball radius (airburst): ((Radius * 30)^(2.5))/1000 = Yield
Fireball radius (ground-contact airburst): (((3300*Radius)/145)^2.5)/1000 = Yield
(Yield is in Megatons, Radius is in km for both)
According to the website creator, they found the equation here. Using their words,
"Fireball radius is based on a scaling law from "The Effects of Nuclear Weapons" (1977), Chapter IIc, from excerpts reprinted at EnviroWeb. According to that source, fireball radius scales with (Y^0.4), where Y is yield. Also note that a ground-contact airburst creates a larger fireball because some of the energy is reflected back up from the surface."
I can go more in-depth into how I arrived at this equation, but I first want to make sure this is even a lead worth pursuing.
Edit:
So it was revealed that this issue was already gone over and revised in this thread:
Nuclear Explosion Yield CRT
Problems with the current model Now if you are to go to the Explosion Yield Calculations page you'll find instructions on how to find the yield of an explosion going off of the air blast radius (near-total fatalities). But see there is a problem with that, that requires you know the radius of...
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