The History and Mechanism of the Atomic Bomb :: Atomic Bombs Physics Weapons Essays

The History and Mechanism of the Atomic miscarry----------------------- -+ Table of limit +- ----------------------- I. The History of the Atomic Bomb ------------------------------ A). Development (The Manhattan Project) B). Detonation 1). Hiroshima 2). Nagasaki 3). Byproducts of nuclear detonations 4). dart Zones II. Nuclear Fission/Nuclear Fusion ------------------------------ A). Fission (A-Bomb) & Fusion (H-Bomb) B). U-235, U-238 and atomic number 94 III. The Mechanism of The Bomb ------------------------- A). Altimeter B). Air Pressure Detonator C). Detonating Head(s) D). Explosive Charge(s) E). Neutron Deflector F). uranium & Plutonium G). Lead Shield H). Fuses IV. The Diagram of The Bomb ----------------------- A). The Uranium Bomb B). The Plutonium Bomb The History of the Atomic Bomb ------------------------------ On tremendous 2nd 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Albert conceiver wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several other scientists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify U-235 with which might in turn be used to soma an atomic bomb. It was shortly thereafter that the United States G all overnment began the serious projection known only then as the Manhattan Project. Simply put, the Manhattan Project was attached to expedient research and production that would produce a viable atomic bomb. The most complicated issue to be addressed was the production of fat amounts of enriched uranium to sustain a chain reaction. At the time, Uranium-235 was very knotty to extract. In fact, the ratio of conversion from Uranium ore to Uranium metal is ergocalciferol1. An additional drawback is that the 1 part of Uranium that is finally refined from the ore consists of over 99% Uranium-238, which is practically useless for an atomic bomb. To make it even more difficult, U-235 and U-238 are precisely similar in their chemical makeup. This proved to be as much of a challenge as separating a tooth root of sucrose from a solution of glucose. No ordinary chemical root could separate the two isotopes. Only mechanical methods could effectively separate U-235 from U-238. some(prenominal) scientists at Columbia University managed to solve this dilemma. A massive enrichment laboratory/ ingraft was constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey, along with his associates and colleagues at Columbia University, devised a scheme that worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion. pursuance this process, Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the University of California in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic separation of the two isotopes. Following the first two processes, a gas centrifuge was used to win separate the lighter U-235 from the heavier non-fissionable U-238 by their mass.