Quora User Explains Why Cutting a Tomato Won't Cause an Explosion

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Eric Lund
Dec 18, 2019 1:00 AM EST

We feel dumb admitting this, but we've definitely had this question too. Turns out there's a few reasons people don't frequently die in nuclear explosions every time someone tries to prepare a salad. For another interesting thing regarding the physics of nuclear explosions, here's the time tumblr uncovered the legend of the fastest manhole cover ever.

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  • 01
    Text - If I'm cooking, and I cut a tomato, is there a chance that the knife would split an atom while it slices into the tomato to cause a nuclear explosion? Rob Aleksick, studied at Kellogg School of Management Updated Mar 26, 2016
    via zeroXTC
  • 02
    Text - No. Because: 1. The sharpest knife in your kitchen is still way too dull to even approach the width of an atom; and 2. Even if you had some super-knife that was one atom thick (thin?) at the edge (like an Obsidian Scalpel 2), it wouldn't "split" an atom--it would just push it aside; and
    via zeroXTC
  • 03
    Text - 3. Even if your super-knife were able to somehow split an atom, nothing would happen because tomatoes are basically made of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, and splitting those light elements results in no energy release (as opposed to splitting a heavy element like uranium); and
    via zeroXTC
  • 04
    Text - 4. Even if splitting a carbon atom released as much energy as uranium, it's still just one atom--a nuclear explosion is a chain reaction of unimaginably many atoms splitting, each releasing a little energy, and using a bit of that energy to split another atom. It adds up when you're doing it [math]10^{24}[/math] or [math]10^{25}[/math] times like in a bomb, but one atom? Not much to worry about. I'd be much more worried about slicing your thumb with that super-sharp knife of yours:) 1.1m
    via zeroXTC

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explosion cooking quora nuclear silly dumb science funny
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