How many modern nukes would it take to blow up the moon?

[imported_KirbsAw]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick
Have you been listening to howard stern?

We should all get behind Howard and fake Arnold's plan to destroy the moon. It's been up there taunting us for too long.

 

[Evadman]

Couldn't we just hire Piccolo?

 

[Rudee]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
You're not Judd Hersch, are you?


(10 pnts if you get the reference 🙂 )

Haha. I see you have been bowling.

 

[SVT Cobra]

This has been asked about 25 times in the "huighly technical forum"

go search there

 

[Koing]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Couldn't we just hire Piccolo?

This is the logical answer.

Koing

 

[JoeKing]

it would take 1 nuke....

afterall the Nuclear Force is the strongest force right? :laugh:

I can't believe I actually cracked that joke 😱

 

[Legendary]

Originally posted by: Koing

Originally posted by: Evadman
Couldn't we just hire Piccolo?

This is the logical answer.

Koing

This is the ONLY answer.

I think a few high powered nukes would make a severe dent - when you consider the moon is mostly dust and low gravity, a lot of it would be blown away.

 

[SVT Cobra]

it would probably be easier to deflect its orbit into space at a certain point instead of blowing it up if you really wanted to get rid of it...

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: n7
So what exactly do you have against teh moon?

yeah, what is the porpoise? why you want to blow up the :moon: 🙁

 

[silverpig]

I could actually come up with a real answer if I wanted to. I'll just half-ass it though.

mass of moon ~ 7 x 10^22 kg

In order to completely "blow up" the moon you have to give each piece of the moon enough kinetic energy to send it off to infinity. The escape velocity at the surface of the moon is approximately 2.5 km/s. For simplification I'll neglect the effects of the core of the moon having to be given more energy to escape as it is at the very bottom of the moon's gravitational well. Besides, we don't really need ALL the pieces of the moon to get to infinity before someone would look up to the sky and say "Hey, the moon blowed up!!!"

So we need to set off an explosion which will impart a force on 7 x 10^22 kg sufficient enough to accelerate it to 2.5 km/s. Kinetic energy required is:

1/2 m v^2 = 1/2 * 7 x 10^22 * (2500)^2 = 2.2 x 10^29 J

1 Megaton of TNT = 4.184 x 10^15 J

Therefore, one would need 5.2 x 10^13 megatons of explosive = way way way more than we have. Of course this assumes a lot and is very simplified but it should be within at least a few orders of magnitude.


And there you have a rough answer.

 

[dxkj]

Originally posted by: Son of a N00b
it would probably be easier to deflect its orbit into space at a certain point instead of blowing it up if you really wanted to get rid of it...

you think so? that would be fighting against the EARTH's gravitational force... I would thinking knocking it into a degrading orbit would be easier, and thne we would be destroyed when it hit earth

 

[FoBoT]

that is awesome silverpig :thumbsup:

 

[MisterCornell]

What a dumbass question. If you detonate a nuke on the moon, it will launch some rocks up into the moon's atmosphere, which will all likely fall back to the surface again. 😛

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: MisterCornell
What a dumbass question. If you detonate a nuke on the moon, it will launch some rocks up into the moon's atmosphere, which will all likely fall back to the surface again. 😛

What a dumbass. The moon has no atmosphere.

But you're right, they will just fall back down to the surface.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: JToxic

Originally posted by: MisterCornell
What a dumbass question. If you detonate a nuke on the moon, it will launch some rocks up into the moon's atmosphere, which will all likely fall back to the surface again. 😛

What a dumbass. The moon has no atmosphere.

But you're right, they will just fall back down to the surface.

Our surface. Killing all the gnomes and mole people.

 

[MisterCornell]

Originally posted by: JToxic

Originally posted by: MisterCornell
What a dumbass question. If you detonate a nuke on the moon, it will launch some rocks up into the moon's atmosphere, which will all likely fall back to the surface again. 😛

What a dumbass. The moon has no atmosphere.

But you're right, they will just fall back down to the surface.

The moon does have an atmosphere. There's not as much of it as Earth or even Mars, but it's quite distinct from the vacuum of space. And as a reference point for how far the rocks are likely to be launched, it was apt for the comparision, dumbass.

 

[keldysh]

If moon remove from orbit lack of gravity pull will cause severe coastal flood no less than 1200 km inland.

 

[RedCOMET]

lets blow the moon up into itty bitty piece, and then watch said peices rain unto the earth cuasing wide spread destruction. sounds like a plan.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: Evadman
Couldn't we just hire Piccolo?

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

[Cpt Cupcake]

42

 

[Aquaman]

You need a wave motion gun 🙂

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[0roo0roo]

u'd just give the moon more craters

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Why use nukes, use a death star. Now we just need to scrap the ISS and get to work on that.

 

[Epoman]

Originally posted by: KruptosAngelos
What we'd have to do is take an expert drill team up there. Land them on the backside of it and let them drill about 800 feet down. Tell the most annoying crew member that the arming mechanism is broken so he needs to stay behind to blow it. Then just watch the fireworks.

:music: I don't wanna miss a thing :music:

 

[vegetation]

Xindi planet killer weapon will do it in swipe.