Nuclear Weapon Effects calculator from the main site

[Ryan Thunder]

I was looking at the code Mike wrote for the Nuclear Weapon effects calculator on the main site, and had a few questions about it. I'll post the code here so you can see what I'm talking about, plus my comment at the top;

Code: Select all

var Y0 = form.yield.value; // The user input, in megatons of TNT
var Y1 = Y0 * 400;
var Y2 = Y0 * 1000;
var thermal = pow(Y1,0.41);
var blast = pow(Y1,0.33);
var radiation = pow(Y1,0.19);
var blastkill = pow(Y2,0.33)*0.28;
var duration = pow(Y0,0.45)*4.5;
var rad1 = round((pow(Y2,0.4)*90/3.3)/10)/100;
var rad2 = round((pow(Y2,0.4)*110/3.3)/10)/100;
var rad3 = round((pow(Y2,0.4)*145/3.3)/10)/100;

form.thermal.value = OutputUnit(thermal);
form.blast.value = OutputUnit(blast);
form.radiation.value = OutputUnit(radiation);
form.blastkill.value = OutputUnit(blastkill);
form.duration.value = String(round(duration*10)/10)+" seconds";
form.rad1.value = OutputUnit(rad1);
form.rad2.value = OutputUnit(rad2);
form.rad3.value = OutputUnit(rad3);

So, I kind of understand [Y2 = Y0 * 1000], if the calculations are done in, say, kilotons, but what about [Y1 = Y0 * 400]? Where's that come from?

I thought of looking it up on the site Mike got them from, but it seems to have evaporated. Could anybody tell me where I could find some more information?

[Sea Skimmer]

http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq5.html

This link has the approximate scaling laws for nuclear weapons effects as well as data to base scaling on. Your actual thermonuclear destructiveness may significantly depending on topography and weather conditions, as well as burst altitude both above ground level and above sea level.

[Ryan Thunder]

Wow. That's pretty comprehensive. Thanks very much.