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Okay, so I wanna talk about country busting real quick. Our current listing is based on this blog: https://www.fanverse.org/blogs/destruction-chart.16119/
Thing is not only does that blog use a dead link, but I recall seeing the article the blog once linked and it had said there are 194 countries.
What defines a country? As it currently stands, there are 195 sovereign states recognized by the United Nations: 193 members and two observer states. If you include states outside of the UN's scope, there are 10 more sovereign states, bringing the total up to 205 (note that statistical significance starts at 5% and this would change the base value by 5.67%). These ten other states are Abkhazia, Cook Islands, Kosovo (the latest country I've seen form), Niue, Northern Cyprus, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somaliland, South Ossetia, Taiwan, and Transnistria.
So for this discussion, I'll present two values: one for UN states only and one for all sovereign states. Earth's land area is 148,940,000 km². Let's see how that translates.
UN States Only: 148940000/195=763794.8718 km²
All Sovereign States: 148940000/205=726536.5854 km²
The radii would then be as follows:
UN States Only: √(763794.8718/π)=493.0755101 km
All Sovereign States: √(726536.5854/π)=480.8989268 km
Using the OBD's method of finding the yield (which is what our value is based on), which uses the original nuclear explosion formula directly, here are the yields required.
UN States Only: 0.33√(493.0755101/0.28)=6848925284 kilotons; 6.848925284 teratons (2.2% difference)
All Sovereign States: 0.33√(480.8989268/0.28)=6349133727 kilotons; 6.349133727 teratons (9.3% difference)
Of course this is accounting for all the land area out there. In reality, despite a few countries putting down bases and research facilities in Antarctica, there are NO countries in Antarctica. As such, a more accurate figure would take Antarctica out of the equation. How much would that change things? Well...
148940000-14200000=134740000
Just taking Antarctica's country-less butt out of the equation makes for a fairly significant difference. How big? Let's see...
UN States Only: 134740000/195=690974.359 km²
√(690974.359/π)=468.9818435 km
All Sovereign States: 134740000/205=657268.2927 km²
√(657268.2927/π)=457.4002574 km
What difference does this make? Well...
UN States Only: 0.33√(468.9818435/0.28)=5884247120 kilotons; 5.88424712 teratons (15.9% difference)
All Sovereign States: 0.33√(457.4002574/0.28)=5454851717 kilotons; 5.454851717 teratons (22.1% difference)
It should be noted that I am using up-to-date information here, since the value the OBD came up with used a 12-year-old source that is now a dead link. None of this includes autonomous territories and dependencies (sorry, Greenland and Hong Kong). If I added those to the equation, then this discussion would also include the removal of Low 6-B.
So where would that lead us? Around that point in the AP system, values start transitioning into territory where 3 decimal values are used. I'll try for a smooth transition by being accurate down to TWO decimal values. As such...
New 6-B Value (Total Land Area; UN States Only): 6.85 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Total Land Area; All Sovereign States): 6.35 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Antarctica Excluded; UN States Only): 5.88 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Antarctica Excluded; All Sovereign States): 5.45 teratons of TNT
None of these values halved the results in accordance to our Explosive Yield page; otherwise, our Town Level value would instead be 2.9 kilotons, our City Level value would instead be 3.1 megatons (based on the more accurate yield of 6.2 megatons), etc. and Low 7-C would potentially be removed.
I am personally in favor of excluding Antarctica from the equation since, again, Antarctica has no sovereign states. This would equate to the following changes.:
Low 6-B+: 4->3.44 teratons (UN Only) (14% change); 4->3.225 teratons (All Countries) (19.4% change)
6-B: 7->5.88 teratons (UN Only) (15.9% change); 7->5.45 teratons (All Countries) (22.1% change)
6-B+: 53.5->52.94 teratons (UN Only) (1% change); 53.5->52.725 teratons (All Countries) (1.45% change)
That being said, that's what I got. Accuracy is key, everyone; besides, the last time someone proposed a change that's an entire integer's difference (Large Planet Level based on corrections of Uranus' GBE), it went through, so... Yeah.
Thing is not only does that blog use a dead link, but I recall seeing the article the blog once linked and it had said there are 194 countries.
What defines a country? As it currently stands, there are 195 sovereign states recognized by the United Nations: 193 members and two observer states. If you include states outside of the UN's scope, there are 10 more sovereign states, bringing the total up to 205 (note that statistical significance starts at 5% and this would change the base value by 5.67%). These ten other states are Abkhazia, Cook Islands, Kosovo (the latest country I've seen form), Niue, Northern Cyprus, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Somaliland, South Ossetia, Taiwan, and Transnistria.
So for this discussion, I'll present two values: one for UN states only and one for all sovereign states. Earth's land area is 148,940,000 km². Let's see how that translates.
UN States Only: 148940000/195=763794.8718 km²
All Sovereign States: 148940000/205=726536.5854 km²
The radii would then be as follows:
UN States Only: √(763794.8718/π)=493.0755101 km
All Sovereign States: √(726536.5854/π)=480.8989268 km
Using the OBD's method of finding the yield (which is what our value is based on), which uses the original nuclear explosion formula directly, here are the yields required.
UN States Only: 0.33√(493.0755101/0.28)=6848925284 kilotons; 6.848925284 teratons (2.2% difference)
All Sovereign States: 0.33√(480.8989268/0.28)=6349133727 kilotons; 6.349133727 teratons (9.3% difference)
Of course this is accounting for all the land area out there. In reality, despite a few countries putting down bases and research facilities in Antarctica, there are NO countries in Antarctica. As such, a more accurate figure would take Antarctica out of the equation. How much would that change things? Well...
148940000-14200000=134740000
Just taking Antarctica's country-less butt out of the equation makes for a fairly significant difference. How big? Let's see...
UN States Only: 134740000/195=690974.359 km²
√(690974.359/π)=468.9818435 km
All Sovereign States: 134740000/205=657268.2927 km²
√(657268.2927/π)=457.4002574 km
What difference does this make? Well...
UN States Only: 0.33√(468.9818435/0.28)=5884247120 kilotons; 5.88424712 teratons (15.9% difference)
All Sovereign States: 0.33√(457.4002574/0.28)=5454851717 kilotons; 5.454851717 teratons (22.1% difference)
It should be noted that I am using up-to-date information here, since the value the OBD came up with used a 12-year-old source that is now a dead link. None of this includes autonomous territories and dependencies (sorry, Greenland and Hong Kong). If I added those to the equation, then this discussion would also include the removal of Low 6-B.
So where would that lead us? Around that point in the AP system, values start transitioning into territory where 3 decimal values are used. I'll try for a smooth transition by being accurate down to TWO decimal values. As such...
New 6-B Value (Total Land Area; UN States Only): 6.85 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Total Land Area; All Sovereign States): 6.35 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Antarctica Excluded; UN States Only): 5.88 teratons of TNT
New 6-B Value (Antarctica Excluded; All Sovereign States): 5.45 teratons of TNT
None of these values halved the results in accordance to our Explosive Yield page; otherwise, our Town Level value would instead be 2.9 kilotons, our City Level value would instead be 3.1 megatons (based on the more accurate yield of 6.2 megatons), etc. and Low 7-C would potentially be removed.
I am personally in favor of excluding Antarctica from the equation since, again, Antarctica has no sovereign states. This would equate to the following changes.:
Low 6-B+: 4->3.44 teratons (UN Only) (14% change); 4->3.225 teratons (All Countries) (19.4% change)
6-B: 7->5.88 teratons (UN Only) (15.9% change); 7->5.45 teratons (All Countries) (22.1% change)
6-B+: 53.5->52.94 teratons (UN Only) (1% change); 53.5->52.725 teratons (All Countries) (1.45% change)
That being said, that's what I got. Accuracy is key, everyone; besides, the last time someone proposed a change that's an entire integer's difference (Large Planet Level based on corrections of Uranus' GBE), it went through, so... Yeah.
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