Questions tagged [weapon-mass-destruction]
For questions that deal with weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
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How many years should survivors wait before exiting a nuclear bomb shelter?
I'm writing a tale about a post apocalyptic world. I'm studying the timeline about the world history, I've planned that, using "clean" thermonuclear bombs, radioactivity should be quite lower after ...
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Restricting antimatter - practical rather than legal measures
Antimatter is relatively easy, but heinously expensive, to make using modern technology. I have two universes with the same problem; energy is free and for all practical purposes infinite, this should ...
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Could a thermonuclear detonation be ignited in a star by addition of sufficient energy instantaneously in a small region?
While it does not occur in nature, I have wondered if a sufficient amount of energy deposited in a sufficiently small space in a sufficiently small amount of time could ignite a thermonuclear ...
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How could a real world doomsday cult go about causing the apocalypse? [closed]
This is not a fantasy or sci-fi scenario. This is about a doomsday cult terrorist organisation, akin to Aum Shinrikyo, in the present-day real world.
Is there any way that such an organisation with ...
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How much time does Earth need to repel interstellar attack?
Highly inspired by How would we fare against an interstellar RKKV Attack?
Lets repeat the setup of the original question:
In this hypothetical scenario, in the present day, astronomers detect an ...
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How would we fare against an interstellar RKKV Attack? [closed]
In this hypothetical scenario, in the present day, astronomers detect an object entering the heliosphere, at a distance of roughly 90AU, from the direction of the Proxima Centauri system. Observations ...
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What would happen to a planet after a quarter of it had been blown up?
An alien species has created a weapon. The alien stands on a planet, points the weapon at the ground, and pushes a button. A large amount of matter condenses itself into a mass, creating a huge hole ...
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Reducing power of magical substance [closed]
What would make a substance that powers magic less powerful when it is moved to a dimension where magic goes unacknowledged? I want the source - a mineral or chemical - to become something that is ...
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What are the safety margins for destroying a planet from space?
My empire's flagship, the Persecutor class UJBHE1 Abhorrent, rides into the home system of my greatest enemy, Baron Obsequious, levels its Death Ray2 at his beloved home, and pulls the trigger.3 ...
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What are the most salient aspects of a decaying world caused by the disappearance of everyone? [closed]
You are a normie on 2019 Earth and suddenly you can't find anybody. You've searched for a few hours, tried spamming out emails, random phone calls - no response. What would be the most jarring ...
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How to completely destroy a city, without leaving clues for humanity 4,000 years later?
Background
I want to burn down a city completely. Nothing must remain, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Even though I'm a supernatural being, I want this to happen in a natural way. I also want the ...
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Anti Personel Radiation Incendary Long Fallout Orbital Onset Laser Sattelite
For a story I'm working on I'm designing a sattelite to take down infantry from orbit, but without the power to take down tanks or infrastructure. The goal would be to kill off a military base, or ...
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What weapon of mass destruction could theoretically vaporize a whole solar system?
I'm trying to engineer a scenario where a nation wipes out another's home solar system by vaporizing it into a cloud of gas nearly instantly and it engineers a huge controversy over how it happened ...
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Azidoazide Azide Storage and Weaponization
AA (azidoazide azide) is a hyper-explosive 14 nitrogen molecule. My questions are: what are some theoretical ways to store it so it doesn't explode on you but on the enemy you throw it at, and what ...
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Effective orbital death platforms? [closed]
So I have this secret organization that needs to eliminate most of the humans on Earth. They have designed bunkers to save the right amount of people, but in order to start over they need to remove ...
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Speculative weapon of mass destruction
In near future a global war wipes out most of humanity, leaving only a handful of survivors. Thousands of years later these survivors have adapted to lives in small pockets of the world still left ...
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Is it possible to create a bomb powerful enough to wipe out all life on the planet?
Would it be possible to create a bomb powerful enough to turn the entire planet into an inhospitable wasteland devoid of life, with technology available to us right now?
Would this bomb be able to ...
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How to destroy a star system?
The admiral of a space fleet that belongs to a Type 3 civilization has been given orders to obliterate all planets within the habitable zone of a Sun like star.
Some of the planets have been ...
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The balance problems and possible workarounds for two legged war machines [closed]
I'm becoming a experimental weapons designer and mechanical engineer. I already have two designs for weapons I will build, one being a very heavy set of mechanical armor, and another being a four ...
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Planet loses its Core
What would happen to a planet if its core suddenly disappeared?
I'm talking instantly and without warning, gone. I'm not concerned with how scientifically accurate this would be, because I'm ...
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By what mechanism can lasers destroy an entire planet?
What circumstances must be met in order to destroy a planet with just a single laser beam hit?
If this is possible at all then, please, try to provide some possible details:
an approximate energy of ...
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Killing the majority of humanity for ecological reasons
There are a number of movies, books and TV shows where the villain wants to kill nearly everyone on the planet because of ecological concerns: there are too many humans, we're using the global ...
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How can I destroy a great deal of infrastructure without killing many people?
In the world I'm building, an antagonist desires to cripple humankind down to simple-living status. To do this, the antagonist has to remove all modern infrastructure. This includes buildings, ...
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DNA specified doomsday weapon? [closed]
I'm writing a book, and I am trying to develop a massive weapon of mass destruction. This particular weapon can detect particular strains of DNA or particular organisms (so like, any and all organisms ...
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If a government dislikes the way its citizens are acting, would dropping bombs be an appropriate response? [closed]
The government is upset with the way the citizens are responding to lack of care, jobs, etc. So is dropping bombs on their own country (in a way to stop the revolting and keep the citizens in line) ...
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Make a cracked planet whole again
If a flourishing planet was cracked into several parts by some external force like a weapon of mass destruction, would it be possible to put it back together again? What possible ways can be used to ...
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EMP blast effects and ranges
Could I have some info on what would be realistic ranges for EMPs from nuclear bombs of different yields? I'm unclear about that. Of course it depends on altitude and blast yield, and some ...
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Deep space covert operations - covering up a covert operation
Deep Space bomber - Best bomb against Interstellar warship that is kilometers long in size
In continuation of the question above
Assuming we are successful on developing the following bombs. All ...
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Deep Space bomber - Best bomb against Interstellar warship that is kilometers long in size
We have two opposing forces: the Democrats and the Imperialists.
Each one can field an armada of ships numbering millions in their fleets, supported by trillions- to a quadrillion person strong super ...
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Appearance and effects of a 200 mt fusion bomb explosion on the moon
Let's suppose that a fusion bomb device with a yield of 200 megatons (4x Tsar Bomba) is detonated in Mare Tranquillitatis on the Moon.
My question is:
Would the explosion be visible from Earth at ...
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Would there be a plausible strategy to take as POW high percentage of army with high morale?
Side A: Technocracy, highly industrialized, rich, hedonistic, peaceful (sort of ;) )
Side B: Theocracy, poor, ascetic, openly declares that it want to conquer all non-believers
Assets:
Side A: Small, ...
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Plausible way to send a moon crashing into the planet it's orbiting?
Obviously future tech is allowed, but I'm looking for a solution using technology as near as possible.
I would like to send a moon the size of Earth's moon crashing into a planet Earth's size. I ...
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Is there an organism or chemical substance capable of petrifying humans?
As part of a project, I am exploring a fictional biological/chemical weapon that can rapidly (and indiscriminately) kill by way of petrification.
To clarify,
By petrification, I’m not necessarily ...
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What is the most secure way initiate a kinetic strike?
So in the story I'm writing, there is a huge battle occurring for Earth between a rebel fleet and an interplanetary superpower. With a ground war raging below, the superpower's military decides to arm ...
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Best method for destroying/clearing the rubble of many planets/solar systems
In this world we have made contact with many other intelligent species. Using our combined knowledge, we were able to devise a first form of FTL travel!
These aliens wish to engage in ...
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Antimatter Explosion Signature
The DoomFleet returns!
And this time, it's with a more "Conventional" weapon - That is, projectiles with an antimatter core. Ultra-simple explanation is they have a "small" amount of antimatter in ...
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What are short-term defenses against massive elegtromagnetic disruption?
A society comparable (in resources, technology, economics and politics) to present day Earth is gearing up for war. There is a weapon which causes massive, widespread electromagnetic disruption. Like ...
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Strategic ordinance delivery method in medieval period - Gunpowder Rocket or Cannon?
The problem
After 4 years being a baron, the empire that you are sharing a border with decides to declare war to your suzerain. It will take at least a year for them to muster their whole army and ...
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Using Polonium in a WMD
A gram of vaporized polonium can kill more than a million people and thus is the most potent poison known to Man. Having read this article, my crazy dictator immediately assembled the most experienced ...
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Can a brainwashed American president end the human race?
Suppose a group of intelligent but insane people has developed mind control technology. They have managed to plant a chip inside the US president's head. They can wirelessly send signals to his mind ...
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How to fire a super critical mass(ive) bullet that can produce mushroom cloud?
Using modern day technology, how could I create a gun (regardless of firing mechanism and ignore space constraints) that could fire a radioactive bullet (maximum size capped at a cubic meters) which ...
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What event would kill most of the worlds population at the SURFACE, but spare everyone at the altitude of a commercial jetliner?
I want a realistic event to occur that kills the majority of the Earth's population. However, the nature of this event must not effect humans or machinery currently flying at high altitudes (those of ...
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Could a wizard create a nuclear explosion without building a bomb?
In my magic system, wizards are able to exert a force upon an object. I am trying to ascertain whether this ability could be used to create a nuclear explosion without any preparation, using just raw ...
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What kinds of third-world countries would survive nuclear winter?
It’s the mid–late 20th century, and NATO and the Soviet bloc wipe each other out in a nuclear war while the southern hemisphere eats its popcorn. Dust fills the atmosphere and nuclear winter sets in; ...
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A form of MAD that doesn't involve a huge amount of nuclear readiness?
In the Cold War the adversaries had huge amounts of nukes, a readiness to deploy these nukes and a second strike capability that assured that in a nuclear war both sides would be destroyed (mutually ...
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Turning the USA's Streets Into Miniature Canyons
It'd seem, looking at this map, that all the streets of the Lower 48 States are already interconnected, so the alternate scenario is already off to a good start.
But let's look deeper. In this ...
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How many people would survive the nuclear winter after a full-scale nuclear war, and where?
Could anyone could survive a nuclear war and all that follows?
I have read many things saying they would, and read other science-based answers, but they all talked about a nuclear war that was ...
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How to be hidden from world for a year
Question inspired by a book I just finished: Dan Brown's Inferno
Suppose I am a wealthy billionaire who wants to hide from the outside world for a year.
Plot twist is, that the world's anti-...
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How much energy does it take to fuse 1m$^3$ of seawater, and how much energy is released by that fusion?
So, assume that you have 1m$^3$ of normal Terran seawater you can adiabatically raise to an arbitrarily high pressure/temperature in situ (say, by compressing it with nuclear shockwaves from all ...
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Super-sized parabolic mirror in space: Building the Nazi Sun Gun
The ODESSA network, a highly secretive organisation of former SS members, decides to hold the former Allied nations to ransom; with a giant parabolic mirror in space that can focus sunlight into an ...
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