ecology
march 2015
BY morgan bibee
Dropping the “Little Boy”
image sources
EarthSky.org
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DISCLAIMER: no children were harmed in the making of this article
Let’s play a game. I’m going to give you a few words, and you’re going to say the first thing that comes into your mind. Ready? “Little Boy”. Now, did you think about that kid you tutor every Thursday? Maybe you thought of your annoying younger brother. I bet you didn’t think about a bomb.
In 1945, the United States dropped the “Little Boy” (atomic bomb) on the city of Hiroshima. This bomb blazed at a temperature so hot (around 6,000°C) that the clothes on people over a mile and a quarter away from the hypocenter of where the bomb dropped caught on fire. This sounds like a heinous fate to impose and a hellish heat for sure, and yet, our oceans absorb heat equivalent to the temperature of about two Hiroshima bombs every second due to human activities.
source
The Ecologist