Science

Why Do Nuclear Bombs Make Mushroom Clouds?

If you’ve ever put your feet up on a warm summer’s day and played “spot the shape in the cloud,” you might’ve seen a kangaroo, a guy preparing to facepalm, maybe a mushroom… On second thought, hopefully not that last one.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda
———-
Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters — we couldn’t make SciShow without them! Shout out to Justin Ove, Justin Lentz, David Campos, Philippe von Bergen, Chris Peters, Lilly Grainger, Happy Birthday!!, and Fatima Iqbal.
———-
Like SciShow? Want to help support us, and also get things to put on your walls, cover your torso and hold your liquids? Check out our awesome products over at DFTBA Records: http://dftba.com/scishow

Or help support us by becoming our patron on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/scishow
———-
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow
Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow

Sources:
http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Effects-of-Nuclear-Weapons-1977-3rd-edition-complete.pdf

Mushroom clouds forming over volcanoes and forest fires: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2012/jul/13/weatherwatch-clouds-atomic-mushroom

Pyrocumulus above forest fires http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231012000660

Brief overview of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities
http://www.quora.com/What-is-an-intuitive-explanation-of-the-Rayleigh-Taylor-instability

Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are important in supernovae: http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev.astro.38.1.191

Video of Rayleigh-Taylor instability with water of different temperatures https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yabqo7VFTYs

Video of Rayleigh-Tayor instability with salt and pure water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI85oC-3mJ0

General (not primary) resource – University paper http://www.ral.ucar.edu/staff/jvigh/documents/vigh_adjustment_mechanisms.pdf

Products You May Like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *