Brit Reacts to America's Unhinged Nuclear Testing - Operation Plumbob

[@knucklesupperstudios572]

Lewis. Buddy. Imagine your body going from ZERO to 150,000 MPH in a fraction of a second. Your organs would be a pink vapor and your bones would be dust. BUT... it would happen so fast, you'd never even notice.

[@OliverPlays2024]

America is that one kid who everyone is surprised survived childhood.

[@igregmart]

Yes world, keep that in mind😎

[@mattfraser1096]

Literally Gen-X

[@silikon2]

⁠@@mattfraser1096lol, no kidding. Gen-X here... the crap I did. Wow. I would beat the crap out or my kid if they did what I did. Yikes, I've got dozens of stories most of which I doubt I shared. lol, getting older, maybe I should document them.

[@jishani1]

"everyone is surprised" while 80% of the things they use every day are American inventions and most of them don't even know some of their favorite brands are American. Like how brits think Heinz is an English company.

[@bigbk3278]

@@jishani1lmaoo don’t bring facts into this

[@Alex-kz4tn]

The aliens are gonna come back in thousands of years bc they think we shot a manhole cover at them as an act of war🤦🏻‍♀️

[@L3WGReacts]

LMAOOOOOO

[@Tericc1]

@@L3WGReacts Not long after area 51 happened, Did we hit and take down an alien ship with a potato gun? Just a thought.

[@kevinnaber790]

@@Alex-kz4tn there's a reason why rockets and missiles are pointed- drag results in friction and heat. The A-12 and SR-71 had to be a titanium alloy to maintain structural integrity at speeds less than the manhole cover. The shape combined with the heat of the explosion and atmospheric drag, it likely became a part of the plasma/gas stream.

[@jacoblongbrake8230]

No we're here for their entertainment they are are colonizers as we are native tribes But ultimately if you think about it everything comes back we're in a simulation we are a thought of somebody could you imagine we are being played by a fat Advanced alien in his mom's basement on a computer crazy thought

[@firedog9113]

Storm Trooper style, y'all hit us first so we sending astroids to your planet.

[@FractalNinja]

18:03 you just described project Orion 😂 another insane american idea we had in the nuclear days of testing

[@Meanslicer43]

I was looking for this one

[@greggwilliamson]

I've read a few Sci-Fi stories that used the "nuclear manhole cover" as a plot-line. Really cool!!

[@ScribbleScrabbless]

I just read a sci-fi book that talks about it in the first chapter last night ❤

[@shawnsparkman7916]

Sea level to space: 62 miles

[@me1eye]

wow....i did not know it was that close to space...i figured it was a bit more.....gravity is a mf

[@lonewolf49707]

Thats about 100km to the folks across the pond.

[@robynbeach3198]

Wow that feels like a very thin layer of breathable air...

[@Tylermaddox1911]

​@@robynbeach3198 Even less breathable air because you can't even breathe the oxygen it Jet cruising altitude. If you ever look at HALO jumps/ High altitude low opening those guys have to wear oxygen masks.

[@shawnsparkman7916]

@@robynbeach3198 summit of mount everest is 29k feet, roughly. Bottled oxygen is used by climbers.

[@stephanienoble]

Earth to space in terms of distance, it's 62 miles from earth (ground) to space

[@L3WGReacts]

thats crazy!!

[@Jeeperskip]

My dad worked at the Hanford nuclear site developing guidance systems in the late 1950's. My dad was a brilliant inventor and held some U.S. patents. He went on a business trip to the Nevada/Utah border and came home ill. He was dead 30 days later of Leukemia. I remember flying in military planes with netting on the inside. There was once where my mom just about pulled my hair out of my head when they opened the bomb bay doors and she said you will get sucked out. One of those little snapshots in your life that you don't forget.

[@ssjwes572]

Thanks, I enjoyed your comment. I find these "little snapshots" of peoples lives interesting. In a way it's like a "hidden" history. Something only the teller knows of, it might be exciting or it might be mundane but to me it's still worth reading.

[@JKM395]

I was in elementary school in the 80s in FL and they were still teaching 'duck and cover' in school. I'll always remember that song. And yes, it's only 62 miles from sea level to space.

[@TheWhiteBruceLee]

I grew up in the 90’s and they were still teaching it.

[@georgemetz7277]

We did "duck and cover" in kindergarten in New Hampshire. c.1964 We moved back to California and our duck and cover was for earthquakes, not nukes. I think we might have done one. The earthquakes I remember were in the 4s range and wasn't in school. The 1989/World Series earthquake happened a few weeks after moving to New Mexico. It wouldn't be until 1993 that I felt an actual big one, 6. something in Eureka. Never felt a nuke though! Knock on wood, or a manhole cover.

[@tenlow2]

California public schools in the late 1980’s was duck and cover for nukes, in the early 1990’s it was duck and cover for earthquakes, at least for me.

[@catseye1009]

Wow! Still teaching it in the 80’s and 90’s? I thought that stopped sometime in the 60’s. You know along with the scary movies showing the destruction of a nuclear bomb.

[@higgme1ster]

Lewis, I don't know if your you blokes ever did this in the UK, but a treat way back in my youth, 1950's, there was a treat called snow cream. It was made with new fallen snow and was mixed with the usual things: Snow Cream Recipe About 8 cups fresh clean snow 1 can sweetened condensed milk 1 teaspoon vanilla We looked forward to that wonderful treat every time we had a good snow. But, our federal government put the kibosh on that when they announced that there was radioactive fallout in snow due to the atmospheric nuclear bomb testing, and that lasted many years.

[@ImprovmanZero]

That is basically a snowcone with snow instead of ground ice

[@alexanderhurst9830]

That idea you spoke of I believe was called the Orion Drive, yes the american military did think of using nukes as a space engine.

[@L3WGReacts]

OH ITS HAPPENED BEFORE!?

[@darrekworkman5595]

@@L3WGReacts No it's mostly theory. No, it is not used to accelerate an object to leave the atmosphere. More like a possible means of accelerating an object to reach another star system after it is already in space.

[@wittsullivan8130]

Most of the damage done from a nuclear weapon on Earth is all the air and debris being blown away from the explosion. In a gravity, it's a little push with a shit ton of radiation. The thing is, without an atmosphere, the radiation from every star is almost as powerful as the radiation from a nuclear explosion. Theory was: Launch a rocket full of space ship parts into orbit. Build a spaceship too large to launch, too large to land, using shuttles to bring more supplies. Launch the big ship with conventional rocket fuel and then use a regular stream of nukes to push it every once in a while. When you're almost halfway there, slowly turn the ship around and then start using nukes to slow it down. The shielding necessary to keep solar radiation out is plenty thick enough to stop the radiation from the nukes you set off yourself.

[@alexanderhurst9830]

Thank you for the clarification. I knew that I had heard of it somewhere, and that it had been shown as not a feasible option. Your response helps show that I'm not crazy. I am curious if you have any cites so that I can look up more on this insane idea. ( god bless america and our love of things that go BOOM).

[@user-rk3yb6nd1n]

​@@alexanderhurst9830Freeman Dyson's son wrote a book about it, Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship, about twenty years ago. It hasn't been quite that long since I read it but I remember it being quite good.

[@Snipez4104]

18:04 very good the actual project was called project Orion (Nuclear Pulse detonation thruster) toss a nuke out the back and absorb the shockwave to produce "thrust"

[@xpatriatedtexan2122]

Nick has a running gag on that sofa in the back. Anything that he purchases to create the ambiance of his stage is actually a business expenditure and can therefore be written off on his taxes (at least to a certain degree I think). Not sure how truly accurate it is, but it's absolutely dumb enough I would absolutely shocked if it came from anywhere other than the US House of Confusi, I mean Congress.

[@quentinboswell6720]

I think it might be the fastest manmade object but I'm not sure if the protons injected into Hadron collider count. Those are moving at .9999 the speed of light which is 186000 miles per second.

[@ImprovmanZero]

I don't think we can count those they are unmaking things to cut them into particles

[@edwardbontrager9721]

15:16 “Oh that’s definitely hitting an alien on the head!” 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@MacawMayhem]

The g-force at that speed plus the instant acceleration is unsurvivable to all people and most things.

[@darkamora5123]

Speed does not impart g-forces acceleration does. Whether that is positive (Speeding up) or negative (Slowing down). If a space ship could constantly accelerate at 1 G (9.8 m/s^2) it could achieve any velocity you like without affecting the occupants negatively. 150,000 mph (241,402 kph) or 180,000 miles per second ( 289,682 kilometers per second Or 96.7 % the speed of light) is immaterial, there is no g-force associated with the velocity. it would only have 1 g because of the acceleration.

[@MacawMayhem]

@darkamora5123 yipee. Glad your AI writing skills are sharp. Yes. Instant acceleration to that speed is instant death. I think everyone got the point. I didn't feel it necessary to explain in technical terms, but apparently you did. Nobody cares.

[@illinoisan]

My dad was an officer in a National Guard unit that was used as a test sample in an A-bomb detonation in the desert in the 1950s. He said they were right up close to it crouching face down in deep trenches and felt the searing heat of it on their backs. There didn’t appear to be any health impact on him. He survived a lot of crazy shit in the military.

[@rhawkas2637]

Just think, if the manhole cover made it to space (I think it did), then it's very likely that it's still flying through space to this day (and likely forever). XD

[@DarkKatzy013]

Yup at that speed forever unless it hits something.

[@gamerhunter9189]

@l3wg you should look up c4 because if it's not detonated properly you can lite it on fire and cook with it without boom booms

[@DarthKilaj85]

LWG your idea on propelling rocket ships with nukes has been looked into already by NASA

[@jenniferjoyce632]

My great uncle witnessed a nuclear test in the desert as a civilian. He saw the bombs go off and knew he had to get to shelter quickly. That’s because the bombs caused a rain shower-a radioactive rain shower. He was unable to get cover and got caught in the rain. He was totally soaked. Yes, he died of cancer.

[@thegrasslands4187]

There is an anecdotal story in my family that says my grandmother's family who were on a cross-country road trip and got lost somewhere in the back roads of Nevada. They saw a bright light and it started to snow. They ate the snow. This was a summer trip. Several of them have had cancer though my grandmother is still alive in her 90's. Honestly, I'm not even sure I believe it has anything to do with nuclear bomb testing, but my mom's generation are all convinced it was.

[@bryanCJC2105]

Yes 62 miles from the ground to space. The breathable atmosphere, or troposphere, is only 6 miles thick on avg. You could drive through all of the breathable air on Earth in about 6 minutes driving at 60 mph.

Voyager 1 has reached a top speed of 38, 210 miles per hour. That manhole cover probably became a liquid and then a vapor on its way out at 4 times that speed, unless the steep angle of its departure exposed it to minimal air friction, which seems doubtful. If by chance it survived, it would have flown 50 billion km in the time since being launched in 1957.

[@leechowning2712]

Since we are talking about it going straight up, with the blast wave behind it, it would have had roughly .5 of a second of contact with the atmosphere. If it melted, it would have been from the bomb itself, rather than the thin layer of air in its way.

[@allensanders5535]

orbital velocity the speed you need to stay in orbit is around 17,000 MPH the space station orbits between 17 & 18 thousand MPH. from the earth's surface to where NASA considers space starts is around 62 miles (327,360 feet). some countries think it's a little less and some think it's a little more but 62 miles will get you astronaut wings in most countries.

[@kristikalis7304]

From the ground to where you initially feel weightlessness is 62 miles. That's how all the space penii makers get people to buy into it. Because of they limited space knowledge, they have no idea where the manhole cover went, if it hit anything, etc.

[@wolly875]

Supposedly nukes use high explosives surrounding it to compress the material used like plutonium causing it to go critical making the explosion. I could be wrong but that's what was explained to me in school.

[@BryanW-bp3le]

American Nuclear Weapons usually have multiple fail safes to prevent them going off when they’re not suppose too.

[@ImprovmanZero]

including making sure one person isn't deciding

[@FalconWingedGirl]

We actually supposedly have to have a code entered every day to prevent all the nukes we have to go flying.

[@kevinnaber790]

Kyle Hill did a great video about the Genie and Ground Zero test. Radiation dissipates through the air and the Genie had a much smaller warhead than surface weapons. Operation Orion was a concept to use nuclear bombs as space travel propulsion.

[@DN-el2mx]

L3WG I absolutely love your Brit reaction vids. The manhole cover was most likely vaporized snappy afterwards. And yes, dear, our atmosphere is exactly that thin. But you can only breathe in a small fraction.

[@L3WGReacts]

i'm mind blown!

[@darrekworkman5595]

@@L3WGReacts It is still potentially possible to build a 2,500-story building in the 5 miles of air we can breathe. Just because we can move at 62 miles an hour and think it's slow doesn't mean it isn't a LOT of space. Its tiny when compared to the diameter of the Earth, but its huge when we just consider the average height of a man.

[@warriorsabe1792]

The 62 miles is the legal definition for the edge of space (known as the karman line), but there's not really any, like, hard edge, more an increasingly-gradual fade, and depending on who you ask the edge could be anywhere from 50 to 600 miles. But most everyone uses the karman line, the only people who'd use the really high ones are very specific groups of scientists studying very specific things. For reference, the international space station is 250 miles up and it used to be like 50 miles closer because the space shuttle had a hard time going that far (they moved it after the shuttle stopped flying) As for your question of how fast rockets go, the way orbit works can be described in short as "going sideways so fast you miss the ground when you fall", so everything the same height goes about the same speed, about 17000 miles an hour for the space station. Most rockets take in the rough ballpark of ten minutes or so to reach that height and speed, and most of that time is spent getting going fast enough to not come back down. Also you described Project Orion, an actual concept to propel a spaceship with nukes. These would be specially designed nukes that exploded mainly in one direction for maximum effect, and the back of the spacecraft would basically be a giant armored plate on a huge set of shock absorbers. This actually got as far as small scale tests with conventional bombs Oh and as for how a nuke could be blown up without going off, one type known as a plutonium implosion bomb works by crushing a sphere of plutonium - normally if you try this any slight differences in how you're squeezing it would cause bits to just kinda squirt out, so it's set off by a sphere of special explosive lenses (each one basically a pair of explosives that act like a lens for explosions to focus it inwards) that all have to be set off exactly at the same instant - like, so precisely they have to account for how long it takes the electricity to go down the wire. I can't find what kind those pascal bombs were, but I'd be surprised if it was one of those based on that fact.

[@letumio]

Nuclear detonation to accelerate a spacecraft is a common idea they even tested to a minor degree.

[@mikehall1523]

To achieve 'exit velocity', you must be traveling in excess of 17,500MPH . Thats the speed the space station is traveling.

[@SlpBeauty333]

Just to finish the list: 1. EV = 17,500 mph 2. Asteroid speed= 30,000 MPH 3. Concrete manhole = 150, 000 MPH Considering F= ma? Wow, that accelerated quickly. It's going about 8x as fast as it needs to in order to achieve escape velocity and 5x faster than the asteroid that gets burned up by the atmosphere. So yeah that concrete manhole was definitely going fast enough to hit escape velocity. Did it survive the Force of the blast? IDK I'd ask for the tensile strength of that concrete but making move that fast? It's definitely possible that it's still there. That's gonna be one hell of a speeding ticket...

[@darrekworkman5595]

Let's not forget that to achieve escape velocity for manned flight requires a rocket engine capable of spreading the 17,500 MPH over a significant period of time. That 'manhole cover' had to achieve the speed of OVER 150,000 in a split second. The speed at which it was moving actually doesn't do justice to the acceleration it had to undergo at the point of launching it.

[@kristopherburkholder9366]

Actually escape velocity is 25,053.686 mph , 17,500 mph is the approximate minimum speed required to keep something in orbit at an altitude of 99. miles above sea level. And the manhole was made of steel if I’m not mistaken…..

[@kristopherburkholder9366]

@@SlpBeauty333escape velocity is 25,053 mph , 17,500 mph is the minimum speed to maintain orbit at low earth orbit or around 100 miles above sea level and the casing was cement the manhole cover was steel if I’m not mistaken

[@SlpBeauty333]

@@darrekworkman5595 Right and that's for "manned flight". That concrete manhole is way smaller than anything that could support life of any type. He said that thing weighed "2000 pounds"? That's nothing. That's 1 ton. I'm relatively sure the the ISS weighs significantly more than a small Toyota, ykwim?

[@dylanross9931]

The nuclear rocket your talking about I think is called the Orion rocket, they already did the math on it

[@theabomb8305]

There was an idea once to use nukes to propel nasa rockets. They determined that the radiation and potential absolute annihilation risk was too high.

[@pyronuke4768]

62 miles (or 100 kilometers) above sea level is the distance most scientests agree where the atmosphere ends and space begins. IRL there's no hard line where the atmosphere stops and space starts, the air just gets thinner and thinner until you reach a state of vacuum, but 100 km is a nice round number and the air density is pretty close to a vacuum there anyway. In order to escape the earth's gravitational pull a rocket must travel at least 11.2 km/sec.

[@greggwilliamson]

A friend of Nick's, Brandon Herrera (Nick does a cameo) did a video named: "The Government Nuked North Carolina…Twice". I'm from North Carolina.

[@xgcskiman]

Another AK Jesus fan, awesome.

[@tresamullin8790]

😂😂😂what if that manhole cover is the weird blips that get picked up???😂😂😂

[@AZHITW]

I'm a "downwinder" I lived in a community in Arizona where radiation drifted from the nuclear testing in Nevada. The lasting effect of the open-air testing is still taking lives. Almost everyone I know who collected the $50,000 did so after they died, their heirs had to prove the deceased was living in the affected area at the time of the nuclear testing and they collected the money no doubt to pay the hospital bills of the deceased.

[@cluny]

Hi, Prescott Badger '71 in Kansas. Healthy so far. Born in St Joe's Phoenix.

[@AZHITW]

@@cluny Miami Vandal '67. Sister died of cancer but not covered by RECA, I was diagnosed with the same cancer but I'm still here.

[@cluny]

@@AZHITW 1953 I lived in Sunnyslope, Town was absorbed into PHX in 1959. Mom said when I was born, pre-sunrise nuke in NV were announced. People would climb on the roof to see what they could see. My only problems, I was born with short heel cords. I was not verbal by 3. I had my tongue clipped. Siblings can roll Rs, I cant. No idea if that was nuke related. All of us kids were born in PHX. We are all cancer free. Dad died of Alzheimers, at 86 Mom still alive at 95. No cancers.

[@AZHITW]

@@cluny Maricopa County is not included as part downwinder affected area.

[@cluny]

@@AZHITW yup, Yavapai is, 35 miles not far enough south. so I'm not eligible. My classmates native to Prescott are. btw I like to listen to Rollye James from WGN Chicago 720 AM. Her studio is there in Globe. Kansas is close enough to get her at night. I often stream her AM, KJAA "None of the hits, all of the time" "

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

62 miles 100km is the Karman line which is considered space for some purposes. Thin atmosphere extends far above that line (There is no true edge it just gets thinner and thinner). The karman line is basically the point where airplanes stop and spaceships start because the air is so thin that wings can't be used to stear in flight, and rocket thrusters are required to change directions. However sustained orbit is at least twice as high as the Karman line because of the aerodynamic drag caused by that thin air, and most long term orbits are more than 5 times as high to avoid frequent boosting.

[@Scrabbles-dq2mn]

18:00 So you're trying to make a rocket go Faster Than Light... Great idea ;)

[@BellsWatson]

I grew up in the 1950s. Once a week the air raid sirens would be tested (at noon in our area). We did have drills and shown how to "duck and cover".

[@nemesisbreakz]

That manhole cover is how Captain America's shield was made.

[@markjohnson9977]

Also assuming consistent speed and no factors resisting it, at 150,000 mph it would reach 62 mi in approximately 1.5 seconds

[@PAT8888-is2pd]

Nuclear weapons are not normally a detonate on impact bomb. Even the 2 dropped on Japan were detonated in the air.

[@vincecramer7950]

That happened in the 50s it's probably still traveling the manhole cover

[@countrykitty733]

Between Alamogordo N.M. and Elpaso T.X. they had a nuclear test site.

[@cyncmoore]

"I'm afraid of Americans" - David Bowie

[@igregmart]

I hope the rest of the world thinks like this about us Americans.

[@KairiPrime]

I don't know why. I mean America is just 50 war tribes in a trench coat with a defense budget big enough to fight God

[@Wolfbroa]

@@KairiPrimeI’m stealing that, 50 war tribes in a trench coat is amazing

[@KairiPrime]

@@Wolfbroa I wish I could take credit for that line, but I first heard it from Habitual Linecrosser.

[@Scrabbles-dq2mn]

First ever Nuclear-powered Manhole cover

[@johncostello6006]

Doesn't seem right does it? Lol But yeah, from sea level to space, is only 62 miles.

[@AlexMartin-ei6cj]

The 20 nukes weapon thing he proposed seemed like interplanetary warfare lol

[@dead-claudia]

okay, to put that 150k mph into perspective: - the speed of sound is about 0.7-0.8k mph - hypersonic vehicles start at around 3.8k mph - rockets normally ascend about 20-30k mph and return at around 15k-25k mph - escape velocity from earth's surface is about 26k mph - minimum escape velocity from the solar system starting from earth is about 37k mph relative to earth and about 94k mph - minimum escape velocity from the solar system at the sun's surface is about 1.4m mph, or just shy of 10x that launch speed - the speed of light is about 671m mph. the cover launched at minimum at 0.02% of this. or to put it another way, that thing likely exited the solar system decades ago if it didn't hit anything along the way. (i can't find an easy calculator and don't feel like doing the calculus for it.)

[@JoeVanGogh]

The estimated speed of the manhole cover is absolutely NUTTTS. Not the minimum speed based off the camera (although that is crazy fast) but the energy from the boom and the mass of the lid is estimated to be .05% the speed of light... thats 33,531,675 mph! I did not do the math i looked into it on Google scholar lol but seems like legit math.. granted the cover would have almost certainly burnt up in the atmosphere but its cool to think it could be booking it out in space (whatevers left of it lol)

[@darrekworkman5595]

Dude the speed isn't really the nuttts part. The acceleration is! It was accelerated from rest at ground level to whatever speed it actually reached in nanoseconds! I wonder what Google scholar has to say about the acceleration.

[@JoeVanGogh]

@@darrekworkman5595 good question lol look into it

[@corygravlin8481]

The nuke usually explodes above the ground not on impact

[@davidcopple8071]

Sixty two miles or one hundred kilometers. Is the correct distance between the Earth's surface and the beginning of outer space.

[@jasonjude1235]

Lewis your Idea of Nuclear Bombs propelling a shuttle into space is the main plot of the Netflix show 3 Body Problem 🤦🏻‍♂🤣

[@deantait8326]

I was living in the San Fernando Valley of CA, thankfully that was West-South-West of the Nevada testing range… We did those drop and cover drills…. Well eventually SAC and B-52’s flying 24/7 - 365

[@pebblehilllane]

Not nuclear detonations, but only one of the eight arming, fusing and firing switches did not activate and that is all that kept a 24 megaton nuclear bomb from exploding in North Carolina. "Nuclear bombs fell on North Carolina in 1961. The state was one step from disaster “Seven of the eight arming, fusing and firing switches and devices in one bomb automatically activated,” state officials wrote in a blog post. “Only a crew-controlled switch prevented a nuclear detonation.” The weapons came from a B-52G Stratofortress bomber, which was flying during the Cold War, a decades-long period of tension between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The crash was reported about 10 miles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, southeast of Raleigh. “At the height of the Cold War, U.S. policy was to keep armed nuclear aircraft in the air at all times in the event of a conflict,” according to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Historians said one of the bombs stayed mostly intact and fell to the ground with a parachute, while the other “broke apart on impact.” The U.S. Air Force said part of the bomb sank into the ground and that “there is no detectable radiation or hazard in or around the area.” “Historians believe that the Goldsboro incident was one of the closest near-disasters of the Cold War because safety interlocks on the weapons failed, having gone through all of the steps to detonate, save one,” according to state officials." Additional: An air-burst will do more widespread damage than a ground-burst. Little Boy, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was set to detonate at an altitude of 1,968 feet. Fat Man, the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, was set to detonate an an altitude of 1,650 feet. When a bomb is detonated below 100,000 feet but high enough that the fireball of the detonation does not actually touch the Earth's surface, it is considered an air blast. Conversely, when a nuclear bomb is detonated at or slightly above the surface of land or water, it is deemed a surface blast. Both types of blasts yield different destructive outcomes to the surrounding areas. When a nuclear bomb is detonated close or on the ground, it produces radioactive fallout. Upon explosion radioactive particles such as fission products, radiated soil and weapon waste are sent into varying levels of the atmosphere. Depending on the direction and power of the wind, radioactive fallout can travel extremely long distances. Surface burst detonations are most effective in creating high amounts of concentrated damage to the area close to the ground zero of the bomb detonation. Tactically, surface detonations can be seen as an effective means to obliterate a specific target and surrounding ground forces. Unlike surface blasts, air blasts produce almost no local fallout upon detonation. Instead, air blasts are more effective in producing high levels of overpressure over larger areas and increased yields of thermal radiation.

[@ImprovmanZero]

I read it all I am lost

[@pebblehilllane]

@@ImprovmanZero - Unfortunately it's not a gripping novel. It's just facts in a dry condensed form. Yes, as long as it was it was all in a condensed form even though it does not appear so.

[@Telrathian]

18:14 You just described the, overly simplified, "Orion Drive." A theoretical spacecraft engine for travel within and between solaor systems.

[@HollisDuty60]

My father was a chemical engineer that was part of the Manhattan Project. He was often in the desert taking reading as they dropped the bombs. He was contacted many many years later and asked if he wanted to join the class action suit because he also got cancer. He said no. He had joined the Army knowing that he was going to do things or experience things that were bad. It was his job. I think he should have joined the suit.

[@starparodier91]

17:39 Today is Matt’s bday and he was crying laughing at this! 😂💜

[@L3WGReacts]

tell him i said happy birthday!!!

[@frankpurvis9189]

the manhole cover is either destroyed or in space either way it is GONE

[@Not_hazy_]

your idea of blowing up a nuke behind a space ship was actually considered for space travel to mars lol

[@DrDeath-gr9du]

space is only 62 miles from the ground

[@charlesliechti1]

Missouri Ozarks here. How it is

[@markjohnson9977]

Didn’t know about the tests but as soon as I heard manhole cover I knew exactly what this was

[@MezmoinMobz]

25,031 mph is the speed a rocket needs to leave earths atmosphere by google.

[@kenyonmoon3272]

He's probably talking about the point at which the atmosphere starts to interact with meteors, which is about 100 kilometers up. The reason rockets take a while (despite their speed) is that if you only go UP you come back DOWN unless you are going so fast that you just keep going. In order to remain in space (in orbit) you have to also go sideways and the speed/direction to go sideways fast enough to stay in orbit DOES take a while; and vice-versa to land back to Earth. If this manhole cover did exit the atmosphere, it would still be going, while something like Jeff Bezos' rocket only reached a few hundred miles an hour...and came back down. Orbital rockets reach about twenty-thousand miles an hour. The manhole cover (if it survived) was traveling seven or eight times faster than the space shuttle and it would have just kept going, it would have passed Pluto while the Cold War was still going on. Today ... I'm not doing the math, but it's way the F out there.

[@ImprovmanZero]

what if it landed on Mars

[@JohnAnderson-rl3im]

when you sign up you Literally become Government Property

[@darrekworkman5595]

G.I. means Government Issue.

[@kennethlee494]

If the manhole cover did actually make it to space, based on the calculated minimum speed it was moving it would be approximately 86,724,215,551miles away! It would have passed Pluto's orbit in around 3 years!

[@chiphazzard8173]

Leavin on a jet plane don't know when I'll be back again. 😂

[@marvincasteel4876]

Lewis said "a rocket immune to nuclear explosions!" ROFLMAO!!!!! nothing is totally immune to nuclear explosions!! LOL

[@leechowning2712]

Look up project Orion... the military came up with the exact same idea. It would have been a platform roughly the size of an aircraft carrier, with a series of shields under it, and a small launcher unit which nuclear bombs would be dropped down, and each explosion would move the platform. It was discontinued because the Soviets said " that sounds cool, we can do it too" and then the US said how about we not... and the Soviets said "I figured you would understand".

[@michaelbland7666]

When I was in school we had practice nuclear attacks. We had to go into the hallway sit in the floor and lean forward with our hands on our heads.

[@Britt_Bratt_96]

I always enjoy Lewis and the fat electrician reactions! Have a great weekend everyone!✌💜

[@L3WGReacts]

thank youuu !!!

[@Britt_Bratt_96]

@@L3WGReactsYW😊

[@LondonWater]

lol this story has me laughing into tears🤣🤣🤣

[@ArronRatliff]

18:00 Lews you are talking about the Orion Drive. It's a Russian/American idea of a space craft riding Nuclear Explosions from the 60's. They build a giant Armor plate with a hole in the bottom and put a space craft on top of it and every few minutes a nuclear warhead rolls out and goes off, Propelling the armor plate and spacecraft forward at high speeds. Go watch the movie deep impact they use a version of Orion drive on the ship that saves the earth.

[@cluny]

I was born 1953 in Phoenix. If I lived 35 miles north in Yavapai county I would be entitled to Downwinder compensation. 1972 i moved to Denver. It had waste radium from the 1920s in the road amalgam. Girls were hired to paint the wrist watch numerals with radium paint. Girls were getting cancer of the wrist. 1955 era Pres Eisenhower built a plutonium nuke trigger factory between Denver and Boulder. There was a fire, not known if plutoniium escaped. As late as 1980s plutonium arrived by train from Pantex TX to Arvada CO. I would see the train stop at Coal Train liquors at I--25. Locomotive looked like it was designed for Batman. Stapleton airport before Denver's DIA was built was adjacent to Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Binary nerve gas was lined up below the end of the landing strip. It was safe, Binary means the two inert parts are harmless unless they mix. I am 70 and quit smoking 10 years ago. Knock on wood, heallthy.

[@kylerodriguez163]

we have 100s of memes about that man hole cover hahaha

[@archieletsyouknow5508]

💯👍🏼 Albuquerque New Mexico in the house😜 much love to the KZbin family

[@MrNoucfeanor]

I love you guys, but your sausage gravy is terrible... At least at Dennys 🤢

[@archieletsyouknow5508]

@@MrNoucfeanor 💯🤔 well there's two things you must have been really really drunk to eat at Denny's. And it might have been the alcohol that made you sick. Or the obvious choice you ate at Denny's 😂😂

[@MrNoucfeanor]

@@archieletsyouknow5508 I was traveling from Dallas to salt Lake, straight shot with little sleep. So similar to being drunk 😃

[@CatInWonderlands]

The stratosphere is where the ozone layer sits, and where the lowest level is where therr the maximum the commercial flights will go. But most flights stay within the troposphere if they are not going around the world.

[@andyloy7809]

Escape velocity is roughly 7 miles per second or 25000 mph.

[@dcoxdon]

Yeah bro, the beginning of space is 62 miles straight up.

[@psychodboy1511]

I saw someone in another comment section claiming to have done the math. If the manhole cover made it to space and maintained its velocity unchanged (a stellar object changing it either by gravity or collision) it would be 20% of the way to the closest star to earth that isn't our sun. Proxima Centauri. Which is 4.24 light-years away from earth. (1 light-year is 5.88 trillion miles or 9.44 trillion km) Again this is just what I've seen claimed.

[@jstrie275]

Ronald Regan said I'm from the government and I'm here to help, he said run, run, run, away

[@darkamora5123]

He referred to those as the 9 scariest words in the English language.

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

....It is definitely 62 miles between the earth and space. Heck, the Karman line is about 50 miles up. Did...did you think it was further? If it was, we would never be able to launch rockets into space.

[@brianfite4740]

To be fair, not something most people think about. We just nerds. :)

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

@@brianfite4740 Isn't it part of a standard high school curriculum??

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

@@brianfite4740 Oof I just realized what i just said. Okay, that's totally fair haha

[@brianfite4740]

@@smashbrandiscootch719 All good. Some never learn it, others forget it. God knows I learned long division back in the day, but I would be fucked if I tried now. Just not something that comes up that often.

[@smashbrandiscootch719]

@@brianfite4740 No that totally makes sense. I realized I was being super pretentious there. Thanks for keeping me humble, friend!!! ^_^

[@garyi.1360]

I think you are referring to asbestos mines in Australia.

[@donaldinnewmexico]

If the manhole cover is still up there, it is not up in the air. Remember, it left the air in about UH SECOND. It's now in the vacuum of space.

[@donaldinnewmexico]

Lewis, The space shot manhole cover was not a YO-YO!

[@aaronburdon221]

Uranium fever has gone and got me down. Uranium fever is spreadin all around. With a Geiger counter in my hand, i'm goin out to stake me some government land.

[@dcoxdon]

62 miles up, you're officially in space.

[@BigOleMatty]

rockets go like 17,000 mph...the iss rotates the earth at like 17,000 mph so thats why i figured that a rocket/spaceship would have to be going at least 17,000 mph but apparently to escape the pull of earth or w/e they can travel up to 36,000 mph

[@FalconWingedGirl]

Imagine the one inhabitable planet we find once had sentient species, but the manhole cover hit it and wiped it out dino style.

[@wojecire]

You should check out Ryan Macbeth's video on How Nuclear Weapons Work

[@Tylermaddox1911]

Mach 10 i believe is about the fastest we can make something move. Idk if its declassified or severely underrated because we don't want people knowing that we have planes/hypersonic missiles can go that fast. Idk I don't have any evidence. Take that as you want. Direct energy weapons move at light speed though. Thats just high powered focused energy not a actual projectile.

[@dana-dane]

Watch Desert Bloom, they held parties. And then watch The Hills Have Eyes....the AFTERMATH!

[@chugachuga9242]

The planes that shot the nuclear missile were miles away when the nuke went off.

[@rorygrime1202]

Every nuclear bomb has a switch that has to be activated for it to work.

[@stevetessendorf7378]

I think escape velocity from earths' gravity is somewhere around 27,000 or 28,000 mph. 5 times that (at least) would hardly slow down on the way out if at all. Couldn't one of these astrophysicist eggheads back-figure where all the planets were at the time and sort out if it could have made it out of the solar system?

[@tresamullin8790]

62 miles straight up and your in space. ❤crazy huh 🤔

[@steveg8102]

If, if, if ...that manhole cover is now a liquid ball of molten steel head God knows where?