Hi all! Quick physics question for the resident geniuses. I just got back from seeing a movie which had an ending that was rather questionable from a scientific perspective. Now, obviously, I know this was a movie, but it got me thinking. Before I pose the question, I’ll give some spoilerfied background info for those of you who are curious to know a few more details.
In the “film” Cradle 2 the Grave (I was bored and it was the only thing showing) there exist some “black stones” which can be stripped of their protons by a very pretty green laser to thus produce an synthetic fissile material with a yield apparently greater than plutonium 100 times its size. My physics knowledge isn’t as great as I’d like it to be, thus I can’t take it upon myself to claim that this particular idea is bogus, but if anyone else would like to jump at it, go right ahead. My particular question revolves around the final scene in which one of these stones, already blasted with a laser and stored in a radiation-safe vial, is stuffed down the bad-guy’s throat and broken in his esophagus with a strong chop. This apparently causes the bad-guy to die a most horrendous death involving bloating tissue, light being emitted from under his skin, and his flesh finally reaching the same texture and consistency as that of a pork rind. Let us ignore the fact that a chopping strike to the throat strong enough to break the vial probably should have killed him anyway.
So, yeah, basically, what would the effects be of suddenly having a roughly 2cm shard of weapons-grade fissile material suddenly lodged in one’s esophagus?
Besides the bleeding, you would get fairly rapid radiation poisioning - hair falling out, burns around the shards, vomiting, breakdown of cells, and eventually death. It would probably be to rapid for cancer to form, unless the shard was only mildly radioactive. Also, about the super-fissle material, stripping the protons would leave only the neutrons, which by themselves have very short half-lifes(I forgot the exact time), and the fuel would break up after producing large amounts of heat and radiation, and there would be no more fuel in minutes, if not seconds. Also, you couldn’t use a green laser to strip protons very well; IIRC the wavelength of visible light is larger than than individual atoms, you would be hitting the electron shell, the nucleuos of the atom itself being very small.
Depends on the fissile material. If it was uranium U235 you would get a mild bit of bleeding and perhaps some chemical poisoning. Long term you might get a very low dose of radiation.
Just because something is fissile doesn’t mean it is particularly radioactive.
Plutonium Pu239 on the other hand would probably be quite warm to touch and you would get radiation burns. Pu239 is both fissile and radiactive.
The difference can be seen in the weapon designs. Uranium weapons have such a low radiation level that they can potentially sit for seconds at critical mass before detonating. For this reason designers provide neutron generators to trigger the explosion at the required time.
Depends on the fissile material. If it was uranium U235 you would get a mild bit of bleeding and perhaps some chemical poisoning. Long term you might get a very low dose of radiation.
Just because something is fissile doesn’t mean it is particularly radioactive.
Plutonium Pu239 on the other hand would probably be quite warm to touch and you would get radiation burns. Pu239 is both fissile and radiactive.
The difference can be seen in the weapon designs. Uranium weapons have such a low radiation level that they can potentially sit for seconds at critical mass before detonating. For this reason designers provide neutron generators to trigger the explosion at the required time.
The green LASER doing something to the atom cores is bogus.
Light is the electromagnetic/week force, the atom cores are glued together by the strong force.
All stimulation of fission works with “core particles”, usually neutrons.
You could imagine doing it with protons or alpha particles also, but these are repelled from cores by the positive charge. Alpha particles (and protons?) radiating naturally lack the necessary energy=speed, to overcome the repelling force.
O.K., however you made it, now you have material 100 time more fissable than plutonium.
What does this mean?
Either it radiates much more or it captures (e.g. the neutrons) much better or it falls apart more easily after having captured something or a combination of factors.
The reaction of the victim suggest stronger radiation is a major factor.
First the stuff will be hot, red glowing hot, a radiation proof seal will probably not be able to retain the heat. (Plutonium is hand warm because of its radiation.)
Extreme radiation poisoning, which kills within hours, actually tears body tissue, i.e. cell walls.
A intensity killing within seconds would blow the guy up, at least rip open his throat.
Bleeding might be a minor problem because all wounds are instantly cauterised.
One thing is for sure, if this guy is starting to light up from radiation, the safe distance is in the 10km range.
What happened to the other one, who administered the stuff to him ?
Cheers, MummyCave
He walked about 20 feet away to where the other “heroes” were standing, plus a few dozen law enforcement officials drove up a few moments later. Needless to say, this all occured at one of the many small airports in the LA area.
Umm, wouldn’t a material with protons stripped disintigrate? There’d be nothing to hold the electrons in, and with no electromagnesim, the nucleii consisting of netrons would not form a substance, but rather shoot off in all directions.
Unless it’s supposed to form one combined neutron ball?? But that would be tiny…