TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be 4.184 gigajoules (1 gigacalorie). It is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of trinitrotoluene (TNT). In other words, for each gram of TNT exploded, 4.184 kilojoules (or 4184 joules) of energy are released.This convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosive materials, of which TNT is a typical example, although other conventional explosives such as dynamite contain more energy.A related concept is the physical quantity TNT-equivalent mass (or mass of TNT equivalent), expressed in the ordinary units of mass and its multiples: kilogram (kg), megagram (Mg) or tonne (t), etc.
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👉 Megatons of TNT in the context of Project 639
639 was the codename for China's first full-scale test of a two-staged thermonuclear device, on 17 June 1967, yielding 3.3 megatons of TNT. It followed the first two-stage thermonuclear test, at a smaller 122 kt yield, in December 1966. It was the sixth nuclear test that was carried out by the People's Republic of China, and represented the completion of the "second bomb" i.e. thermonuclear bomb component of the "Two Bombs, One Satellite" program. With these two tests, China became the fourth nation to develop thermonuclear weapons, following the US, USSR, and UK. Taking place 32 months after the first Chinese nuclear test, Project 596, it remains the fastest progression from nuclear to full thermonuclear test of any country.
Megatons of TNT in the context of Tsar Bomba
The Tsar Bomba (code name: Ivan or Vanya, internal designation "AN602") was the most powerful nuclear weapon or weapon of any kind ever constructed and tested. A project of the Soviet Union, it was a thermonuclear aerial bomb, tested on 30 October 1961 at the Novaya Zemlya site in the country's far north. The bomb yielded 50 megatons of TNT.
The Soviet physicist Andrei Sakharov oversaw the project at Arzamas-16, while the main work of design was by Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babayev, Yuri Smirnov, and Yuri Trutnev. The project was ordered by First Secretary of the Communist Party Nikita Khrushchev in July 1961 as part of the Soviet resumption of nuclear testing after the Test Ban Moratorium, with the detonation timed to coincide with the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).