User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

The TNT equivalent is a a unit of energy commonly used to quantify the energy released (or "yielded") in explosions. The ton (or tonne) of TNT equivalent is equal to 4.184 gigajoules (GJ) which is approximately the amount of energy released in the detonation of one ton of TNT.

The units, kiloton and megaton of TNT, have commonly been used to rate the energy yield, and hence destructive power, of nuclear weapons. These units have been used in various nuclear weapon control treaties as well as in numerous article and books.

Amounts, symbols and energy yields

Various tonnages of TNT equivalent energy and their commonly used energy yield expressions are tabulated below:

Amount of TNT equivalent	Symbol	Energy yield (three equal expressions)
ton	t	4.184 gigajoules	4.184 GJ	4.184×109 J
kiloton	kt	4.184 terajoules	4.184 TJ	4.184×1012 J
megaton	Mt	4.184 petajoules	4.184 PJ	4.184×1015 J
gigaton	Gt	4.184 exajoules	4.184 EJ	4.184×1018 J

Some example usages

• The Massive Ordinance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, the largest conventional bomb ever produced in the United States, has a TNT equivalent energy yield of approximately 11 tons (11 t).

• The W54 nuclear warhead device, now retired, developed by the United States in the early 1962s, had a TNT equivalent energy yield of 10 to 20 tons (10 to 20 t) and was probably the smallest nuclear device ever produced in the United States.

• The code-named Little Boy nuclear fission bomb air-dropped by the United States on Hiroshima, Japan in World War II had a TNT equivalent energy yield of approximately 15 kilotons (15 kt).

• During the Cold War that followed World War II, the United States tested a nuclear weapon that had a TNT equivalent energy yield of 15 megatons (Mt) and the Soviet Union tested a nuclear weapon with a TNT equivalent energy yield of 50 megatons (Mt).