The energy output released by an average lightning discharge. The television show MythBusters used 2.5 tons of ANFO to make "homemade" diamonds. Īmount of TNT used (12 kg) in Coptic church explosion in Cairo, Egypt on Decemthat left 25 dead The approximate radiant heat energy released during 3-phase, 600 V, 100 kA arcing fault in a 0.5 m × 0.5 m × 0.5 m (20 in × 20 in × 20 in) compartment within a 1-second period. Under controlled conditions one kilogram of TNT can destroy (or even obliterate) a small vehicle. ≈ 1 food Calorie (large Calorie, kcal), which is the approximate amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius at a pressure of one atmosphere. 3.968 31 ×10 6 British thermal units įurther information: Orders of magnitude (energy) Megatons of TNT.The energy liberated by one gram of TNT was arbitrarily defined as a matter of convention to be 4184 J, which is exactly one kilocalorie.Ī kiloton of TNT can be visualized as a cube of TNT 8.46 metres (27.8 ft) on a side. These complications have been sidestepped by convention. So, one can state that a nuclear bomb has a yield of 15 kt ( 6.3 ×10 13 J) but an actual explosion of a 15 000 ton pile of TNT may yield (for example) 8 ×10 13 J due to additional carbon/hydrocarbon oxidation not present with small open-air charges. For safety purposes a range as wide as 2673–6702 J has been stated for a gram of TNT upon explosion. A large open explosion of TNT may maintain fireball temperatures high enough so that some of those products do burn up with atmospheric oxygen. Gas-expansion and pressure-change effects tend to "freeze" the burn rapidly. Small TNT explosions, especially in the open, don't tend to burn the carbon-particle and hydrocarbon products of the explosion. īut, even on this basis, comparing the actual energy yields of a large nuclear device and an explosion of TNT can be slightly inaccurate.
For TNT this has been accurately measured as 4686 J/g from a large sample of air blast experiments, and theoretically calculated to be 4853 J/g. Where for example the comparison is by energy yield, an explosive's energy is normally expressed for chemical purposes as the thermodynamic work produced by its detonation. Historical derivation of the value Īlternative values for TNT equivalency can be calculated according to which property is being compared and when in the two detonation processes the values are measured. The TNT equivalent appears in various nuclear weapon control treaties, and has been used to characterize the energy released in asteroid impacts. The kiloton and megaton of TNT have traditionally been used to describe the energy output, and hence the destructive power, of a nuclear weapon.
The " megaton (of TNT)" is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 petajoules ( 4.184 ×10 15 J). The " kiloton (of TNT)" is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 terajoules ( 4.184 ×10 12 J).