How does an Atomic Bomb Work?
What type of Electromagnetic Radiation does an atomic bomb use? Advantages/Disadvantages of Atomic Bombs Did the creation of the Atomic Bomb lead to other inventions? History of the Atomic Bomb The atomic bomb was invented for use in warfare. During World War II, the Americans discovered that the Germans were working towards creating an atomic bomb and Roosevelt was immediately informed. It was then decided that the Americans needed to create the own bomb and, hence, began the Manhattan project. The Manhattan project cost around $2 billion and had many scientist and physicists involved. The first atomic bomb to be successfully detonated was known as the Trinity test. This bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945 in Alamongordo, Mexico. Then the Americans set to work creating a weapon of mass destruction. Two different styles of bombs were used in the bombing of Japan. A gun-type bomb hit Hiroshima, while an implosion-type bomb hit near Nagasaki. The hope was that these weapons would end the
An atom bomb works by initiating a nuclear chain reaction, which releases a huge amount of energy relative to conventional explosives. Per unit volume, an atom bomb may be millions or billions of times more powerful than TNT. The first atomic explosion occurred on 16 July 1945 at the Alamogordo Test Range in New Mexico, during a test called Trinity. It was developed during the top secret Manhattan Project, which was directed by General Leslie R. Groves of the US Army. Nuclear reactions occur when neutrons are fired at closely packed atoms with heavy nuclei (uranium or plutonium isotopes). These heavy nuclei break apart into lighter nuclei when hit by a neutron, in turn generating more neutrons which bombard other nuclei, creating a chain reaction. This process is known as fission. (Another process known as fusion releases energy by fusing together nuclei rather than breaking them apart.) By breaking down the nuclei themselves rather than releasing energy through a conventional chemical
An A-bomb can be made from Pu-239 or U-235. The U-235 is tediously separated from U-238 by massive classic Chem Eng processes such as gas diffusion or centrifugation, which were done at the large sites in WW II. In the early 1930s, scientists identified the neutron. In the late 1930s, experiments in Germany indicated that unstable nucleui could be bombarded with neutrons to split the atom into two parts (usually unequal), release energy and a number of neutrons. Leo Slizard, a Physicist who had left Hungary for the US immediately realized the consequences of this. Ordinarily, the unstable nuclei metals were not compacted, so the neutrons went on their way, with only a minor number of secondary collisions with other nuclei. However, if the metal could be compacted, the neutrons could have a high probability of success splitting other nuclei, such that with each event, more neutrons were generated than prior to the fission, eventually leading to “chain reactrion”. The time frame for each
COMMON ANSWER Conventional bombs explode as a result of chemical reactions, but the atoms themselves that make up the chemicals stay unchanged by those reactions. On the other hand, the “Atomic Bomb”, also called a “Nuclear Bomb”, is so named because it explodes as a result of reactions which actually do change the atoms. When those atoms are changed in this way, they create explosive energy as a direct result of the changes of the atoms. HERE IS A TECHNICAL ANSWER An Atomic Bomb works by separating particles of a substance – this is known as fission. In the Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945 two portions of a sphere of Uranium were shot at each other at great speed forcing this fission. Another method of creating the nuclear reaction is to have a sphere of material with explosives surrounding it so the sphere is forcibly compressed when the explosives detonate. In basic terms the nuclei of an atom are split up by the nuetrons shot at it. The nuclei then split up into more
