Unclear what you mean by largest: physical size or explosive yield?
For size it was the US Ivy Mike device a steel cylinder 80 feet tall and 20 feet in diameter, with 2 foot thick walls. Its yield was 10 megatons.
For yield it was the USSR Tzar Bomba the cleanest hydrogen bomb ever detonated: 52 to 58 megatons, depending on method of measurement. The dirty version (never tested) was to have a yield of 100 megatons.
No, the largest ever built were 25 megaton warheads for the Titan II. But these were never installed on missiles, instead 9 megaton warheads were used. All Titan ICBMs are long retired and there were only 50 built total. Currently the largest yield US bombs are roughly 600 kilotons.
A pure fission atomic bomb with a yield of a megaton or more is theoretically impossible. The problem is that the chain reaction would happen spontaneously before the device could even be completely built and the bomb parts would melt, resulting in a fizzle and killing everyone building it.The first fusion atomic bomb (commonly called a hydrogen bomb) was tested in 1952 as Ivy Mike and had a 10 megaton yield. The highest yield pure fission atomic bomb ever built was also tested in 1952 as Ivy King and had a 500 kilotons yield.
The most powerful currently in the US stockpile is the 1.2 megaton B83 freefall gravity bomb.The most powerful ever designed in the US was a 35 megaton warhead for the Titan ICBM, but never built. The Titan ICBM carried a 9 megaton W-53 warhead, the most powerful on a US missile. The most powerful ever built in the US was the 25 megaton B41 3-stage freefall gravity bomb.
An atomic bomb is a nuclear weapon. A nuclear fusion bomb, (hydrogen, is usually much stronger than a nuclear fission bomb (uranium or plutonium). The weapons detonated in Japan during WWII measured about 15 kilotons equivalent of TNT. Today, most nuclear weapons are measured by megaton (1000X kiloton) equivalents up to a bomb built by the Russians with a possible yield of 100 megatons.
This is a sentence! A megaton is an explosive force of 1 million tons of TNT.
No, the largest ever built were 25 megaton warheads for the Titan II. But these were never installed on missiles, instead 9 megaton warheads were used. All Titan ICBMs are long retired and there were only 50 built total. Currently the largest yield US bombs are roughly 600 kilotons.
The largest megaton bomb ever detonated was the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomba in 1961, with a yield of about 50 megatons. It was the most powerful nuclear weapon ever created and tested.
A pure fission atomic bomb with a yield of a megaton or more is theoretically impossible. The problem is that the chain reaction would happen spontaneously before the device could even be completely built and the bomb parts would melt, resulting in a fizzle and killing everyone building it.The first fusion atomic bomb (commonly called a hydrogen bomb) was tested in 1952 as Ivy Mike and had a 10 megaton yield. The highest yield pure fission atomic bomb ever built was also tested in 1952 as Ivy King and had a 500 kilotons yield.
The most powerful currently in the US stockpile is the 1.2 megaton B83 freefall gravity bomb.The most powerful ever designed in the US was a 35 megaton warhead for the Titan ICBM, but never built. The Titan ICBM carried a 9 megaton W-53 warhead, the most powerful on a US missile. The most powerful ever built in the US was the 25 megaton B41 3-stage freefall gravity bomb.
B53 nuclear bomb is nine megatons No public data is out on how large the largest megaton nuke really is but there are claims and reports that it is over 100 megatons.
That depends on the cube root of the yield. The fireball of a 10 megaton bomb reaches about 3 miles diameter.
The 50 Megaton "Tsar Bomba" hydrogen bomb tested by the USSR in 1961 is the strongest hydrogen bomb ever detonated. The 10 Megaton "Ivy Mike" hydrogen bomb tested by the U.S. in 1952 is the physically largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated.
Sorry, my nuclear bomb effects circular slide rule only goes up to 100MTon yield.
An atomic bomb is a nuclear weapon. A nuclear fusion bomb, (hydrogen, is usually much stronger than a nuclear fission bomb (uranium or plutonium). The weapons detonated in Japan during WWII measured about 15 kilotons equivalent of TNT. Today, most nuclear weapons are measured by megaton (1000X kiloton) equivalents up to a bomb built by the Russians with a possible yield of 100 megatons.
This is a sentence! A megaton is an explosive force of 1 million tons of TNT.
1945
Comparatively not that powerful. The largest Pakistan has that we suspect could be most likely no higher then a 500 kiloton nuclear warhead while the United States and Russia for example operate or have operated 30, 40, even 50 megaton nuclear devices. A 500 kiloton nuke is about 1% the power of a 50 megaton nuke. However, they operate about 70-90 nuclear warheads, making not only the weapon, but the number of them a significant nuclear deterrent for the country.