The Day We Almost Set the World on Fire

What were the chances that the first nuclear blast would set the entire Earth on fire?
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Because Science every Thursday.
Learn More:
Reference paper: large.stanford.edu/courses/201...
Factor of safety: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_...
The weight of a butterfly: thebulletin.org/2015/02/the-w...
Nuclear war as a global catastrophic risk: regulatorystudies.columbian.g...
Inverse Compton scattering: venables.asu.edu/quant/proj/co...
The impossibility of atmospheric fire: large.stanford.edu/courses/201...
Bethe, Teller, Trinity, and the End of Earth: blogs.scientificamerican.com/...
Radiative processes in plasmas: www.lehigh.edu/~eus204/teachi...
Bremsstrahlung main losses: www.ira.inaf.it/~ddallaca/P-Ra...

[@becausescience]

Thanks for watching Super Nerds! I hope you're enjoying these deep dives into real physics and math as much as I am. See you in Footnotes. -- kH

[@StoneKittyOfficial]

Great episode. This has me thinking about how Kamehameha's can work n how the Human Torch's super powers work. So what if it is nuclear fusion. What if he is fusing the air or nitrogen in his body. I'm not an expert in this n will have to do more research to come up with a better idea, but this seems like a possibility that his physiology changed to accommodate the inner radioactive components in his body. Like maybe his body is part led to prevent the radiation from leaking n the fusion only happens when he releases sweat like Bakuga in My Hero Academia. Anyways thanks for reading amazing as always! -Justice

[@k7999]

Haha 4:20 takes deep breath instead of cupping hands :O

[@Fra-gee-lay]

This time you said my wife's name at the end of the show, and it startled me. I'm waiting for the day mine pops up and i crash my car because of it. Cheers.

[@J0intV3nture]

Bremsstrahlung translated means Radiation "Breaking" as if you would hit the breaks on your car to slow down.

[@NotHPotter]

Criticizing capitalism's constant need to innovate and grow? Do I smell bread, comrade?

[@saintmayhem9873]

Remember kids: The world will not end with the sound of evil laughter, it will end with a scientist in some lab saying "Oops." Double check your math, and then check it again.

[@VNM-xg3ix]

More likely a president accidentally (or purposely) launching a nuke at a country and starting ww3

[@tremedar]

@@VNM-xg3ix But the world won't end because of that, just most life on the world. The Earth will come out of it just fine.

[@VNM-xg3ix]

@@tremedar Sorry. I knew that but my reply was just my knee jerk reaction to people going " ScIeNtIsTs ArE bAd " . Don't like it when people say that considering that they are the ones trying to save us and the common people don't listen ( eg. Global warming , pollution , etc) . In a nutshell did a good video on that though.

[@Vulcano7965]

Rose REDACTED well the currently biggest experiment that puts our civilisation at danger isn't conducted by scientists. So.....

[@TheWarriorXander]

An old carpenter's saying comes to mind: Measure twice, cut once. Make sure your numbers are correct before proceeding with possibly dangerous experiments. No matter how many times you need to recheck them, or have others go over them.

[@candarl-kun5646]

Atomic Bomb rolls 20, critical success, the worlds atmosphere is incinerated.

[@benhagstrom2185]

Yeah bud, crits always succeed!

[@Paradox_Edge]

Atomic bomb rolls a critical 1. The bomb instead explodes into a whole lot of resources and technology that shoots our civilisation into the future.

[@MrFlamingballs]

@@Paradox_Edge Please stop taking drugs xD

[@Volvith]

Candarl -kun Real talk, would that be a 20 or a 1? :D

[@HappyAspid]

Remember Bikini Atoll and amount of people died as the result? There scientists made a mistake in their calculations.

[@70briareos]

This reminds me of one of those stories surrounding the Hiroshima atomic bomb drop. Supposedly during the days leading up to the Hiroshima mission, Oppenheimer got a call from one of the military people asking if the bomber dropping the atomic bomb would be fast enough to escape the blast from the explosion. Since this has never been done before and there were just too many variables to consider Oppenheimer wasn't really sure either, so he finally told the guy to just ask the bomber commander. The guy on the other end of then line replied "I'M the bomber commander!"

[@OneEyedJack1970]

Just drop it, and cross your fingers, toes, and ass-cheeks, if you can, and hope you don't get annihilated. This is a priority mission!

[@ytanddave]

Yeah, I’ve always wondered how the assessment was done of the risk of the enola gay being incinerated by its own payload. I have a vague memory of accelerated descent down a glide path tangent to a radius …. or something 😂❤

[@ytanddave]

…accelerated descent had two benefits: maximizing ground speed (hence distance from g0) and minimizing stall risk from the shock wave by having airspeed and negative angle of attack.

[@invaliduser6431]

Tsar Bomba was reduced from 100mt to 50mt specifically to give the bomber crew at least a chance at survival.

[@RomanKoval-ju6ht]

americans REALY ENJOY of mass killing and horror of billions people from this horror USA got many trillions dollars. Nobody want repeat the Hiroshima experience. so pay trillions to americans

[@amberblyledge7859]

This is even more terrifying when you remember they screwed up a calculation of an isotope and it was WAAAAAAAAY more powerful than they were thinking.

[@jc.1191]

Oops 😳

[@harrietharlow9929]

Apparently, the scientists working on Castle Bravo didn't expect the blast to be as big as it turned out to be. That is indeed scary.

[@BobwithGlasses]

they forgot it was just as reactive as the other isotope when heated, and nuclear explosions tend to be hot lmao

[@norml.hugh-mann]

Your thinking of something that happened later

[@Calliber50]

@@harrietharlow9929 At least that's the story they told their superiors... There comes a point where you tell people a conservative estimate of the hazards involved in order to proceed. Like asking your parents to borrow the keys to the car, you don't quote highway fatality stats to them...

[@thelieutenant7732]

US scientists: “it’s safe” Soviets: “ok” *makes massive Tsar Bomba

[@gateauxq4604]

That is objectively the best name for a nuke ever

[@Chrinik]

@@gateauxq4604 It was also projected to have twice the yield, but soviet scientists weren't so sure about the safety of a 100MT nuclear explosion, so only loaded half the material...you know, for science. The scarring it did to the ground detonating from 3 miles of altitude can still be seen today.

[@Chunkboi]

Chrinik well, that, and the full-size weapon would be too heavy for a bomber or missile to carry.

[@Chrinik]

@@Chunkboi it wouldn't actually have weighed all that much different...remember the actual mass of fissile material needed to generate the yield is tiny in comparison to the effect it has... it wouldn't have literally been twice the size. Probably would have weighed half a ton more at most...

[@aaron_raney940]

@@Chrinik considering how hard it was too move already that extra half ton would make a huge difference, they stripped everything out of the plane that dropped it and attached a huge parachute to give the plane time to escape and it still fell almost a mile out of the sky after detonation because of the sheer force of the blast.

[@thebeevermusic]

I don't want to set the world on fire I Just want to start A flame in your heart

[@assassinmaster3419]

I have only one desire

[@aliveandwellinisrael2507]

I had to scroll surprisingly long to find this...

[@TripleBarrel06]

I do not want to ignite the entire atmosphere, I just want to give you indigestion.

[@SL4PSH0CK]

YESSSSS

[@liftedlegend710]

Man this makes me want to replay fallout 3

[@TheAliceShow]

I like your comment at the end mentioning how "one variable could've been missed", " what if the nitrogen in the air was a lot easier to fuse than we thought?" and "... the luck will run out if we don't... really do a lot of math". It makes me think you should do a sequel to this video about Castle Bravo and Castle Romeo. Both actual cases where the variables were actually missed, the math was off, and the luck did actually run out. Just replace nitrogen-14 with lithium-7 in your statement above and you basically have what actually happened. I think it's incredibly ironic that the people working on far more powerful thermonuclear weapons were a lot less diligent about working out all the possible effects than people working on simple fission bombs just a decade before them. It's starkly illustrated by the fact that even after Castle Bravo "ran away" and was 3 times more powerful than it's intended yield, they weren't phased at all. They didn't bother to stop and figure out what went wrong. They more or less just shrugged, did some lazy calculations and went ahead with Castle Romeo a month later with the same results. If that's what keeps you up at night I think it would be worth exploring in one of your videos and I think you'd make a great one. But it's also understandable if you don't want to do too many videos on essentially the same subject. Lithium-7: "I can be tritium too!" Op Castle: "No you can't, kid. Shut up" Lithium-7: "Okay fine, you just watch..."

[@nenmaster5218]

"Our Values are Under Attack!!!" is probably one of the most conspiracy-like Things one can say, and yet, for Science, it's literally true. As Professor Dave in his epic video about the Discovery Institute and it's members showed: Yes, a lot of people are just being salty about not having had the Best Grades once... but some are doing Science-Deniall delibaretely. As in 'sitting down, planning, and then going to discredit Science'. Some are silly, yes, and some want to just make money, but some want something else.

[@Furrhan]

I'd also like to see the math done again with the Tsar Bomba. That explosion was 50Mt which was only half the expected yield if they'd loaded the bomb fully. Its fireball was 8km/5 miles wide and the explosion smashed windows 780km/480 miles from the epicentre. The Tsar Bomba far exceeded anything the Manhattan Project scientists could have ever dreamed of. For comparison, Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only 15 and 21 kilotons respectively, and even Castles Bravo and Romeo were only 15 and 11 megatons.

[@blackhawks81H]

@@Furrhan All it was, if I remember correctly, was one of the chief scientists deciding at the (relatively) last minute to leave a uranium fusion tamper out of the bomb, instead replacing it with lead, that made it 50 instead of 100. I think his boss on the political side was actually kinda mad as he had been pushing for the full boom. One of the side effects of this was that the bomb had something like a 97 percent fusion efficiency. Which turned out to make it one of the "cleanest" nuclear weapons ever detonated, as far as fallout is concerned. Despite being the biggest.

[@Goulmy86]

Reading these comments before bed, wasn't a smart idea...🤦‍♂️

[@harrietharlow9929]

I was aware of Castle Bravo, but not of Castle Romeo. Wait, what??! They messed up with Castle Bravo and then screwed up a month later, basically for the same reason (Insert headdesk here).

[@halo99yo]

bro spoiled the movie

[@SodomEndGomorra]

Whatever

[@justinsims7935]

"Hey guys do you think this could set the atmosphere on fire?" "Only one way to find out!"

[@thelonecabbage7834]

Well, It's not like you're going to be punished if something goes wrong.

[@n3v3rg01ngback]

Justin Sims Quantum mathematics.

[@justinsims7935]

@@n3v3rg01ngback 😐 Slams button aggresively.

[@trueaidooo]

Yeet*dies*

[@arx3516]

@@thelonecabbage7834 you punish yourself.

[@thunderrumble9521]

Dear Evil Kyle, What's the equivalent amount of antimatter required for an atmospheric ignition? Just asking. No reason...

[@christianheichel]

Everybody should like this so Kyle will do a show on it. P.S. you best check yourself, Kyle doesn't seem to be the type to accept competition. I see you on the receiving end of an orbital strike in the next week or so

[@rodolfodetoledo4868]

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Antimatter is sooo much more efficient...

[@alexc7095]

To my knowledge the entire human race does not have more than a few micrograms of antimater, and the financial costs of producing it were very high. The entire planet could not afford 100 grams of antimatter. I could be wrong.

[@christianheichel]

@@alexc7095 your right, they produced about 100 atoms of it. Stored it for a few days before it got destroyed on purpose. Storage is what would make it so expensive. You'd have to levitate it in a vacuum and the energy requirements would be quite large not to mention that anyone storing it would utterly annihilate themselves and the surrounding several miles if they lost power.

[@tiziocaio5112]

Dear Steven, Kyle, in his great evil plan, told us in the video that would take a nuclear bomb of 1,5 millions kg with 100% efficiency to ignite air, and that happens to be the same of a 0.75 millions kg of antimatter completely annihilating with air. Hope you can build it now, A random villain. Ps: to the best of my knowledge the anti-atoms were anti-hydrogen. If they were 100, even if the power went out they would produce 200Gev of energy (=4x10^(-8)Joule)

[@crisphighfives]

This lesson was so good, Nolan made a movie on it .

[@ninjakiwi2476]

Seeing this in Oppenheimer last week was amazing and learning from that movie that this was a small possibility was insane. Thank god that didnt happen.

[@worawatsr9803]

The chance of that happening is 0. Even the Tsar bomb couldn’t set the earth’s atmosphere on fire.

[@MrMelichor]

The subtitles translated "atomic bomb" into "Anton McBomb"

[@DigitalJedi]

He is Anton McBomb, destroyer of worlds, ignitor of atmospheres.

[@benjaminolsson2162]

Anton McBomb is the new term then. McDonald just lost the copyright on the "Mc" so nobody can stop us!

[@Arkan9elCastiel]

That sounds violently American. Pretty apt tbh.

[@ucitymetalhead]

I heard he was a real blast at parties.

[@willg4802]

Thanks, i have a new avatar name!

[@STRAKAZulu]

Should have opened this in Fallout style. "🎵I don't want to set the world on fire....🎶"

[@thelosthero368]

I was just about to make this comment.

[@becausescience]

Hello copyright -- kH

[@STRAKAZulu]

@@becausescience 🤣🤣🤣

[@demogorgonzola]

@@becausescience 🎶 Oh we will all burn together when we burn. There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn when it's time for the fallout, when the air becomes uranious and we will all go simultaneous. Yes, we all will go together when we go 🎶 (-- Tom Lehrer)

[@catnipdavesscratchingpost1422]

copyright issues unfortunately.. it cost a lot for like 12 seconds of nastalgia

[@Dannybythebanana]

After watching Oppenheimer, technically speaking the nuke did cause a chain reaction in the form of an arms race.

[@jaimeordonez468]

🤓🤓☝️technically speaking

[@zakkarystory2352]

Well, this ain't a scene.

[@Dannybythebanana]

@@zakkarystory2352 Of course there's no scene but it's an obvious implication

[@zakkarystory2352]

@@Dannybythebanana that went WAAAYYYYY over your head

[@Dannybythebanana]

@@zakkarystory2352 So did my original comment

[@Waffleman860]

Awesome video. Thanks for going into detail about this particular calculation. Concerning the quantum black holes at the LHC that you mentioned, they really are nothing to worry about. If one were to be created, it would evaporate so mind bogglingly quickly that its gravitational effects would propagate less than 10^-7 angstroms less than a ten millionth of the diameter of a proton.

[@cornoc]

what if it creates strange matter :-)

[@b.s.7693]

Are you sure ^^

[@toesauce1665]

​@@cornoc that's only in neutron stars

[@cornoc]

@@toesauce1665 theoretically it's anywhere with the right amount of energy and a lucky roll of the dice

[@geordannicholson2854]

What about false vacuum decay 🙃

[@TheZilo77]

Kyle just casually explained a Kamehameha wave in a discussion about nuking the atmosphere. I love this channel.

[@cryophile]

Apparently he's also a demon.

[@mastertofu]

@@cryophile no he's not, he's just secretly a villain.

[@leopardian7143]

@@mastertofu what do you mean secretly?

[@vojtik135]

*_Now I am become Death, the igniter of sky._*

[@DystopiaWithoutNeons]

Deathwing?

[@iakahdrake2801]

Oppenheimer’s speech

[@iakahdrake2801]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/opOUZKykqph8l8U

[@lorekeeper685]

"And the budha..."

[@pupplementarypupplements5804]

i thought it was destroyer of worlds

[@dingleberryrobinson497]

7:16 This whole bit killed me "Civilazatiom ending world fire brought on by our own....." I'm obsessed with nuclear weapons. They are terrifyingly beautiful. I often get so lost in the beauty of the science, physics, and ability that I often forget the entire picture. But every now and again, I have those sobering realizations of the nature, drive, and desire that lead this tool to exist. Which leads down a dark rabbit hole. I feel you my friend. I feel you. Also, I love your content. It only gets better and better.

[@dannypipewrench533]

Got to like the sheer power we wield but rarely use.

[@bradyvelvet9432]

Imagine if they somehow got it wrong. None of us would be here today.

[@BrianJOlds]

I'm very happy that the Kamehameha was seamlessly worked into this lesson

[@rubengarciavaro1277]

chi is just the manipulation of the weak and strong forces.

[@Stratelier]

and the "you don't want the atmosphere to go Super Saiyan" part.

[@erasmus5197]

Makes me think Dbz is actually possible lol

[@pierregiasson6737]

Yes

[@turgidbanana]

🤦‍♂️

[@ThunderbolttheFox]

When I'm depressed, I like to just come here and watch Thor talk about science

[@dumpeeplarfunny]

Actually, the science of Thor would be pretty fascinating stuff. Peter Parker talks about it in Spider Man Far From Home, but what science would he be learning in his class about Thor? I'm genuinely curious.

[@KhreamedKhorne]

Ok.

[@evanb432]

Naomi Kitsune same bruh

[@kenhammscousin4716]

Kawaii kitsune same

[@anthonybeasley7076]

Yes! Thor! Couldn't put my finger on it. Yeah, this guy has otherwise completely indifferent young women everywhere saying, "Science? Oh yeah, yeah, I love to do Science!"

[@edwardnotyourconcern6519]

Dude! I just discovered your videos and I haven't been able to go to bed since watching the them. I love you man!

[@nayeonranghae]

oppenheimer's final words in the movie hit hard lmao

[@DennisM168]

The world: *literally on fire* My gf: "I'm freezing"

[@demogorgonzola]

Hug her...

[@CBonduMiel]

@@demogorgonzola awww :( i wis i had a girlfriend to hug me :,-(

[@shayanmoosavi9139]

Take her to the doctor.

[@prince_nocturne]

I'm the reverse. World: Nearing absolute zero. Me: "Eh, it's a little nippy out."

[@n3v3rg01ngback]

Dennis231 Hahhhaahahaha! Girls are always cold!

[@nobodyknowsforsure]

"...effectively a kamehameha..." Me: "So it CAN be done!" *goes to beach and starts practicing* lol

[@mastershooter64]

Other people:takes phones out and tries to take videos and photos in the potrait mode

[@RocketDragons]

You'd explode in a fiery blast but have fun! :P

[@thevirtueoflove3935]

Kyle and film theory both did something on that.

[@nobodyknowsforsure]

@@RocketDragons worth it! lol

[@dennisklomp2361]

Quick calculation using some friction heat generation, you'd have to rub your hands roughly 130.000 times per second to generate those temperatures. Ps. This is not true but I'm not actually gonna calculate this😂

[@shanahgreen4670]

I really like the way you explain your science and giving information on what really happens when they've set off nuclear bombs

[@mattiaskarlsson9302]

This is something I've been wondering about for years, I have heard hundreds of times that scientists were once concerned about setting the world on fire with a nuclear blast, but I've never heard anything disproving that possibility.

[@casamir1]

So far so good

[@StanielTheDamned]

"I don't want to set the world on fiiiiireeee I just want to start a flame in your heaaaaart"

[@scottmantooth8785]

flaming hearts are pretty ugly to look at and very messy...or so i've been told...

[@StanielTheDamned]

@@scottmantooth8785 issa fallout reference my friend

[@scottmantooth8785]

@@StanielTheDamned know the reference well and that it was written in 1938 and preformed by the Ink Spots...a classic and very haunting song

[@StanielTheDamned]

@@scottmantooth8785 ik and and sorry for thinking you didnt get it

[@lizardgirl413]

i thought the exact same thing

[@totalermist]

3:14 "this sphere would just dissipate *harmlessly* like every explosion you've ever seen" That's not how explosions work, though, that's how farts work.

[@chaddrake2782]

I mean, it *eventually* becomes harmless xD

[@SmokiestJoe]

totalermist the difference being? 😂😂😂

[@DoctorNemmo]

Pi, nice.

[@CaTastrophy427]

IDK, farts can be deadly...

[@bubbykins4864]

Eventually, it would dissipate harmlessly.

[@chadscarborough7517]

It's comforting to know that a world-ending chain reaction started by a single nuclear explosion is practically impossible, but, you know, I kind of wish it weren't. I kind of wish that safety factor were below 1, so that either no one would ever be crazy enough to go through with developing nuclear weapons in the first place or, if they did, it would all just be over with no one to suffer any long-term consequences as a result of those weapons

[@webpombo7765]

So you're saying you prefer total world annihilation rather than longterm harm to a section of the planet's life?

[@chadscarborough7517]

@@webpombo7765 In the sense that total annihilation nets less suffering than widespread nuclear fallout, yes

[@SirHenryMaximo]

Once asked my high school chemistry teacher what prevented an atomic chain reaction from igniting the whole atmosphere. She was puzzled by my question too.

[@dicerson9976]

I now want a picture of Earth-chan going super saiyan via atmospheric ignition.

[@TigerWolf111]

This.

[@wolfy1398]

then she'd be too hot to see

[@longlostwraith5106]

lol

[@cooperjmills]

Yes

[@rawyld]

Actually Doctor Who did an episode about that called "Inferno" where a scientist did get his calculations were wrong and led to a massive disaster.

[@lieutenantnomad9198]

The atmosphere would need to be alot thicker for this to happen. Speaking of which, what if we detonated a nuclear weapon on Venus?

[@lordnems997]

There's been some thought on use nuclear weapons on mars to raise the temperature. Some for meteorites hitting it too. (Of course technology is an issue there)

[@Gooberpatrol66]

There's a Halo novel where a captain fires nukes into a gas giant and turns it into a star.

[@WG1417Gaming]

@@Gooberpatrol66 I was thinking about this when I watched the video, the dense hydrogen and helium atmospheres of gas giants would be much more likely to sustain a fusion reaction triggered by a nuclear blast.

[@Gay_Priest]

It might get slightly more unpleasant than it already is

[@seraphina985]

@@WG1417Gaming This should really be easier as the temperatures needed to fuse Hydrogen and Helium are a lot lower this is of course why Hydrogen is the gas of choice to use as a fusion tamper in a H-bomb. Course in a case like that you still wouldn't fuse the whole planet the heat would easily overcome the amount of energy needed to get every single gram of material up to escape velocity long before that result in the Jovian Nebula (Assuming Jupiter was the target). Whether anything on the side of Earth facing Jupiter at the time would survive the massive increase in radiation during this event is however another question it would probably outshine the Sun for a while.

[@zgunderson90]

I really like how you edit your videos. Or at least this one I don’t know if it’s how the other videos are. The way you don’t have that many video cuts you just speed up the Video where are you not talking and then slow it down when the video gets too where the audio is, and the audio flows together without having any long gaps

[@EJVC81]

Love your material and the way it gets explained

[@michaellight6981]

"It will dissipate harmlessly, like every other explosion you've ever seen." - Kyle Hill, 2019

[@Xenon_001]

It's true, do you just expect it to continue to expand?

[@pumkin610]

*harmlessly*

[@norml.hugh-mann]

Yeah harmlessly in areas designated for such tests

[@webpombo7765]

It harmlessly dissipates, it doesn't harmlessly expand tho

[@oberonpanopticon]

@@webpombo7765underrated comment

[@phoenixartist6357]

The 60s German TV show "Raumpatroullie" featured weapons, called "Energiebrand" and "Overkill", that seemed to cause nuclear chain reactions, with a planet´s atmosphere and surface. They were used as heavy spacecraft mounted weapons, to destroy enemy bases, and asteroids.

[@CrazySC833]

I've always wondered about this lol. thanks a lot for making this video!

[@TheGentry000]

species: human planet name: earth cause of death: suicide

[@ummmhelp]

I mean all the papers about the bomb would have been burned so I guess the aliens would think that

[@SeamusCameron]

"They irradiated their own planet?!"

[@fax3544]

*Doctor who intro plays*

[@nate7LP_my_dog_found_the_knife]

Guys in the international space station be like, aaaaaand its gone.

[@Rebirth._]

ACCIDENTAL suicide

[@UPSBHenryS]

Kyle must be so proud nailing that marker catch at 3:00

[@barrybend7189]

It was an edit. His hand was in reverse while him talking was composited on it.

[@becausescience]

Dude...I really was. -- kH

[@Timbhu]

@@becausescience * aggressively * we love you Kyle

[@katieblade7083]

i know i was impressed, replayed it immediately! Great spacial awareness.

[@Intabih]

But... but the cap!

[@jackeldridge4225]

So... One love the show. 2 sometimes I watch your show and get inspiration for ideas when wondering what I will run in a RPG. In this case it was Starfinder a Sci Fi fantasy RPG. The campaign I was running had the players fighting as a special taskforce attacking high profile targets. When they were on one world taking out a said high profile target they learned that the enemy was planning to... Ignite the Atmosphere! They stopped them saving a entire world. You inspired that my friend. The players loved it, and of course were terrified, but hey high stakes, am I right. Anyway keep it up the good work.

[@timkelley7305]

Great editing. Bravo

[@JannatulFirdush]

Scientists Discussing "Hey do u think the atom bomb could set the Atmosphere on Fire?" Everyone: *Laughs* Also Everyone:"Lets Make sure it stays A joke"

[@teuflhunden]

Hey just remember that a couple decades back the USA almost released a bacteria that would have destroyed all plant matter on the planet.

[@Mishanya442]

Imagine him asking, if nuclear bomb coud set atmosphere on fire right in the moment, when they explode the bomb

[@humblesoldier5474]

@@Mishanya442 Collective, oh shit moment. And it wasn't the baby test they went full Tsar bomba 100 megaton blast.

[@dinodude6992]

Now a days: Me: can we weaponize neutron stars My fbi agent: write that down dude, write that down!

[@kauekairony990]

hurr durr me: *speaks* not me: *reacts* am i funny yet?

[@yannickschmitt3537]

"Bremsstrahlung". As a german, I literally spat my coffee across my keyboard

[@kindlin]

Care to explain? Cuz "braking radiation" - google, doesn't seem _that_ hilarious?

[@yannickschmitt3537]

@@kindlin It was the way he pronounced it. Just let Google translate pronounce it and then listen to Kyle. You'll understand.

[@sarahhaeger2010]

@@yannickschmitt3537 Be lenient with him. German is pretty hard

[@yannickschmitt3537]

@@sarahhaeger2010 I'm not "hating". I just think it's funny. When I try to speak French, I sound like a goblin choking on a baguette.

[@slavkebab6553]

@@yannickschmitt3537 lmao, try polish

[@alexbranton426]

this mans a treasure and im sad hes not uploading

[@WarlordShinkouhyou]

"The Weight of a Butterfly" thanks for my new emo band name

[@Vatsyayana87]

Hows the band going?

[@naiknaik8812]

How is the band going

[@andrewCNC905]

@@naiknaik8812 How is the band going?

[@harith745]

How's the band is going?

[@_Uptilt]

For everyone who is waiting: Butterfly lifespans rarely exceed a few months, this dude and their band are six feet under by now

[@NG-lj1cq]

So a kamehameha is a beam charged by a fusion reaction of all nitrogen particles in the air between your hands. All I needed to know.

[@FlyingDominion]

What if it glows so brightly because it also ignites the produced magnesium?

[@burgerfrechfry]

Flynn Curtis wow

[@lum26akua28]

Sadly no, they do it in vacuums as well.

[@TeShady]

@@lum26akua28 nope, they can’t survive in a vacuum. They’re always in the atmosphere and there is air in there. Also nitrogen lol 😂

[@TripleBarrel06]

@@TeShady Saiyans seem to be able to survive a vacuum (or at least high enough in the atmosphere as makes no difference), along with several other aliens in the setting as the Frieza saga shows. Putting that aside, Goku has used the kamehameha with consistent effects in low to no atmosphere environments, underwater, on multiple alien planets, and in pocket dimensions, all places which should alter its effects if an Earth atmosphere amount of nitrogen particles was the fuel. I'd suggest it's not a fusion reaction fuelled by nitrogen particles.

[@alexisrdevitre]

WOW! Kudos for the fusion animation!!

[@lewiswilkinson4427]

Hah, Oppenheimer

[@ThunderbirdAnthares]

so, youre saying that an Exterminatus via Atmospheric Incinerator Torpedo is "possible" thats all i needed to know, thank you Emperor Protects

[@feudaltrinity7831]

Thunderbird Anthares the emperors will shall protect!

[@PapaBear_Gaming]

Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Throne of Khorne!

[@dinodude6992]

If you think about it... The emperor of mankind could be in hiding, waiting for his time to come to power.... Why hasn't he gone and helped Hong Kong behind the scenes yet?

[@MarionetteDuAuguste]

If said atmospheric incineration torpedo was a matter-antimatter annihilation weapon with a warhead the mass of the Empire State Building...and the planet in question had an atmosphere with a similar stability to earth

[@TheSheaim]

@@MarionetteDuAuguste If you annihilated an ESB's worth of antimatter... Shit, that wouldn't just incinerate atmosphere. You'd blow Earth clean off orbit... and take a chunk out all at the same time.

[@LJMiho]

"~I don't want to set the world on fire~" "~I just want to start a flame in your heart~"

[@Darceus2000]

LJMiho My god! I literally came to the comments section just to see if someone put this😂😅 This song is literally all I could think about during the video!

[@mennograafmans1595]

Why so low?

[@Darceus2000]

menno graafmans ???

[@mennograafmans1595]

@@Darceus2000 I had to scroll way to far to find a comment about the song.

[@Darceus2000]

menno graafmans Oh, okay. It wasn’t low when I replied to it😅

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

5:11 i like it that on his depiction of the first nuclear bomb explosion he has also drawn those "tentacles" produced by evaporated cables supporting the tower. but their number doesnt match, so i'm not sure he knew exactly what he was doing there lol.

[@knuxenglish]

I never thought about the atmosphere suddenly catching fire and now im worrying about it for whatever reason

[@StarKnight619]

Another famous quote is this by Albert Einstein: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

[@npc6817]

Not if we burn the sticks and melt the stones it wont!

[@doge8726]

If there ever is a world war 3 or 4 I'm sure we will have colonized other worlds by then so it won't be a big deal

[@JohnNaru2112]

Shallow Bay our best estimate for terraforming mars is 500-1000 years at least.

[@doge8726]

@@JohnNaru2112 my statement stands

[@nhiamoua5816]

@@doge8726 not if china invades taiwan, which could happen any day.

[@aaronequinoa77]

Would love to see this question on what size astroid would be the minimum to ignite the atmosphere on fire and ect

[@shivanSpS]

I remember i first learned about this due to Admiral Hackett mentioning it in ME3.

[@phillipkeen223]

when you learn how to math a exterminatius into existence

[@khartog01]

And thus, the cyclonic torpedo is born

[@shankarramachandran3661]

"No sacrifice is too great, no treachery too small"

[@stepanpekar6419]

This is why I opened the vid :D Now calculate power of Abadons planetkiller ship :D

[@tragedyofdarthplagueis1630]

How about the nova bomb from halo

[@Vicious5D]

3:14 yeah I remember how when they dropped that nuclear bomb in Hiroshima how the energy sphere dissipated harmlessly

[@carlosandleon]

lol

[@linguini9721]

Bruh 😂

[@lukeshort2960]

That bomb was not nuclear, it was atomic. Very big difference in power unleashed.

[@carlosandleon]

@@lukeshort2960 way to get the joke dumbass

[@melonlord1414]

It's always a matter of scale and perspective.

[@geraldvaughn8403]

I thought that might be a concern. Glad they looked into it. I learned something new. Great presentation.

[@lw8882]

"Why would you be able to see it?" I love your sense of humor lmao

[@leocoelho4536]

Kyle: "is nearly impossible to ignite the atmosphere" Comic book mad scientists: "Hold my beaker"

[@legionofthedamned916]

Life eater virus + Lance strike from a battleship = the world is on fire

[@daanwilmer]

Meep?

[@alysonshorthouse8858]

It happened in Doctor Who

[@vojtik135]

What about burning the Sun?

[@mastertofu]

@@vojtik135 what ABOUT the sun? The sun is giving off light and heat because of nuclear fusion or fission so I'm not sure if anything will happen.

[@jasonyoung7705]

Hi Kyle, great show again, but I have a question. How many times would I have to slap a chicken to ignite the atmosphere? (adding an edit, to clarify for all the great comments and likes. Lets say we find the average joules of energy contained in the slap of a typical adult. We then apply that multiple times in one second, magically, without your hand or the chicken disintegrating, before the energy release is enough to cause a chain fusion reaction in the atmosphere. How many slaps is that?)

[@Java_Protogen]

How many times would I have to ignite the atmosphere to slap a chicken?

[@paxarcana5811]

Kyle. Answer this.

[@PnlBtr]

Dude, 6

[@Namelesswhirl]

It's not about how many times. It's about how fast you hit it.

[@ankokuraven]

Oh god i hope he answers this.

[@ryanmay1772]

i love learning more and more about science and he explains this very well, but, why is he holding all the markers in the video when all the graphics were done digitally? lol

[@RondaGoldenArts]

Your videos are beyond amazing! Why did you stop making more videos?

[@szabi4140]

He didn't stop, he just has a new channel!

[@szabi4140]

Kyle Hill

[@RondaGoldenArts]

@@szabi4140 thanks

[@DPM_Portraits]

People of the Earth : We might destroy Earth doing this. Earth : Jokes on you, you only detroying yourselves.

[@tremedar]

And most other living things on the Earth, but as far as our blue-green rock hurdling through space, it would shrug it off like so many insignificant gnats.

[@jaga9394]

@@tremedar exactly. World ending simply means ending of human existence and few of the current lifeform. Earth will bounce back in a couple of hundred thousand years which is just a blink in her lifetime.

[@shayanmoosavi9139]

@@jaga9394 if the earth's atmosphere is gone then *no life* will flourish even after a 100 billion years so no, it won't bounce back and life will never form ever again. The planet may look unharmed but it can't support life anymore. It would become a lifeless planet like other planets. But the universe moves on as if nothing happened. We were extremely lucky to even exist. A very unlikely and beautiful accident. So treasure your life as long as you have it because when it's gone it's gone forever.

[@thefirsttime7759]

@@shayanmoosavi9139 not how atmosphere works

[@shayanmoosavi9139]

@@thefirsttime7759 please be more clear.

[@mr.sandman_9624]

Student: when am I gonna use the quadratic formula in my life Teacher: *if you don’t learn this the world will end in a flaming ball of death*

[@LiveFastRaceHard]

The Doors Light My Fire is stuck in my head now.

[@swenmcheath1798]

now this reminds me of the "Perry Rhodan" series (written by multiple authors), iirc the longest running scifi book series thingy which still releases to this day. In this series theyve got so called "Arkon-Bombs" (named after the species that developed them) which can basically turn a planet into a sun by starting a similar fusion event. I remember one paragraph in which the author describes how the atmosphere of a planet is gradually burning up. Good series, deff worth a read, but its fucking long, ive only got to read the first 25 or so books (400-500 pages each) so far

[@bastik.3011]

3:00 Can we all just appreciate how smooth that was?

[@graylinshowell7051]

1940's scientists: Look, we are not going to accidentally ignited the atmosphere killing all humans and essentially all other life on Earth. At best, we're looking at a few hundred thousand people at a time, nothing to be concerned about.

[@sammiller2637]

Equality for all....

[@HarryBalzak]

5:10 I like how you included the explosion protrusions that occurred when the tower guylines were incinerated by the intense heat making it a spikey sphere of doom. Nice attention to detail in a minimalist sketch. 12:10 That reminds me of all the irrational fear of "space germs" during the Apollo missions. Scientists had already figured out that it was basically impossible for germs to survive on the surface of the moon, but the general public was still very fearful. In order to satiate the public's desire for caution the scientists ignored their own understanding of reality and implemented a quarantine of the astronauts post-mission. All of that irrational fear inspired Michael Crichton to write The Andromeda Strain. So, at least it wasn't all stupid/bad.

[@duanewente457]

@4:43 *Piccolo in the distance* "Neerrrrrd!"

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

So the conclusion? Nuclear weapons: Totes safe.

[@torquetheprisoner]

japan would beg to differ

[@wasp7361]

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, a movie about this exact type of event was made in 1961. Pretty good movie for the time. The TV show that followed was good for about 2 of the 4 years it ran. 4th season was so bad I quit watching it about 5 episode in. And I loved that show (I was 6 at the beginning of it all). By the way, John Williams of Star wars and other fantastic sound track did the music for the show.

[@fallenmercury]

RIP to the alien planets who tried this and got annihilated thanks to atmospheric composition differences.

[@dovesr0478]

Great video, I always wondered if setting the entire Earth on fire was even remotely feasible since I saw the first Fantastic 4 movie as a kid. There's a scene in that movie where the human torch is flying circles around Dr. Doom to form a fire vortex, but he is told to take it easy or he would risk setting the atmosphere on fire. Cool to know it wasn't just some comic book mumbo jumbo and was actually a legitimate concern at one point.

[@coopergates9680]

Except the "fire" used in that movie isn't really fission, it's as though he was releasing some fuel, possibly with an oxidizer thrown in

[@robdeskrd]

The whole atmosphere igniting is called world wide conflagration and has happened multiple times due to extinction level meteor impact events

[@justsomerandomguy1589]

"And you don´t want the Earth´s atmosphere to go Super Saiyan" Earth needs to see the it´s best friend, the Moon, exploding.

[@mroffice8166]

A-world-ending-asteroid-chan: hmmm, how about your lifeforms next. Earth-chan: You ruthless, heartless BASTARD. *Earth starts twitching, electro magnetic fields spike, gravity fluxuates around it.

[@santem8011]

When i saw the title the song "i don't want to set the world on fire" started playing in my mind

[@nathanielromero7660]

The destruction of the Earth's atmosphere is literally a potential scenario in the Godzilla vs Destoroyah movie when Godzilla is having too much energy inside his body

[@JJ-kl7eq]

Whatever the crisis, if it’s described as, “The Day the World...”, just make a Keanu Reeves movie about it and we’ll be fine.

[@becausescience]

woah -- kH

[@Gyrfalcon312]

With him in the movie, even the most dire screenplay will come off as an Excellent Adventure.

[@aeternusdoleo4531]

It surprises me that this was ever a question. Earth has had kiloton and megaton explosions in its past in the form of asteroid impacts. Those didn't set the sky on fire even when their energy release should, according to that briefly held theory, have triggered runaway fusion. This was a theory already disproven by nature flinging rocks.

[@JashJhaveri]

This channel and presentation style is so dope! You remind me of kevin parker if he grew up in the US and made youtube videos instead of tame impala

[@nikiwismann]

As a German I love the way you say "Bremsstrahlung".

[@l.lautsprecher3446]

Bremmstalang

[@erbgorre]

a valiant attempt was made

[@antoniotorres8842]

Ich musste auch fast lachen

[@becausescience]

I apologize on behalf of myself -- kH

[@nikiwismann]

@@becausescience Don't, it made me chuckle.

[@kimschroder9354]

Maybe this is how the Deathstar works without needing so much energy... Just let the planets Atoms do the job themselves...

[@etwazenwarriorteir6481]

But-the-death-star-turns-planets-into-space-chunks,-the-cascade-reaction-would-only-kill-all-life-and-render-the-planet-a-charred-rock-with-no-atmosphere.-In-all-honesty-the-death-star-is-flashy,-overpowered,-and-inefficient...that-being-said-though,-the-fireworks-are-glorious-and-considering-the-Sith-that-is-probably-their-form-of-the-4th-of-July-which-is-ironic-in-a-way.

[@katetoolboxbishop6676]

@@etwazenwarriorteir6481 cringe

[@frealms]

@@etwazenwarriorteir6481 You are thinking of it only striking the surface, not piercing it and the chain reaction happening at the planet's core, not surface.

[@ldyvaporeon9944]

@Corey the planet blown up wasn't the earth though

[@Beegrene]

The (former) canonical explanation kind of touched on this. The Death Star's laser would pierce the planet and hit its metallic core, which would be knocked into hyperspace. The core, having no shielding, would then be converted into hypermatter. Next, the gravity of the rest of the planet still in realspace would rip the now hypermatter core back into realspace. Since hypermatter explodes violently when in realspace, the core then blows the hell up. Essentially the Death Star turns a planet's core into a hypermatter bomb.

[@pranshuadhwaryu6374]

Here after Ophenheimer

[@MisterVercetti]

I learned about this from Freeman's Mind of all places: "You know, when they invented the atomic bomb, they were afraid that it was going to catch the atmosphere on fire and burn up the whole earth, but they did it anyway. That took _balls."_

[@Jean-fc8ug]

I don't call this have balls. More like idiots who started the biggest thread of humanity in a form of a weapon in the hands of power hungry governments and tyrants.

[@Duraludon884]

What if the scientists told everyone that a nuclear blast *would* set the atmosphere on fire? Do you think that would have caused people to try to stop nuclear weapons from being made?

[@fgarm]

Of course

[@Duraludon884]

Do you think it might have worked?

[@fgarm]

@@Duraludon884 yes

[@infamoushacker4chan883]

No. Scientists from other countries would do the calculations themselves and determine it wouldn't set the atmosphere on fire. Then they'd be free to develop their own nuclear weapons.

[@chasesblog]

@@infamoushacker4chan883 exactly

[@allanhilder3424]

"And you don't want the earth's atmosphere to go super Saiyan" That cracked me up😂😂

[@bubbykins4864]

Wouldn't that make the atmosphere become temporarily invincible?

[@clintelkins9630]

When the ENTIRE ATMOSHPERE goes postal

[@silverwurm]

So basically, I’m order to fuse the atmosphere, you’d need an explosion so big and so concentrated that you’d be destroying the planet anyway, and whatever nitrogen fusion you’d get would end up more of a bonus.

[@sarukydraico7397]

Who would've taught? Kyle is actually Dr. Strange, he is just trying to warning us about the bad things that can happen. How many futures have you seen?

[@bossoholic]

Dr Strange & Thor lol

[@angelemmanuelperezmuniz1474]

And Syndrome

[@AndrewAce.]

+14M

[@Volvith]

US: NEVERMIND, IT'S SAFE! USSR: ... Let's half Tsar, just to be sure...

[@starfirejordan9875]

Thank you for knowing that Russia cut the tsAr warhead power was cut in half from 100mt to 50mt

[@LordPhobos6502]

They only halved it to give the plane crew more time to get away from the explosion. After the reduction, I think they were estimated to have better than 50% chance of escaping. SAFETY!!!

[@kdarkwynde]

@@LordPhobos6502 that, and there would have been a shitload of fallout they didn't want to have to deal with...

[@philb5593]

@@kdarkwynde An important thing I must add here is that the tsar bomba was actually one of the cleanest nuclear devices. Yes, it was extremely large, but so much of that came from fusion which doesn't have the radiation.

[@EuropeYear1917]

Half-Tsar? So… my kid - Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia? Kidding.

[@DrewWutsit]

1:14 okay lmao 😂 "Why would you be able to see it"

[@louieplays9229]

?

[@DrewWutsit]

@@louieplays9229 "Why would you be able to see it" 🤣🤣

[@louieplays9229]

@@DrewWutsitwhat are you on about

[@DrewWutsit]

@@louieplays9229 issa joke its funny

[@louieplays9229]

@@DrewWutsit I don’t think it’s a joke and what’s so funny about it

[@eclipsedat3am]

I like the quote, “Newton recreated the ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album cover” 🤣

[@hannahmiller1865]

Love how “atomic bomb” was captioned as “Anton Mcbomb”

[@jaroffarts7652]

is Kyle living in a future scenario that Earth was evaporated to the void? #BSLORE

[@zane8811]

We could join him there

[@intellectualiconoclasm3264]

@Beacause Science The Kameameha reminded me of a question I was hoping you'd look at: Given the amount of energy a Super Saiyan can raise and dissipate are they ever at risk of becoming a singularity?

[@seiyuokamihimura5082]

One would certainly assume. And hope. We can always hope....

[@rinfeast3445]

idk man how did goku get ultra instinct

[@mrpirate3470]

Another great video, and Awesome Thor cosplay ;)