As I understand it, the Little Boy bomb simply forcibly assembled multiple sub-critical masses of U235 into a supercritical mass.
"As I understand it, the Little Boy bomb simply forcibly assembled multiple sub-critical masses of U235 into a supercritical mass."
True but forcibly assembled means compressed and contained. There are lots of links on the requirements on the bright white flash, as the Sandia boys define it. That is a nuclear event not a radiological event.
An excellent reference is:
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons
Compiled and Edited by Samuel Gladsstone and Philip Dolan
Published by
United Stats Department of Defense\and the
Energy Research and Development Administration
my copy is not dated
You slam these componets together without the right stuff you get a rapid burn (deflagration) not a detonation. Granted decerning the two is hard on the receiving end.
No Mach Stem no detonation. Page 89 of cited text.
Not to say things will be not shitty. Just being correct.
Bottom line low order is not great but orders of magnitude beter than high order. Expolsive speak
regards