preview

Edward Teller Accomplishments

Decent Essays

Edward Teller is the prolific scientist who helped create the most powerful weapon the world has ever seen, the hydrogen bomb. I will touch on his major discovery, a brief look into the 1940’s so we can understand him better for what he did in the 1950’s, and what his discovery led to in the world we live in today. Edward Teller affected not only the entire planet both negatively and positively in 1950’s, but also continues to affect and advance our scientific discoveries.
Edward Teller was born on January 1th, 1908, into a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary. He was educated in private schools, and was mathematically proficient from a young age, despite the political turmoil of his country. Edward began his real scientific background in 1926 …show more content…

Well, the Soviet Union successfully tested an atomic bomb on August 29th, 1949. Edward Teller used fear and a strong national security policy to convince the United States Government to start a hydrogen bomb program to stay ahead of the Soviets. Eventually President Truman agreed to build a thermonuclear weapon involving nuclear fission and nuclear fusion; the program began in January of 1950. Stanislaw Ulam proved that Tellers’ design would not work, and so Teller sought more physicists to make a working design. Edward and Ulam eventually came up with a design that worked and was detonated on November 1st, 1952. Edward Teller was not present to see the test, but his long time obsession with the hydrogen bomb was now validated as he saw the results via …show more content…

A very deep hostility between Edward Teller and many scientists was created when Edward Teller continued his work on the hydrogen bomb. Teller lost many friends and colleagues due to the danger of a thermonuclear weapon, especially after seeing what happened when we used the atomic bomb on Japan. Nevertheless, the hydrogen bomb was created successfully, and it has only been used for testing. However; there were two 3.8 Mt hydrogen bombs aboard a B-52 that broke up midair and almost destroyed a large portion of North Carolina. This is one of few incidents that has occurred involving these incredible weapons, but the outcome would have been absolutely devastating. Edward Teller also continued the frightened nuclear age that began in 1945, but also led humanity to magnificent scientific discoveries. The work and dedication of producing a nuclear fusion reaction with a nuclear fission booster has led to the nuclear propulsion of

Get Access