User blog:GreyFang82/Energy Needed to Atomize Cloud Gate

This is more for personal use rather than anything else...

Not only will I calculate the need energy to atomize Cloud Gate but I'll also calculate how much energy is needed to fragment it, violently fragment it, and pulverize it.

So first we need to know the weight of the thing... Now multiple sources say it weighs 110 tons


 * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate
 * http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/chi-0404250487apr25-story.html
 * http://mentalfloss.com/article/79961/9-reflective-facts-about-chicagos-cloud-gate

So I will assume it is 110 tons... Now it is also said it is made of stainless steel

Now thanks to this we can use the formula Mass = Volume x Density or in this case Volume = Mass / Density

So first we find the density of stainless steel which by searching it up is 7.7 g/cm^3

Next what we do is take the 110 tons and convert it into grams which is about 99,790,000 grams

Now it's 99,790,000 g  / 7.7 g/cm^3 = 12,959,740.26 cm^3

We have the volume now!

Now we just plug in values from the Vs Wiki

Now the problem we run into is that despite the name having steel in it Stainless steel is less dense than actual steel and instead is closer to iron density so we will use Iron's value here, and even that might be a bit of a high-ball

We will start with the less impressive feats and the work our way up

-Fragmentation-

20 j/cc

12,959,740.26 x 20 = 259,194,805.2 joules or 0.062 Tons of TNT = Small Building Level

-Violent Fragmentation-

42.43 j/cc

12,959,740.26 x 42.43 = 549,881,779.232 joules or 0.13 Tons of TNT = Small Building Level

-Pulverization-

90 j/cc

12,959,740.26 x 90 = 1,166,376,623.4 or 0.28 Tons of TNT = Building Level

-Atomization-

58401 j/cc

12,959,740.26 x 58,401 = 756,861,790,924 joules or 180.89 Tons of TNT = Small Town Level

So there you go...