- Dec 17, 1999
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In a plutonium bomb, three free neutrons are produced for each fission of a plutonium nucleus. In a typical bomb, one of these neutrons escape and the other two cause two more plutonium nuclei to fission which produce 6 more free neutrons that cause four nuclei to fission, etc. etc. Each of these stages is called a generation. Each time a plutonium nucleus fissions it releases a small amount of energy, namely 3 x 10-11 J. In the first nuclear explosions, there were about 82 generations (which all happened in less than a millionth of a second.) How many joules of energy are released in the 82nd generation?
What I did was take 2 to the 82nd power, cause I think that is the pattern. 1=2fission, 2=4 fission, 3=8 fission, 4=16 fission, 5=32 fission, and so on and so forth. So I took 2^82 and multiplied it by 3E10-11J.
Shouldn't that give me the correct answer?
What I did was take 2 to the 82nd power, cause I think that is the pattern. 1=2fission, 2=4 fission, 3=8 fission, 4=16 fission, 5=32 fission, and so on and so forth. So I took 2^82 and multiplied it by 3E10-11J.
Shouldn't that give me the correct answer?