It is estimated that the total explosive yield of all the nuclear bombs in existence currently is about 4,000 MT. (a) Convert this amount of energy to kilowatt-hours, noting that $1\text{ kW}\cdot \text{h}=3.60\times 10^6\text{ J}$. (b) What would the monetary value of this energy be if it could be converted to electricity costing 10 cents per $\text{kW}\cdot \text{h}$?

Video Transcript

This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. It's estimated that if all the nuclear bombs in existence were exploded they would yield an energy of 4000 megatons, what would this energy be in kilowatt-hours? So we will multiply 4000 megatons by 1000 kilotons per megaton and the reason that I am doing that is that the appendix at the end of our textbook tells us the number of joules per kiloton so 4.2 times 10 to the 12 joules per kiloton is the next thing we multiply by and then we multiply by 1 kilowatt-hour for every 3.60 times 10 to the 6 joules and we are left with an answer with units of kilowatt-hours and that's 4.67 times 10 to the 12 kilowatt-hours. The value if you could convert all of this energy into you know, energy that could be sold for 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, the value of this would be 467 billion dollars because we multiply the kilowatt-hours by 10 cents for every kilowatt-hour then multiply by a dollar for every 100 cents and there we go!