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from the hotter-than-your-first-girlfriend dept.
When America dropped the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world watched as the atomic age began. The effects of the bomb were devastating and linger to this day. No government or military has ever detonated a nuclear bomb during a war since. But they have detonated them for various other reasons—including a series of tests designed to give soldiers a taste of what nuclear war might feel like.
After World War II, the UK, USSR, and US detonated more than 2,000 atomic bombs. In Britain, 20,000 soldiers witnessed atomic blasts conducted by their own government. Only a few of them are still alive today and the nuclear glow of the mushroom cloud they witnessed still haunts them. "Nuclear detonations, that was the defining point in my life," Douglas Hern, a British soldier who experienced five nuclear bomb tests, told Motherboard.
"When the flash hit you, you could see the x-rays of your hands through your closed eyes," he said. "Then the heat hit you, and that was as if someone my size had caught fire and walked through me. It was an experience that was unearthing. It was so strange. There were guys with bruises and broken legs. We couldn't believe it. To say it was frightening is an understatement. I think it all shocked us into silence."
Source: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wjk3wb/what-does-a-nuclear-bomb-blast-feel-like
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:51AM (9 children)
Remember that the 1812 Overture was written to use cannons as musical instruments. Those were, at the time, modern military weapons.
What if you wrote a similar piece of music today? Playing it would require hydrogen bombs. This musical instrument is mostly banned by burdensome regulations. Good luck getting it for a municipal or high school band, or even for most college bands. I suppose the band of the Air Force Academy might be an exception, at least in times of war, but you would have to wait a long time before your music can be performed.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:14AM (2 children)
When you put it that way, I have to wonder with that much light, heat, and force, why the observers weren't deafened, at least temporarily.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:46AM
Interesting internet side note, the number of political assassinations that occurred during major performances increased dramatically with the advent of canons as part of the percussion section.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cubancigar11 on Thursday August 30 2018, @06:59AM
Well in case of nuclear bombs, these soldiers were put in bunkers and most probably received the light via a mirror on top of it. There was a ask-reddit some weeks ago about it.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:28AM (3 children)
From listening to nuclear bomb audio restorations on YouTube, the sound is not that impressive. Just a short loud bang followed by rumbling.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:38AM (1 child)
Sudden impulse sounds are always cut off. Microphones can't handle it. Normal recording formats mostly can't handle it either, at least not without making everything really quiet in order to accommodate the impulse.
The frequencies are also severely filtered.
A proper atomic blast is something you can feel in your gut, in your lungs, and everywhere else. It is loud of course, but not merely loud. It has those low subsonic pitches that you can feel in your body.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 30 2018, @11:48AM
It's a nonlinear shock wave, it will also strongly depend on how far away from the blast you are.
Your description fits pretty well with thunder as well, although I assume a nuclear blast will generate an even stronger shock wave, and some details should be different because the source of the shock-wave has a different shape in the two cases.
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday August 30 2018, @04:49AM
Seriously, it's not even that loud, either.
What? Of course I have my audio out set to 5%, people are sleeping right now!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Whoever on Thursday August 30 2018, @05:08AM (1 child)
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Disaster_Area [wikia.com]
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Thursday August 30 2018, @03:21PM
The bodyguard of the frontman [wikia.com], was he related to Trump?
http://hitchhikers.wikia.com/wiki/Hotblack_Desiato%27s_bodyguard [wikia.com]