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

The History and Mechanism of the Atomic Bomb----------------------- -+ hold over of Contents +- ----------------------- I. The History of the Atomic Bomb ------------------------------ A). Development (The Manhattan purpose) B). Detonation 1). Hiroshima 2). Nagasaki 3). Byproducts of atomic detonations 4). Blast Zones II. Nuclear Fission/Nuclear coalescency ------------------------------ A). Fission (A-Bomb) & Fusion (H-Bomb) B). U-235, U-238 and Plutonium III. The Mechanism of The Bomb ------------------------- A). Altimeter B). Air Pressure Detonator C). Detonating Head(s) D). fickle Charge(s) E). Neutron Deflector F). uracil & 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 August 2nd 1939, just before the beginning of World warfare II, Albert Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several other sci entists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify U-235 with which might in turn be utilize to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly thereafter that the United States Government began the heartrending undertaking known only then as the Manhattan Project. Simply put, the Manhattan Project was committed to expedient research and performance that would produce a feasible atomic bomb. The most complicated issue to be addressed was the production of ample amounts of enriched uranium to sustain a chain reaction. At the time, Uranium-235 was real hard to extract. In fact, the ratio of conversion from Uranium ore to Uranium coat is 5001. An additional drawback is that the 1 part of Uranium that is finally swell from the ore consists of over 99% Uranium-238, which is practically useless for an atomic bomb. To make it level more difficult, U-235 and U-238 are precisely similar in their chemic makeup. This proven to be as much of a challenge as separating a solution of sucros e from a solution of glucose. No ordinary chemical extraction could better the devil isotopes. Only mechanical methods could effectively separate U-235 from U-238. Several scientists at Columbia University managed to solve this dilemma. A massive enrichment science laboratory/plant was constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. H.C. Urey, along with his associates and colleagues at Columbia University, devised a system that worked on the principle of gaseous diffusion. Following this process, Ernest O. Lawrence (inventor of the Cyclotron) at the University of calcium in Berkeley implemented a process involving magnetic separation of the two isotopes. Following the first two processes, a gas centrifuge was utilise to further separate the lighter U-235 from the heavier non-fissionable U-238 by their mass.