supernova is a million million million million times as violent as a explosion that would destroy a city

Categories: Comparisons

An example of an everyday comparison used to explain a more abstract idea:

"One hydrogen bomb would be sufficient to wipe out the whole of London. But compared with a supernova a hydrogen bomb is the merest trifle. For a supernova is equal in violence to about a million million million million hydrogen bombs all going off at the same time."

Fred Hoyle (1960) The Nature of the Universe (Revised ed.)

Whilst, thankfully, a hydrogen bomb is not an everyday phenomenon, Hoyle uses a well-known city to offer a scale for thinking about a supernova explosion.

Read about quotidian comparisons

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.