h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Or perhaps an informed one.

I am going to recommend this entry to go in the edited guide, as it is interesting and thought provoking. It's a scary thought how easy it could be for terrorists to be able to do this.

By the way, it might be a good idea to include a link to the entry on Radioactivity.

The Radioactivity entry is here, by the way
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A661727

Three books (novels) might be worth mentioning:

Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears", where some terrorists gets their hands on an Israeli a-bomb and build a h-bomb from what they found

Frederick Forsyth's "Fist of God", dealing with the Saddam Hussein's atomic weapons program during the Gulf War

Frederick Forsyth's "Fourth Protocol", where a KGB Specialist does quite exacty what is described in this article (including the smuggling of the twelve necessary parts).

Both authors (Clancy and Forsyth) are known for their precise researching. And, yes, it seems to be that simple. The fact that it has not yet happened makes me hope that there is a border that even terrorists are not willing to cross.

Jeremy

Ok, I've added a couple of links, would like to add a reference to the books, but would like a non-fiction book to go with them to balance it up a little. Anyone know of any non-fiction titles on the subject?

PS, as usual, the fact that I've edited the article might mean it disappears for a while.


whisky

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review' to 'How to make your own Atom Bomb'.

This thread has been moved out of the Peer Review Forum because your entry has now been recommended for the Edited Guide.

You can find out what will happen to your entry here: http://www.h2g2.com/SubEditors-Process

Congratulations!

Yippee, all round. Or should I be handing out tin helmets and 'protect and survive' leaflets .

Now comes my usual problem, I hate not having something in PR. and now I've got to find something else to write about... Anyone got any daft subjects they need covering. My last two articles have been Peter Rabbit and Atom Bombs, so I think I can cover most subjects in between.


thanks folks

Rabbits, Bombs... how about Atomic Kitten?

Congrats

Geoff

The end is nigh!

Congrats Whiskey

I'll take a tin head then (gets more into it )

this one gave me the kick to start working on an entry about 'Project Plowshare' which has been languishing in the back of my head for quite a time. 'Nukes for peaceful purposes'

Nukes for peaceful purposes .. Apart from Dyson's Orion Project the only other use I can think of would be 'how to make an enormous swimming pool in ten minutes'.

Doesn't this have all the makings of a really ridiculous 'Ask the H2G2 Community' question?

Alternatively 'How to stop people using their mobile phones in restaurants and cinemas' - A decent sized EMP should take care of that

yepp, once and forever

as to Askh2g2 - just wait until the piece has been knocked together...

Your swimming pool idea really isn't far off topic. Quoting Edward Teller:
'[the Atomic Energy Commission could] dig a harbor in the shape of a polar bear, if required.'
Or:
'If your mountain is not in the right place, just drop us a card.'

easy, eh?

psssst... draft 1 is up: A675731

Hey, I found this one: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A619517 and thought it could go right into the Guide if some typos were removed and perhaps a chapter about fusion bombs was added. Are you interested in taking care of that (I mean, copying the piece into a new A-number and submitting it, so that there won't be confusion about changing A-numbers midway in the Peer Review process) ?

No problems, it saves me from writing my own entry. I'll have a go at it this weekend. Oh and I'll have a look at your entry this afternoon when I've a little time free (snowed under at work).


whisky

There is still one thing that I don't quite understand: You mentioned a photoelectric cell and a light source. Are these really parts of an atomic bomb? As far as I see it, they could be part of a booby trap (open the housing, light enters, big bang). In your Entry you don't really explain those two parts.

Or am I wrong?

Jeremy,
having read "Sum of all Fears", "Fist of God" and "Fourth Protocol" in the last few weeks

Hi there Jeremy, sorry if I didn't explain it too clearly.

The Photoelectric cell and lightsource would be used to trigger the neutron emitter (if fitted). Working in the same way as the annoying bells you set off every time you walk through a shop doorway, the photoelectric cell would send a pulse to the neutron emitter when the beam of light is broken, which would be by the passage - albeit at a very high speed, of one of the sub-critical masses of u235 as it shot down the drainpipe after the conventional explosions had detonated.

The simple reason for having such a trigger is that if the neutron emitter was energised too early in such close proximity to two seperate sub-critical masses, it might trigger a chain reaction in one or both of the lumps of uranium, with the result that instead of a nuclear explosion, you'd have a nuclear fizzle.

Theoretically, the neutron emitter itself is not absolutely necessary, but bombarding the critical mass with neutrons will greatly speed up the chain reaction, and as previously mentionned, the problem with the Hiroshima bomb was that only about 5% of the fissile material had been consumed by this chain reaction by the time the explosive forces involved had physically thrown the other 95% of the Uranium clear. Thus effectively stopping the explosion. The idea of the neutron emitter is that it would speed up the reaction, thus giving Einstein's physics the time to operate before Newton's laws of motion have the time to wake up and notice what's happening.

That's probably as clear as mud, but it's the best way I can think of for explaining it.


whisky