essure and fireball together only last for approximately eleven seconds, but because it contains fifty percent of the atomic bomb’s latent energy a great deal of destruction occurs (The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1981).In Hiroshima the blast from the atomic bomb was measured to be about four and a half to six and seven tenths tons of pressure per square mere, while in Nagasaki the blast was measured to be about six to eight tons of pressure per square meter (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1982). Because of this dramatic change in the pressure most of the cities were destroyed. The static overpressure in Hiroshima caused ninety-one and nine tenths percent of all the buildings to be destroyed, while in Nagasaki it caused thirty-six and one tenth of all of the buildings to be destroyed. The static overpressure created a dynamic pressure that had winds up to four hundred miles per hour (The Committee for the Compilation of Materials on Damage Caused by the Atomic Bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1981). These winds caused minor scratches, lacerations, or compound fractures, which came about when people and glass fragments were projected through the air. By combining the results of the static overpressure and the dynamic pressure on can begin to see what damage was caused by the atomic bomb’s blast. The total number affected in Hiroshima was approximately seventy-eight thousand people, while in Nagasaki the total number affected was approximately forty-five thousand people (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, 1982).The thermal radiation produced by an atomic bomb explosion will account for thirty-five percent of the atomic bomb’s damage. Thermal radiation can come in either one of three forms; ultraviolet radiation, visible radiation, or infrared radiation. The ultraviolet radiation is a...
