The Manhattan Project was the code name of the U.S.’s attempt to construct an atomic bomb duringWorld War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,because a lot of it’s earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a weapon that usesthe energy from a chain reaction Bomb Nuclear Uranium">nuclear reaction called Fission for its destruction. The idea that mass could be changed into energy was predicted by Albert Einstein in the earlierpart of the 1900’s. John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton confirmed this by experiments in 1932. Then in1938, nuclear fission was discovered by German scientists, and it was feared by many of the U.S.scientists, that Hitler would try to build a fission bomb. Three Hungarian-born physicists, Leo Szilard,Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller asked Albert Einstein to send a letter to Franklin Roosevelt.Compelled by the letter in late 1939, Roosevelt ordered an effort to obtain an atomic weapon beforeGermany. At first, this program was led by Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research committeeand the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Then it came under control of Leslie Groves ofthe Army Corps of Engineers.
The Research paper on History Of The Atomic Bomb
John Whitaker Prof. Angela Burton September 25, 2004 Research Paper History of the Atom Bomb The atom bomb is one of historys greatest and most feared accomplishments. The sheer power and strength of the weapon is something that is awe-inspiring, yet something to strike fear into the hearts of everyone who sees one explode. This amazing feat of human society came after many long years of difficult ...
Groves quickly bought a site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a place forprocessing the Uranium-235 from the more common Uranium-238. Uranium-235 is used because it isfissionable, it releases many neutrons, and does not capture many. However, 99.3% of uranium in natureis the U-238 isotope, and only .7% is the lighter, more “fissionable” isotope U-235. Next, he gatheredand combined research from many East Coast universities under direction of Arthur Compton, at theUniversity of Chicago. He appointed theoretical physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer as the director of theweapons laboratory, which was built on an isolated mesa located at Los Alamos, New Mexico. After much work, a porous barrier that could separate the isotopes of uranium was made, and itwas installed in the Oak ridge gaseous diffusion plant. In 1945, uranium-235, pure enough for use in abomb was produce and sent to Los Alamos, where it was made into a gun-type weapon. One small piece ofUranium-235, which was not big enough to hold a chain reaction itself, was fired at another smallpiece. This was done by means of a explosive charge, inside a cylinder shaped tube, which formed asupercritical mass that exploded instantly.
They were so sure that this would work, that they did noteven test it. It’s first use was made in military action over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. Thebomb uses a device called an altimeter to measure how far it is from the ground. It sends out radiofrequencies which are bounced back to it. Microchips in the bomb determine how far it still has to fall,and when to detonate. The bombs also have fuses in the front which arm !the bomb. They are not inserted until the bomb is ready to be launched. Before this bomb was developed, another kind was proposed. Uranium-238 could capture a neutronand become Uranium-239. All uranium has 92 protons. U-238 has 146 neutrons, and the added neutron raisedthe mass to 239. But U-239 is very unstable and it decays to neptunium-239 (93 protons, 146 neutrons),and plutonium-239 (94 protons and 145 neutrons).
Plutonium-239 was fissionable, and could be separatedfrom uranium by chemical techniques ( much easier than physical process of separating the differentisotopes of 235 and 238 of the same element). The first successful reactor was made at the University of Chicago under the Italian physicistEnrico Fermi. On December 2, 1942 it made a controlled chain reaction. Five large reactors were built atHanford, Washington, where U-238 was blasted with neutrons to make plutonium. It was then sent to LosAlamos. Since another isotope of plutonium was also fissionable, there was a fear that a chain reactioncould start to soon when the pieces of plutonium where brought together, making it blow apart before itwas consumed. To overthrow this problem, the plutonium would have to be brought together much fasterthan the methods use for the uranium bomb. A technique called implosion was used to make the plutonium bomb work. A noncritical shell ofplutonium was surrounded by chemical high-explosives. When detonated, it squeezed the plutonium into avery dense supercritical mass, that in chain reaction lasted long enough for a large and destructiveexplosion. This type of bomb was tested 60 miles northwest of Alamogordo on what is now the White SandsMissile Range on July 16, 1945.
The Term Paper on A Bomb A Uranium Plutonium Atomic
... - Conventional Explosive Charge [9] - Packing [10] - Uranium (U-235) [Plutonium (See other diagram) ] [11] - Neutron Deflector (U-238) [12] - Telemetry Monitoring Probes ... Hiroshima on August 9, 1945. The plutonium bomb, "FatMan," was dropped on the city. It missed its intended target by ... a letter for the Secretary of War. "'No man-made phenomenon of such tremendous power had ever occurred before... ...
This bomb was used on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. When the “uranium based” atomic bomb, (nick-named Little Boy), was dropped (by the Enola Gay ,flown by Colonel Paul Tibbets), on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945, at 8:15 a.m., five square milesof the city were completely destroyed in seconds, and most buildings in the city were destroyed ordamaged. The bomb weighed 9,700 pounds. It detonated 1900 feet above the city, and exploded with a forceof 20,000 tons of TNT. About 75,000 people(including 20 American airmen held as POWs)were killed.Another 70,000 were injured. By the end of the year the death number had risen to 140,000 from radiationsickness. Five years later it had reached 200,000. The Peace Memorial park was made in memory of the bombing. It has a monument and a marble tomb,in memory of the bomb’s victims, and the remains of the Industrial Exhibition Hall. The Peace MemorialMuseum in the park has relics of the attack. Nearby is the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, whichstudies the effects of radiation. Clinics have been set up to fight radiation illness and other effectsof the bomb. The “plutonium-based” atomic bomb (nicked-named Fat Man) was dropped (by Bock’s Car , flown byCharles Sweeney) on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945, at 11:01 a.m.
The Essay on Hiroshima Nagasaki And The World
... decides to deploy two atomic bombs on two Japanese cities. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the two fateful cities.The atomic bombs give relief to America ... Japan was bewildered by the presence of the two nuclear weapons. They surrendered, stopping further chaos to erupt in ... for the remainder of the world.The bomb called, Little Boy, was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 at approximately 8:15 a.m. ...
The original target was KokuraArsenal on Kyushu Island, but poor weather conditions and antiaircraft artillery forced the pilot tochange to his secondary target, Nagasaki. Fat Man weighed 10,000 pounds. It exploded 1650 feet abovethe city, and with a force of 21,000 tons of TNT. Three square miles of the city were destroyed, lessthan Hiroshima because of the hills around the city. The U.S. bomber was aiming for the shipyards, andthough it missed the target, it devastated the city and killed about 40,000 people, and injured 60,000more. By January 1946, 70,000 people died from radiation. The total eventually reached 140,000, with adeath rate similar to Hiroshima’s. A Peace Park was set up in memory of the victims. There is still controversy today on reasons for destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Thosein favor of using the bomb claim that invasion of the Japanese islands would have caused 1,000,000military deaths and unknown civilian deaths. Those who opposed dropping the bombs , including manyscientists who built them, argue that the U.S.’s use of the bomb was the first act of the cold war. Even after the bombs had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese leadership was strugglingto come to a decision on whether or not they should surrender.
They had military extremists pleading fora policy of resistance to the end. Word of their surrender finally reached Washington on August 10th.They would accept the terms of surrender, providing the emperor would retain his position. The U.S.acknowledged the emperor “by stating his authority after the surrender would be exercised under theauthority of the Supreme Commander of Allied Powers.” (Gosling 54) The U.S. answered on August 11, withRussia, China, and Britain in agreement. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945, ending the war that hadstarted when the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Formal papers were signedaboard the U.S.S. Missouri on September 2. After 1945, the U.S. built thousands of atomic bombs, and different types of smaller of fissionweapons. A much more powerful bomb, the Hydrogen Bomb, became the leader of the U.S. nuclear arsenal.In general, the Hydrogen Bomb was like an atomic bomb with a Hydrogen fuel. The fuel would fusion(opposite of fission) from the bomb’s fission explosion, which would further strengthen the originalfission, causing a much larger chain reaction. The United States was the only nation that had atomicweapons in 1945. Then in 1949, the USSR learned how to make them. Great Britain followed in 1952,France in 1960, the People’s Republic of China in 1964, and India (it was claimed that they were forpeaceful purposes only) in 1974. In 1968, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which was signed by theU.S., the USSR, and Britain. It set up precise requirements for any “non-nuclear” nations that want tobuild nuclear energy industries. However, several other countries are believed to have some nuclear weapons, like Israel and SouthAfrica. North Korea, Iran , and Pakistan may be on the verge of nuclear discovery. When the SovietUnion broke up it added to risks of the spreading of nuclear power.
The Essay on United States Bomb Nuclear Radiation
In 1954, many barriers were broken that made this a year of success. One of the major achievements is the cure for Polio being discovered which saved many lives and made the disease extinct. Other successes include the revolution of music and the birth of Rock & Roll. Other achievements this year were the invention of the first 2-seated sports car, the corvette, and the beginning of the Sports ...