hattifattener on Nostr: I didn't understand this at the time, but the bigger a bomb is, the larger is the ...

I didn't understand this at the time, but the bigger a bomb is, the larger is the penumbral area where the blast/radiation doesn't kill you but the flying debris does. In the 1950s bombs were getting very big. Later, as missile guidance got more precise, they switched to smaller but more numerous bombs. In a full exchange survival may be pointless. But if you do want to survive for a while, even a thin barrier can really increase your odds.