[OT] Rocket science

[Amedee @ Ubuntu]

On Wed, July 22, 2009 19:20, Derek Broughton wrote:
> Odd wrote:
>
>> Amedee @ Ubuntu wrote:
>>> On Fri, July 17, 2009 15:53, Derek Broughton wrote:
>>>
>>>> But if you really want to host it on your home system, it's not rocket
>>>> science.
>>>
>>> Actually, it *is* rocket science.
>>>
>>> Rocket science is easy: just burn stuff in one direction, rocket goes
>>> in
>>> the other direction. Burn enough stuff in one direction, rocket goes
>>> fast
>>> enough to leave the earth.
>>
>> That is easy, however if you actually want to hit a target, it's
>> very diificult.
>>
>> Don't you find it curious that North Korea managed to produce
>> a nuclear bomb, but apparenty isn't capable of making a rocket
>> that can hit U.S.A.?
>
> Bah!  Nuclear bombs are even simpler than rocket science.  Making a large
> enough mass of plutonium blow up isn't the problem - preventing it from
> blowing up prematurely is the problem (which come to think of it is
> exactly the same reason Alfred Nobel became rich inventing dynamite)

I'd like to answer that nuclear reactions can even occur naturally when
groundwater infiltrates in uranium-rich mineral deposits.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor
So even nature and coincidence can make a nuclear reactor. And a nuclear
reactor is just a nuclear bomb that explodes *very* slowly. The only
difficulty is controlling the speed of the reaction.


But I should answer that to an off-topic list. :-)