"The bomb could have ignited the atmosphere," No, it could not have.

fit2rule · on July 18, 2020

The point is not whether it could have, or not. Its whether they knew it wouldn't.

And in fact, they didn't know it wouldn't ignite the atmosphere - there was a chance it might and they went ahead anyway. It was a calculated risk.

dogfoods · on July 18, 2020

No, Bethe and others knew in the 40s it could not have. Enough nuclear physics was known then to know that the atmosphere cannot be ignited by a nuke.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/bethe-telle...

fit2rule · on July 19, 2020

They didn't know for sure until they'd tested it in the real world. That's the point of the hubris.

dogfoods · on July 19, 2020

No, they did know for sure.