Wikipedia:Wikifun/Round 14/Answers/Question 7

Answer: Rope trick effect
Luckily, I happened to recall seeing this interesting picture as a featured photo a few weeks ago (March 27). It's from Image:Tumbler Snapper rope tricks.jpg and depicts a nuclear explosion less than a millisecond after detonation. The "spikes" formed around the edge of the ball are were named "rope tricks" by physicist John Malik. They are caused by the heating, rapid vaporization and then expansion of mooring cables which extend from the shot cab to the ground. Because of the lack of mooring ropes, no "rope trick" effects were observed in surface-detonation tests, free-flying weapons tests, or, obviously, in underground tests. Hoof Hearted 18:55, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Boom
This is the the Rope trick effect, a spike seen to emerge from the fireball of certain nuclear explosions just after detonation (attributed to vaporisation of mooring cable, etc). Image:Tumbler Snapper rope tricks.jpg, of which this is an inverted crop, was the Main Page POTD on March 27, 2007. -- ALoan (Talk) 19:23, 10 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Beaten by half an hour again! -- ALoan (Talk) 19:23, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

Correct both of you. Well remembered. I didn't actually realise it had been a featured picture - I picked it as a possible question weeks ago. Anyway it's 2 points to Hoof Hearted --Spondoolicks 21:02, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

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