Death by Nuclear Explosion?

Question

Would you feel any pain if you were involved in an atomic explosion or would you be burnt to ashes before your brain had time to process pain? Perhaps it is excrutiating pain for a few seconds?

Answer 1

If you were close enough to the blast you would be instantly vaporized.  There would be no nerves to feel the pain and no neurons to send the signal to the brain that would no longer be there.

Answer 2

A lot of variables. Close is instant deathbut distance can have great effects on what happens. the type of explosion also has a lot to do with what happens, was it an air burst, a ground burst or was it sub= surface.

the yield of the weapon would also have a great effect. The ones used in Japan were 20KT but the ones tested in the south Pacific in 1954 were about 1 MT. Large difference. Also are ther hills etc and are you up wind or down wind. Many things make the difference.

Answer 3

i think u r right to imagine that one won't be able to think at all about pain. a fraction of second is gonna smash the body.

Answer 4

you know ive often thought about being in any explosion and i would have to say, id rather be blown up within a split second...rather than being away from it and suffering severe pain and burns, lost limbs.....

Answer 5

if you were close enough to the blast to die in the initial explosion, then you would be dead in less than a second. You wouldnt have to worry about pain.

Answer 6

It would depend on how close you were to the blast.  I imagine that right next to the weapon you'd be more or less instantly vaporized but farther out you'd last longer and suffer horribly.

A few years ago at a physics summer meeting a fellow showed materials he uses for part of a course where he weighs the two sides of whether it was right or wrong to use atomic bombs in WWII.  He did a very good job of coming up with arguments for both sides.  Still, I remember most vividly a grisly painting showing people desperately trying to climb into some sort of pool of water to try to lessen the pain after the bomb had burned all their clothing and skin.

Answer 7

I'd say that if you were wearing a ski mask and some leather pants, you'd probably be alright.  And gloves.  Don't forget the gloves.

Answer 8

If a nuclear bomb went off in New York City, it is expected that more than half would survive.  I guarantee you that those that do survive would feel excruciating pain for a long peroid of time.  Those right near the blast zone would be vaporized before they had a chance to blink, let alone think.  It's the poor b******s that are closest to the survivors that probably died the slowest and felt the worst pain.  I believe it would be similar to standing in a microwave till you explode.  Pretty sucky.