history proj
TRANSCRIPT
By : Matt HutchinsonHonors History 9
The Atomic Bomb
80 years ago
1936-1940
“When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it, and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”
-J. Robert Oppenheimer
“The world is a very different one now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.”
-Kennedy
What are the physics behind the atomic bomb and how has it changed the world politically?
Research Question
In the fall of 1939 Edward Teller drove Leo Szilard to Einstein's Long Island house; in his hand he held a letter that urged president Roosevelt to stockpile uranium and further research in radioactivity.
despite Einstein's pacifist nature he signed the letter after Szilard reasoned that many more lives would be lost if Germany had the technology
upon receiving the letter Roosevelt formed the advisory committee on uranium to determine if a bomb could be constructed our of fissionable material
Theory
images
On October 21, the committee held a meeting and determined that it would be possible to construct a bomb out of uranium and perhaps a workable device could be built by the wars end
US Army Corps of Engineers was given the job of construction. And lead by Major General Lesley R. Groves
Creation of the Project
In June 1942 the Manhattan District was created to test and confirm the feasibility of the theory of an atomic bomb. This theory earlier theorized in the 1930’s
It spanned more than 30 sites
The Manhattan district
Sites
Oakridge- contained a Graphite reactor, built in 1943 and produced the first significant amounts of plutonium. It also contained a K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Process Building and Y-12 Beta-3 Racetracks that contained the necessary equipment to separate the uranium isotopes.
Locations
Hanford Washington- contained the B Reactor the world’s largest-scale plutonium production reactor and the T plant
Los Alamos New Mexico- the main Building site of the Manhattan Project and location of Project-Y
Oakridge Tennessee- worked on uranium separation
Sites
Oppenheimer was the director of the Manhattan district he was also a theoretical physics teacher at the University of California
Aside from his work on the atomic bomb he is recognized for his work on molecular wave functions, the theory of electrons and positrons, the Oppenheimer Phillips process, nuclear fusion, his theory's on Neutron stars and black holes as well as quantum mechanics and more
Given clearance July 20, 1943
Robert Oppenheimer
He was the child of a German textile owner and a Boston painter
He grew up vary secluded and alone as a sickly child
He graduated valedictorian and went to Harvard, during with time he never had a date
He became fascinated with minerals at the age of 5, specifically crystals
He was a chronic depressant and jerk but found peace at “hot dog”
Robert Oppenheimer
It employed more than 130,000 people at the cost of $2 billion US dollars (in today's terms roughly $24.4 billion)
Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissionable materials
With less than 10% for development and production of the weapons
Funding
Scientists had the problem of how to actually obtain the radioactive matter (uranium-235)
They tried a multitude of methods for extracting the needed uranium-235 from its chemically identical twin, uranium-238The ratio from uranium ore to uranium metal is
500:1 and 99% of the uranium is uranium-238They tried multiple methods such as diffusing
it through the means of gas a magnetic methods, but finally succeeded when they tried the use of the centrifuge
The Big Problem
On July 16, 1945 at 5:29 am the first atomic weapon was detonated
It was dropped from a 100 foot tower producing a yield 200 times grater than the 100 ton TNT test
Produced a crater half mile across and fused the desert sand into a green glass that still holds trace amounts of radiation to this day
The result
30,000 ft
The result
“few people laughed few people cried most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the book of Bhagavad Gita, Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince to do his duty, and to impress him he takes on his multi armed form and says I have become death the destroyer of worlds I suppose we all thought that one way or another.”
- Oppenheimer
The bombs
Little Boy
Fat man
The target
Hiroshima
Nagasaki
Kokura
Was a uranium-235 bomb weighing in at 8,800 lb. It was carried by a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay
from Tinian to the 7th largest Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 6 1945 at 8:15 it was dropped and exploded 3 seconds later
It was dropped at an altitude of 31,000ft and detonated at 1,850 ft.
5 square miles were destroyed and an estimated 120,000 died as a result of the blast (40% of the city’s population)
Roughly 70,000 buildings were destroyed of the 76,000 buildings
Little Boy
“The city was hidden by an awful cloud, boiling up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall”
-Colonel Tibbets
Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr. (1915-2007) – Pilot and Aircraft commander
Captain Robert A. Lewis (1917-1983) – Co-pilot; Enola Gay's assigned aircraft commander*
Major Thomas Ferebee (1918–2000) – Bombardier Captain Theodore Van Kirk (1921-) – Navigator U.S. Navy Captain William S. Parsons (1901–1953) –
Weaponeer and bomb commander. Lieutenant Jacob Beser (1921–1992) – Radar countermeasures Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson (1922–2010) – Assistant
weaponeer Technical Sergeant George R. Caron (1919-1995) – Tail
gunner* Technical Sergeant Wyatt E. Duzenberry – Flight engineer* Sergeant Joe S. Stiborik (1914-1984) – Radar operator* Sergeant Robert H. Shumard (1920-1967) – Assistant flight
engineer* Private First Class Richard H. Nelson (1925-2003) – VHF radio
operator*
Crew
The Atomic Bomb “Little Boy”A=TriNitroTolueneB=plutonium
The energy source is a mass of radioactive material such as uranium or plutonium. This material is very unstable; every atom's nucleus is ready to fall apart or decay at the slightest metaphorical bump, releasing the energy that was used to hold the atom together and extra neutrons. (B) is given that bump by the outer casing (A), which explodes all around it.
In order to drop the bomb the “gun” method was utilized
It involved a uranium plug being shot by an artillery gun into a stationary uranium sphere at 3,000ft per second to achieve critical mass
The 2 halves of the critical mass are joined together to result in an explosion
How “Little Boy” was dropped
Critical mass=the minimum amount of energy needed for a nuclear reaction
The effect
Within an 1,000 yard radius human bodies literally melted in a temperature of about 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit
Further away a compression wave destroyed their internal organs
Survivors would have staggered around, stripped of their cloths and their skin flayed. Some fell dead as they walked
90% of the doctors were killedEach day 2,000 people died
HiroshimaThe bomb exploded
within 550 ft of its target
The width of the fire ball = 18,000 ft
4 miles square, in the city's center the ground was charred
40,000ft high
President Truman was eating lunch when he was handed a decoded message “results clear cut, successful in all respects.”
That afternoon Truman gave a warning to the Japanese
"If they do not now accept our terms, they may
expect a reign of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on this earth.”
Truman
3 days after Hiroshima was bombed the Soviet Red army entered the Japanese healed territory of Manchuria.They did this not to cease hostilities but to gain
territory.
Defeat was imminent for Japan
Emperor Hirohito even admitted “it is necessary to study and decide the termination of the war”
Soviets
Fat Man Was an plutonium-239 bomb weighing in at
10,200 lbIt was carried by a B-29 named the Bock's Car
from Tania and was intended to be dropped on the city of Kokura on August 9 1945 11:02
Due to the obscuring cloud cover the bomb had to be dropped on its secondary target, the southwestern port of Nagasaki
The city was sheltered by hills but it still killed an estimated 74,000 from a population of only 270,000
Maj Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commanderCapt Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-
15) 2nd Lt Fred Olivi, regular co-pilotCapt James van Pelt, navigatorCapt Kermit Beahan, bombardierMaster Sergeant John D. Kuharek, flight engineerSSgt Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineerSSgt Edward Buckley, radar operatorSgt Abe Spitzer, radio operatorSgt Albert Dehart, tail gunnerCDR Frederick L. Ashworth (USN), weaponeerLT Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer2nd Lt Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures
Crew
The Hydrogen Bomb “Fat Man”B=the central core made up of trillions
hydrogen isotopes called deuterium and tritium. A= Small atomic bombs cause the deuterium
and tritium to be squeezed into a very dense mass, which causes nuclear fusion, releasing great quantities of energy.
C= bomb casing, which is made from uranium, undergoes fission, creating even more energy.
In other words, an atomic bomb sets off a fusion bomb, which also triggers another atomic bomb!
Nuclear Fission The block of deuterium and tritium atoms are
squeezed into a super-dense mass. Nuclei of these two isotopes are squeezed together by the force of the explosion.
The force is so great that it causes the nuclei to combine. But this new nucleus requires less energy to keep it together, and there is one less neutron needed. This excess energy, and the neutron, escapes as radiation.
Example; not always as shown
Nagasaki
The bomb exploded several miles from its target
45,000ft high
The same day of the Nagasaki attack the Japanese prime minister asked emperor Hirohito to decide on the issue of surrender
On August 14 the emperor made a radio broadcast telling the Japanese to lay down their arms
On August 28 Douglas McArthur, supreme Allied commander of the Pacific, arrived at Japan with his occupying army
Surrender
“Something huge had just cracked… the proud dream of greater Japan”
-Robert Guillino (French reporter)
On September 2 the Japanese instrument of surrender was signed the battleship the USS Missouri
Japan was no longer a sovereign nation its own administration was in the hands of the occupying government
Representatives came from Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the empire was to be broken up
Terms of agreement
The US was to have authority in several strategic Pacific islands and to supervise the South Korean Government they also provided the effective distribution of supplies
The soviet union was allowed to keep its conquests in Manchuria, North Korea and Kuril
The Republic of China was to take Taiwan A tribunal was established to put leading
Japanese military leaders on trial for war crimes
Shares
11 months after the detonation of “Fat Man” operation crossroads was put into action.
The test was carried out in order to determine if an American naval fleet could survive an atomic blast.
They situated 200 German, Japanese and American ships and 140 planes in Bikini bay and waited to detonate atomic bombs number 4 and 5Able- would be dropped from a B-29Baker-would be detonated 90ft below the water
Operation Crossroads
200 goats200 pigs 4,000 rats
Death count
They positioned the ships and placed animals on oars in order to test the effect the blasts would have on organic mater.
After the bombs were dropped and detonated they concluded that no organism could survive the blast and that a submerged bomb did much more damage.They also concluded that when a atomic bomb
goes off the area becomes a bit radioactive
Operation Crossroads
Cross Roads
The objective was to test and perfect atomic bomb designs
An island 200 miles west of Bikini was used as a research facility.
They gathered samples for ground 0 in order to test the radiation content.
Operation Sandstone
These samples played a curtail role in design improvisation, the fat man and little boy designs were soon obsolete.
Projects:Green house Ivy- full scale H bombOb shot knot hole- a series of 11 atomic bomb
tests in Nevada, including the first atomic canonCastle-bravo- the largest atmospheric bomb ever
detonated in U.S. history Operation wigwam- the deep underwater portion
of Operation Cross Roads (11 years later)
Projects
Today 9 countries have nuclear weapons amongst those countries are the Koreans, Russians, Americans and the French
After the Cuban Missile crisis, the USSR and United States along with the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency opened negotiations aimed at limiting the threat of nuclear war. They started negotiating a way to limit the scope and dangers posed by the global atomic arms race.
Today
1945 US- 9,4001849 Russia-13,000 1952 UK-1851960 France- 3001964 China-2401967 Israel-801974 India-701990 Pakistan-702006 North Korea-<10
World Nuclear Arsenal
Partial Test Ban Treaty – 1963-prohibits nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and underwater. (not France or China)
Non-Proliferation Treaty – 1968-Made it illegal for possessing countries to share info. Or technology on nuclear bombs
SALT I- 1969-1972- aimed to limit and restrain land and submarine based nuclear weapons, a 5year agreement to limit construction of intercontinental missile sites ad other nuclear missile sights
Foreign Policy
Antiballistic Missile Treaty – 1972- between us & Russia, restricted the development of defensive missiles and allowed each country to have only 2 launch stations.
SALT II - 1972-1979- intended to lengthen the 5 year treaty from SALT I, and also put a more long lasting agreement in place
Threshold Test Ban Treaty – 1974- Prohibited underground nuclear weapons testing exceeding 150 kilotons
Foreign Policy
In the first millionth of a second the fire ball would be 500 meters across
Within 10 seconds it would grow to one mile The temperature would rise to 20 million degrees
Fahrenheit (hotter than the surface of the sun)The blast would generate winds traveling at 60
miles an hour, destroying everything in its path (dissipates)
10’s of city blocks would be melted, the trees, the people the cars even the upper level of the earth
Everyone within a 5 mile radius will die
What would happen if a bomb went off?
People who are lucky enough to be 8 or 9 miles away would experience it as a blast with window shards traveling at more than 100 miles an hour
100,000’s of fires would join together in one big fire storm for miles across and ignite everything flammable for 11 miles across, devouring massive amounts of oxygen
Everyone looking in the direction of the blast would be blinded. Your lungs and eardrums would rupture from the pressure
What would happen if a bomb went off?
If doctors could get there in time they would be treating injuries such as broken bones from people being thrown into buildings and crushed form debris, 3rd degree burns
The body does have a repair rate for radiation but the doses would be so sudden and great that it would overwhelm the body
Their would be public panic with people worrying if there next
Treatment
Why is it that even though America is the only country that has used the bomb in a war and yet Americans seem to be the ones most concerned about preventing other countries from getting that technology?
AndShould other countries get nuclear weapons?
Question?
Do you think that the A bomb was a good thing and benefited the nation/world?
Question?
The bomb operates on the fissionable material of uranium and plutonium to produce a chain reaction of radiation. It has also allowed countries such as China, North Korea, Russia and America to utilize the fear of nuclear war as a political weapon. Fear after all is the most powerful weapon.
Research Question Answer
