Robert Oppenheimer To build a bomb capable of destroying entire cities at once they needed a person with a smart, fast and creative brain. That person was Robert Oppenheimer. Robert Oppenheimer was the brilliant scientist behind the development of the atomic bomb. While atomic bombs kill lots of people, the atomic bomb won the war against the Japanese (World War 2). This helped because we would not have stood a chance attacking the main island on foot.
While Robert’s name has become synonymous with the atomic bomb there is more to the story than that. J. Robert Oppenheimer was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. After graduating from Harvard and studying under Ernest Rutherford at Cambridge University, Oppenheimer received his Ph.D. in Germany in 1925. In 1929, he returned to the United States to teach at the University of California Berkeley and at Cal Tech.
Upon hearing of discovery of fission in 1939, Oppenheimer immediately grasped the
possibility of atomic bombs. In 1941, he was brought into the atomic bomb project and was
asked to calculate the critical mass of uranium-235, the amount needed to sustain a chain reaction.
The next year he assembled a group of some of the best theoretical physicists in the country to
discuss the design of the actual bomb. General Wesley Groves, the army officer in charge of the
Manhattan Project, named Oppenheimer the scientific director of the program, and together they
decided on Los Alamos, New Mexico, as the site for the nuclear weapons laboratory. Groves
Mackenzie2
said of Oppenheimer, "He's a genius. A real genius...Why, Oppenheimer knows about everything. He can talk to you about anything you bring up. Well not exactly. I guess there are a few things he doesn't know about. He doesn't know anything about sports” (necularpages).
The staff grew from 30 scientists to 5,000, all trying to finish work on the bomb before the
Germans did. On the day of the test, Oppenheimer fully realized the enormity of what he had just
accomplished. As he stood watching the mushroom cloud, he recalled later, a phrase from the
Baghavad Gita, the Hindu scripture, floated through his mind, "I am become death, the destroyer
of worlds." This responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders, and when he met with President
Harry Truman in 1946, he exclaimed, "Mr. President, I have blood on my hands." (necularpages)
He set up a research station for the Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
A young scientist who was very smart and intelligent was the creator of a bomb that killed millions. The bomb was the most powerful weapon that was ever manufactured. He changed the course of World War II. This man is Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atomic bomb. The book “Bomb” by Steve Sheinkin, is a book that includes teamwork and how Americans made a deadly bomb that changed the course of the war. The book engages the reader through how spies share secret information with enemies. Because the physicists were specifically told not to share any information, they were not justified in supplying the Soviet Union with the bomb technology.
According to Einstein’s equation, the physicists of the Manhattan project hypothesized that a minute mass can create a vast amount of energy.... ... middle of paper ... ... Works Cited The “German Nuclear Energy Project” Wikipedia.
Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicists were frightened by the possibility that Germany might produce an atomic bomb. They insisted that Albert Einstein inform President Roosevelt about the possibility of the Germans making an atomic bomb. In late 1939 President Roosevelt ordered an American effort to make an atomic bomb before the Germans.
In 1941, The United States began an atomic bomb program called the “Manhattan Project.” The main objective of the “Manhattan Project” was to research and build an atomic bomb before Germany could create and use one against the allied forces during World War II. German scientists had started a similar research program four years before the United States began so the scientists of the “Manhattan Project” felt a sense of urgency throughout their work (Wood “Men … Project”).
Oppenheimer's early studies were devoted mainly to energy processes of subatomic particles, including electrons,positrons, and cosmic rays. He also did innovative work on not only neutron stars but also black holes. His university provided him with an excellent opportunity to research the quantum theory, along with exploration and development of its full significance. This helped him train an entire generation of U.S. physicists. Furthermore, the most important impact was the invention of the atomic bomb.
Many people had their thoughts about why or why not the Hydrogen Bomb should have been built. What this essay will talk about is why the Hydrogen Bomb was built. "The successful explosion of a Teller-inspired thermonuclear device in 1952 gave" the U.S. the go ahead blow against the Soviet Union in the arms race of the fifties (Teller and Ulam). Scientists around the world had been thinking that a thermonuclear bomb, also known as the Hydrogen Bomb, could be developed, but their arms race was completely focused on the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer was a household name because he was the head scientist at Los Alamos while developing the atomic bomb, after that had been completed the tide shifted to a man who’s name is Edward Teller.
After being taken by the Germans convinced others that they still had the lead in developing a fission weapon. It all started with the “Hungarian conspiracy” that had everyone convinced that the creation of a nuclear bomb was possible, but that the German government was already doing research in this field of study on such a weapon. To the rest of the world, the thought of Adolf Hitler might be the first to gain control of a weapon this destructive would be terrifying to the United States. Right, then they decided that the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt must be warned about the dangers and that the United States must begin its research department. As the planned gave way, Einstein was to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibilities and dangers of the atomic weapons, and later was taken to the president.
There was also many scientists that helped Oppenheimer obviously. Enrico Fermi played a big role in making the bomb as
America’s effort was slow until 1942, when Colonel Leslie Groves took over. He quickly chose personnel, production sites and set schedules to invent the atomic bomb. “At precisely 5:30 A.M. on Monday, July 16, 1945, the atomic age began. While Manhattan staff members watched anxiously, the device exploded over the New Mexico desert, vaporizing the tower and turning asphalt around the base of the tower to green sand. The bomb released approximately 18.6 kilotons of power, and the New Mexico sky was suddenly brighter than many suns.”
The U.S. decided to develop the atomic bomb based on the fear they had for the safety of the nation. In August 1939 nuclear physicists sent manuscripts to Albert Einstein in fear the Germany might use the new knowledge of fission on the uranium nucleus as way to construct weapons. In response, on August 2, 1939, Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt concerning the pressing matter to use uranium to create such weapons before Germany (Doc A-1). To support the development of the atomic bomb, President Roosevelt approved the production of the bomb following the receipt that the bomb is feasible on January 19, 1942. From this day to December of 1942, many laboratories and ...
The United States’ decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima required extensive research leading to its production. The main goal of the American side was to damage the enemy’s confidence, while choosing a target with the highest military output in order to conclude the war (Robinson).The group in charge of developing the technology was known as the Manhattan Project, and was kept top-secret. Selection began in the spring of 1945, with assistance from the Commanding General, Army Air Forces, his Headquarters (Robinson).There was a variety of experts working on the project, including mathematicians, theoretical physicists, and specialists trained in weather and blast effects Headquarters (Robinson). In order to monitor all of the results, the city had to be untouched, meaning the target had to have no signs of previous bombings. Based on these requirements, the designation of Hiroshima for the bombing was not a simple determination. After a target was selected and the weapon was developed, testing was set to begin. On July 16, 1945, the first test in Alamogordo, New Mexico, proved that the bomb was prepared for release onto...
The Manhattan Project was the code name for a science project conducted during World War II by the United States with the partial support of the United Kingdom and Canada. The ultimate goal of the project was the development of the first atomic bomb before Nazi Germany. The scientific research was directed by physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer while security and military operations were carried out by General Leslie Richard Groves. The project was carried out in many research centers being the most important of them the Manhattan Engineer District located on the site now known as Los Alamos Manhattan Project was the code name for a science project conducted during World National Laboratory. The project brought together a wealth of scientific luminaries as Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, etc. . . . Since, after experiments in Germany before the war, it was known that atomic fission was possible and that the Nazis were already working on its own nuclear program, several bright minds met. Many Jewish ex...
In 1939 rumor came to the U.S. that Germans had split the atom. The threat of the Nazis developing a nuclear weapon prompted President Roosevelt to establish The Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer set up a research lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico and brought the best minds in physics to work on the problem of creating a nuclear weapon. Although most the research and development was done in Los Alamos, there were over 30 other research locations throughout the project. After watching the first nuclear bomb test Oppenheimer was quoted as saying simply “It works.”.
When the United States caught word that Germany was close to creating the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer and other scientists wanted to create it first, for the U.S. After three years of research, the first small atomic device was exploded on July 16, 1945 in the lab at Los Alamos. Having proved their concept worked, a larger scale bomb was built. Less than a month later, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan (Rosenberg).
Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 in Brooklyn; in 1942 he received his Ph.D. from Princeton. Already displaying his brilliance, Feynman played an important role in the development of the atomic bomb through his work in the Manhattan Project. In 1945 he became a physics teacher at Cornell University, and in 1950 he became a professor at the California Institute of Technology. He, along with Sin-Itero and Julian Schwinger, received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work in the field of quantum electrodynamics.