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energy of a supernova

energy of a supernova published on No Comments on energy of a supernova

hope i did the maths right here (thank god for wolfram alpha). i love ridiculous scale comparisons for supernovae, but there’s no beating the classic one by randall munroe (the xkcd guy):

“which of the following would be brighter:
a supernova, seen from as far away as the sun is from the earth, or
the detonation of a hydrogen bomb pressed against your eyeball?”

now i’m just waiting for some smartarse in the comments to point out that if you actually did magic a ball of tnt that large into existence it would just collapse under the weight of its own gravity and explode as a supernova anyway. shut up, it’s a thought exercise. don’t be that guy.

Transcripts

sedna: the first rule of supernovae is however big you think they are, they’re bigger than that. so here’s a little quiz to give you a sense of scale.
dini: a q-quiz?

sedna: which explosion is bigger? a) 100 trillion trillion of the largest nuclear bomb ever made.

sedna: b) a ball of tnt the size of the earth’s orbit. or c) a supernova.

sedna: i’ll give you a clue, it’s totally c.
dini: h-how is that supposed to give me a s-sense of scale?

Webcomic Transcript Authorsthomas

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