What is Ground Zero?

  
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Ground zero
Ground zero is the exact location on the ground marking thedetonation point of anybomb; in the case of a bomb designed toexplode in the air, it refers to the point on the ground directly below the bomb at the moment of detonation.
Since it is the impact point for the bomb, it is, of course, the point of highest damage. Around that spot are drawn concentric circles showing how far out from the impact point the circle is.
The term has chiefly come to be associated with nuclear explosions, but is also used for earthquakes, epidemics and other disasters.
It was military slang梪sed at theTrinity site where the weapon tower for the firstnuclear weapon was at point ‘zero‘梐nd moved into general use very shortly after the end ofWorld War II (seeManhattan Project). Hiroshima and Nagasaki
BeforeSeptember 11,2001 the term Ground zero was often used for the the devastation caused by theatomic bombing ofHiroshima andNagasakihttp://www.nuclearfiles.org/hiatomicbomb/081501axworthy.htm. World Trade Center
Western journalists applied the term to describe the former site of theWorld Trade Center ofNew York City, which was destroyed in theSeptember 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Rescue workers preferred the phrase "The Pile", referring to the pile of rubble that was left after the buildings collapsed. SeeWorld Trade Center site for reconstruction news. Other uses
The term is also used by members of the U.S. armed forces to describe the open space at the center ofThe Pentagon, in ablackly humorous reference to the likelihood of its being a nuclear weapons target in anynuclear war.
There is also a film namedGround Zero. This film is about a documentary filmer who gets into trouble after filming at a site inAustralia used by theUnited Kingdom for nuclear tests using aboriginal population asguinea pigs.
There is a song called "Christmas At Ground Zero" by"Weird Al" Yankovic on his fourth albumPolka Party!.
The party ska bandFishbone released anEP in 1985 with a title track "Party at Ground Zero."
Also an Airsoft site located in the Somerley Estate in Ringwood, featuring a Vietnam style village, Observation Point and other features orientated around gameplay, it is also closely affiliated to the Airsoft store Zero One and the popular Airsoft community ZeroIn.
Ground Zero is the name of an official expansion to the computer gameQuake 2.
External links
History of the Word Ground ZeroStep by step scenario of a 150 kiloton bomb exploding in Manhattan - click on the button at the bottom of each slide.The destructive forces unleashed - a U.S. physics professor has calculated the amount of energy released in the hijack attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ?2001-2005Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under theGNU Free Documentation License.
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Copyright ?2005,Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.
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