Atomic Bomb Research Paper

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Since the beginning of mankind there has always been a best weapon, but as human civilization advanced, so did the weapons. Through the years there have been very advanced weapons that seemed out of this world like the maxim gun, planes, and submarines, but one weapon has stood out among the others, and that is the atomic bomb. The reason the atomic bomb has stood out among other weapons is because of three things. The atomic bomb is unquestionably one of the most destructive, if not the most destructive, weapon that has ever been used. The atomic bomb is also a very effective weapon in that it does a lot of damage, but also can keep the casualties down in the sense that instead of flying multiple planes close to the ground, which allowed for …show more content…

On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. The explosion that this bomb produced wiped out “90 percent of the city, and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.” (History.com) Three days later, another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. This bomb killed an estimated 40,000 people. These two droppings of the atomic bomb forced the Japanese emperor to announce his country's unconditional surrender on August 15,1945. The atomic bomb has 3 main destructive effects, a fireball, a shock wave plus an airblast, and then the radioactivity produced from the bomb. The fireball happens when air absorbs the heat. This fireball created by the atomic bomb has 50 foot radius and reaches a temperature of 300,000 degrees celsius. The shock wave and the airblast make up 50 percent of the total energy created by the bomb. There are two kinds of radioactivity produced, as stated in the article on AtomicBombMuseum.org, initial radiation is “...ionized radiation absorbed by the air...Close to ground zero of both explosions, dosages were high enough to be immediately lethal for persons not already killed by flash, blast, or fire.” The second kind of radiation produced is induced radiation. This radiation happened was created from the initial bursts of the two bombs. This radiation was absorbed by all kinds of substances …show more content…

With the United States government's decision to create the hydrogen bomb, this committed them to an arms race against the Soviet Union. This arms race between the two nations led many people to fear that a nuclear war could happen at anytime. The government then urged people to prepare to survive a nuclear attack. This quote from KhanAcademy.org shows the fear that nuclear weapons brought upon people. With both the US and USSR stockpiling nuclear weapons, American society and culture in the 1950s was pervaded by fears of nuclear warfare. Schools began issuing dog tags to students so that their families could identify their bodies in the event of an attack. The US government provided instructions for building and equipping bomb shelters in basements or backyards, and some cities constructed municipal shelters. Nuclear bomb drills became a routine part of disaster preparedness. (Khan

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