One nuke can take out all of D.C. and maybe more. But if they dropped a bomb like the megaton bomb then that would be like maybe 10 nukes right? but If it were like the nukes we dropped on japan then it would like 1 right?

who knows. the fallout universes atomic bombs are much weaker than the real thing.

Well, here's the thing. You're not supposed to think about it...

Many Nukes were dropped throughout D.C.

The Megaton bomb seemed to be roughly the size of the Hiroshima bomb
In short, enough bombs were dropped.....enough

Oh no that bomb was much much bigger than the megaton bomb

if fallouts bombs were as strong as the real thing, there would be very little life in the wasteland, if any. radiation at lethal levels would be everywhere and radiation doesnt just clean itself up.

maybe not. the bombs in fallout are just weaker.

The nukes were much weaker, so it would take more.

Not really, they were both "fatmans"
Hiroshima was built of wood....which was dry, it burned to the ground, thats why the destruction was so much worse.
Megaton/Hiroshima bombs were probobally in the same ball park.

Current military doctrine dictates that one nuke is allotted per major city that has defensive measures and/or the capability to either launch military action. DC, Philadelphia, Charlette, NC, the naval base in FL, Los Angeles, Colorado, Utah, etc. In the DC, MD, VA area, there are several major military installations, as well as a very deep bunker in a mountain. So I say more than one was launched.

I don't think so.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Fat_man.jpg. -21 Kilotons
http://fidgit.com/Fallout_3_Japan.jpg. -1 Megaton

Where does it say anywhere that the Megaton bomb was "1 Megaton"?

A 1 megaton nuclear blast would have been enough to kill everything within a few miles and given everything within ten miles second degree burns all over their bodies, not forgetting the radiation.

This thread is trying to think too hard. It's quite clear that nuclear bombs in the Fallout world are significantly less powerful but much greater in quantity.

well actually the radiation will dissapate but it just takes a long time, about 200 years you would see most of the radiation dissapate since the most common form of nuclear weaponry is the tactical nukes used in submarines (I might be wrong but thats what I have heard alot) but we are talking about Fo3 and if you have explored fort constatine it gives you an idea just how many might have been used. my opinion is that it doesnt really matter how many were dropped considering the theme of the game is POST apoclyptic not pre apoclyptic.

I just assumed it was since the town was called "Megaton". I was gonna write "it can only be assumed".

A nuke that big is probly more than one megaton, but I am not even sure what the measurement of megaton is supposed to represent

The term is a measurement derived from how much TNT would be used to have an equivalent measure of power of said nuclear bomb. For instance, a megaton nuclear bomb is equivalent to a megaton of TNT.

Also, I remember reading somewhere that Megaton was named due to the fact that the energy capability of the bomb inside the city was a megaton.

Also the United States' bombs that were dropped above Japan were exponentially (quite literally...) weaker than a nuclear bomb equivalent to one megaton.

Upon further investigation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent <--- The most interesting thing on this page is the table under "Value". I didn't know the exact amount of energy released by the different amounts of TNT until I read that.

edit: Also keep in mind that the physical size of the bomb has a small amount to do with the power of the bomb. With technology as it is today, there are nuclear bombs of a few kilotons that can be fit inside a briefcase. A few decades ago, a bomb of equivalent power would have had to be made much bigger due to lesser technology. Frightening, really.

There are several direct-strike craters around the Capital District.... the White House and the entrance to Vault 87, for example. The bombs in Fallout were weaker than IRL, if only to allow for an interesting game environment (instead of a blasted sheet of glass).


Heck, that one military base has the nuke storage room with a couple dozen of the things just sitting in racks. They clearly were meant to be thrown around like confetti.

What I don't get is what type of a bomb created The Glow. It was like a small neutron bomb on crack. Thank god Chinese didn't have more of those bombs kos that was one EVIL place to explore.

The Glow was pretty confusing to me too. The crater is pretty small but it has taken out quite a large facility, based on the hole the facility's collapse made.

Heres some links that may prove useful to help understand this situation (the 2nd link is WAY cooler as you can choose any location andit has the bomb names to select from. edit:the first link allows you to select more explosive yields)

http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/nuclear_weapon_effects/nuclearwpneffctcalc.html?formAction=297&contentId=367

http://www.carloslabs.com/node/16

there's clues to say they used about 15 or so weak nukes. things like the capitol building, vault 87 (kind of) and vault 92

Some definition:
Mega - million
ton - 2000 lbs (US)

1 Magaton = 1,000,000 X 2000 = 2 Billion pounds of TNT equivalent

Curernt larget Nuclear bomb is the Russian Tsar Bomba at 100 Megatons or 100 billion pounds of TNT

Only 5 or 6 of these would wipe out humanity either directly or through radiation sickness or nuclear winter. Its no joke.

Sorry to be off topic.

However, the megatons were halved to 50mt inorder to reduce the nuclear fallout.

The Megaton nuke was 200 years old, nukes have to be kept carefully maintained, or their nuclear-ness doesn't work.
Megaton was probably just a bomb, no nuke about it.