What Is the Difference Between a Hydrogen Bomb and an Atomic Bomb?

North Korea warned this week that it might test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean, after saying the country had already successfully detonated one. A hydrogen bomb has never been used in battle by any country, but experts say it has the power to wipe out entire cities and kill significantly more people than the already powerful atomic bomb, which the U.S. dropped in Japan during World War II, killing tens of thousands of people. As global tensions continue to rise over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, here’s what to know about atomic and hydrogen bombs: Why is a hydrogen bomb stronger than an atomic bomb? More than 200,000 people died in Japan after the U.S. dropped the world’s first atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then another one three days later in Nagasaki during World War II in 1945, according to the Associated Press. The bombings in the two cities were so devastating, they forced Japan to surrender. But a hydrogen bomb has the potential to be 1,000 times more powerful than an atomic bomb, according to several nuclear experts. The U.S. witnessed the magnitude of a hydrogen bomb when it tested one within the country in 1954, the New York Times reported. Hydrogen bombs cause a bigger explosion, which means the shock waves, blast, heat and radiation all have larger reach than an atomic bomb, according to Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at University of California, Berkeley. Although no other country has used such a weapon of mass de...
Source: TIME.com: Top Science and Health Stories - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Nuclear Weapons onetime Source Type: news