The Atomic Bomb
The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear engineers; the name of this research was called, “The Manhattan Project”. On July 16, 1945, the detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb was detonated, it sent shock-waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would forever change the meaning of war.
To create a nuclear bomb, nuclear fission must occur. The process of nuclear fission was splitting the nucleus of an atom. Splitting an atom was caused by neutrons firing through one atom and then that atom’s neutrons shoot off into other atoms, starting a chain reaction. In October of 1934, Enrico Fermi, and Italian physicist, discovered how to successfully split an atom. Soon after, this led the atomic bomb to use the same techniques of nuclear fission.
Nuclear fuel goes through fission when struck by free neutrons and then generates neutrons when it breaks apart. Only U-235 uranium atoms, a nuclear fuel, could be used for the chain reaction. This was because it was able to be obtained in large enough quantities to even be useful.
Little Boy was the codename of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The design of Little Boy used the gun assembly method, by shooting one piece of the uranium into the other to create a chemical explosion. Another atomic bomb codenamed Fat Man was detonated over Nagasaki. Fat Man was an implosion type bomb. It was a design in which the plutonium-uranium combination was enclosed by high explosives to compress it.
The Manhattan Project brought together a cast of specialists that would redefine the use of atomic power. Through government oversight, specifically th...
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...he Buildings were made of dense collections of wood, and reinforced concrete. After the explosion, 90% of Hiroshima’s buildings were destroyed. Up to 200,000 people died from burns, radiation, cancer, and leukemia.
Nagasaki was the second city to be bombed, which was on August 9, 1945. This city was bombed because it was one of the largest sea ports in southern Japan, and had more importance because of its production of ships, military equipment, and other war materials. Every building was old-fashioned, built out of wood, or made with wood frame buildings. These buildings would be more susceptible to fire than Hiroshima. Immediate deaths were around 75,000 in Nagasaki. By the end of the year 1945, 80,000 were dead.
On August 15, a recording of the Emperor Hirohito’s surrender speech had broadcast over the radio showing the surrender of Japan's military forces.
Physicists started to realize that stable nuclei can be converted to unstable nuclei. Through such process, they discovered that heavy nuclei can undergo nuclear fission. While testing, they added a neutron to an isotope of Uranium 235. This resulted Uranium 235 to become unstable and break down into Barium and Krypton, releasing two to three more neutrons. The breakdown of Uranium 235 is called “fission”.
Atomic Bomb in World War 2 During World War II the United States government launched a $2 billion project. This project, known as the Manhattan Project, was an effort to produce an atomic bomb. This project was taken on by a group atomic scientists from all over the world.
Atomic Bomb The use of the atomic bombs on Japan was necessary for the revenge of the Americans. These bombs took years to make due to a problematic equation. The impact of the bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people and the radiation is still killing people today. People today still wonder why the bombs were dropped. If these bombs weren’t dropped on the Japanese the history of the world would have been changed forever. The Atomic bomb took 6 years to develop (1939-1945) for scientists to work on a equation to make the U-235 into a bomb. The most complicated process in this was trying to produce enough uranium to sustain a chain reaction. The bombs used on the cities cost about $2 billion to develop, this also making the U.S. wanting to use them against Japan. “Hiroshima was a major military target and we have spent 2 billion dollars on the greatest scientific gamble in history- and won.” (3) The bomb dropped on Hiroshima weighted 4.5 tons and the bomb used on Nagasaki weighted 10 kilotons. On July 16, 1945, the first ever atomic bomb was tested in the Jamez Mountains in Northern New Mexico, code named “Gadget.” The single weapon ultimately dropped on Hiroshima, nicknamed “Little Boy,” produced the amount of approximately twenty- thousand tons of TNT, which is roughly seven times greater than all of the bombs dropped by all the allies on all of Germany in 1942. The first Japanese City bomb was Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. An American B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay, flown by the pilot Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the “Little Boy” uranium atomic bomb. Three days later a second bomb named ”Fat Boy,” made of plutonium was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. After being released, it took approximately one minute for Little Boy to reach the point of explosion, which was about 2,000 feet. The impact of the bombs on the cities and people was massive. Black rain containing large amounts of nuclear fallout fell as much as 30km from the original blast site. A mushroom cloud rose to twenty thousand feet in the air, and sixty percent of the city was destroyed. The shock wave and its reverse effect reached speeds close to those of the speed of sound. The wind generated by the bombs destroyed most of the houses and buildings within a 1.
This study will explore the shape and scope of the Manhattan Project scientists’ political movement between 1942 and 1945. It will examine the messages they brought into the political realm and investigate how they approached political questions. It will further examine why the scientists were unable to influence wartime policy regarding the use of nuclear weaponry.
The bomb that landed in Hiroshima was called the “Little Boy” (World War 2 Atomic Bomb 2). The bomb ended up killing about 170,000 people. 70,000 people died the first day and 100,000 people died in the next few months due to the radioactivity of the bomb and burns from the bombing (Ford 1).... ... middle of paper ...
Before the attacks, Hiroshima had a population of 255,000 people and Nagasaki was home to 195,000 people. When these cities were attacked, 70,000 out of those 255,000 died in Hiroshima and 42,000 out of 195,000 perished in Nagasaki. This means that the bombings whipped out 27% of Hiroshima and 22% of the Nagasaki population (Total Casualties). Continuing on, the bombing of Japan was also unnecessary due to the unacceptable terms of the Potsdam Declaration. After Germany’s surrender on May 7, 1945, the U.S. created a treaty, called the Potsdam Declaration, with terms of surrender for Japan (Lawton).
The standards of morality are often violated during war. No one even question the ethics of certain actions until all is set and done, especially the victors. It then comes without surprise that the brain child of the Manhattan Project was one of these morally turbulent actions. The Manhattan Project, started in 1942. It consisted of a small group of government recruited scientists, physicists, chemist, metallurgists and engineers. Lead by Robert Oppenheimer in charge of developing nuclear arms [1].
Dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima generated substantial immediate effects. It caused damage to both structures and civilians li...
Technology has allowed for the furtherance of warfare, from the invention of gun powder to the splitting of the atom. These findings have propelled the leap of numerous nations’ in the ability to wage war against each other. Of these discoveries, the splitting atom spawned an invention that would hurl the world from conventional warfare into the nuclear age. These ideals were the brainstorming of some of the greatest minds in America and abroad. These scientists began to formulate the creation of the atomic bomb, a device that would change the world in ways that had never been imagined before.
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...
At 5:30 AM July 16th 1945, the nuclear age had started. The world’s first atomic bomb was detonated. On August 6th 1942 at 8:15 AM, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped a perfected atomic bomb created by the Americans, over the city of Hiroshima hoping to end the war. Thousands of people died in the two cities in Japan. They were Hiroshima and Nagasaki “the Manhattan Project”. The research and development project that produced these atomic bombs during this time was known as “the Manhattan Project”.
The atomic bomb was first created in the early twentieth century. Physicists in the United States and Europe had discovered that the fission of uranium could be used to create a deadly explosive weapon. A letter was sent to U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt by Albert Einstein that described this discovery and warned him of its potential dangers if developed by other nations. The Manhattan Project was established by the U.S. government in 1942 so the country could develop an atomic device. A team under the command of United States Army Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves designed and built the first atomic bombs, directed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. This type of bomb was first tested at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. The amount of energy that was released by this explosion alone was equivalent to twenty thousand tons of TNT.
At that time, the schedule was delayed for fifteen minutes. Bockscar carried the atomic bomb which was Fat Man. The top target was Kokura and Nagasaki was the second target for dropping the atomic bomb. The captain who operated Bockscar had orbited for forty-five minutes around Yakushima. Then he decided to go to Kokura. At 10:20 a.m., Bockscar was flying over Kokura; however, Kokura was covered by heavy clouds and smoke because on August 8 at night, B-29s had dropped the bombs at Yawata. The captain of Bockscar thought that dropping the atomic bomb was extremely difficult and it had a chance to fail. Also, Bockscar did not have enough fuel to keep flying. Then, Bockscar changed the target from Kokura to Nagasaki. At 11:02 a.m., the second atomic bomb was dropped at Nagasaki (Harder). From a height of 9600 meter, the atomic bomb was dropped and exploded at a height of 503 meter. The power of the atomic bomb was more than the first atomic bomb. However, the damage was less than Hiroshima because of the geographical features of Nagasaki. Nagasaki was surrounded by mountains, so the mountains blocked the heat rays, radiation, and blast ("Overview.") In short, the damage in Nagasaki was less than Hiroshima even Nagasaki was exploded by the atomic
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).
Nuclear energy is generated by a process called fission. Fission occurs within the reactor of a nuclear power plant when a neutron is fired at an atom of uranium causing it to split and release subsequent neutrons.1 These are able to crash into other uranium atoms causing a chain reaction and releasing a great deal of heat energy.