Fission Bombs: The Consequences Of The Atomic Bomb

“A nuclear bomb is defined as ‘an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter.’ “

An atomic bomb is a bomb that derives its destructive power from the rapid release

Whenever you think of bombs used in warfare, you always will think of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb was created by scientists participating in the Manhattan Project, something so secret that President Truman was not aware of it until he took office after President Roosevelt’s unfortunate death. In addition, the bomb itself was made of uranium and weighed over 4-5 tons. Creating devastation and disorder, the atomic bomb killed over 200,000 people and many of them instantly. The rest died slowly to radiation exposure. Bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the atomic bomb killed 90% of the population immediately. Accordingly, these bombs were monsters.

“Trinity” was dropped on a test site in New Mexico, “Little Boy” was dropped on the Japanese island of Hiroshima and “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki. Atomic warfare effected the view of war and how this weapon could affect future conflicts. On August 6th 1945 “Little Boy” the first atomic bomb to be used as a weapon was dropped on the island of Hiroshima. This first attack devastated the island of Hiroshima and shed light on to the power of the atomic bomb.

What is an atomic bomb? Well, an atomic bomb is a bomb that derives its destructive power from a rapid release of nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei, causing damage through heat, blast, and radioactivity. In 1938, German scientists Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission. (iaea.org) Nuclear fission is when “the

Albert Einstein developed an equation for this process, E=mc^2. To summarize this equation, energy is lost or produced when a change in mass occurs. So the process of nuclear fission begins with a neutron. The neutron then strikes the Uranium nucleus, causing the Uranium nucleus to split into two Uranium nuclei. By splitting the nucleus, it also produces more neutrons, and with those neutron, it continues to split the Uranium nucleus. From this uncontrolled process of fission, nuclear weapons can be made. This process is known as a nuclear chain reaction. The energy released (exothermic reaction) from this chain reaction is what powered the atomic bombs.

On August 6th, 1945 the United States dropped a nuclear bomb called Little Boy in the town of Hiroshima. The Little Boy was the heaviest bomb at the time weighing 9,700 pounds and with a length of 10 feet. The task of dropping the first atomic bomb was carried out by the 509th Composite Group ("Little Boy and Fat Man" Web). However the dropping of Little Boy caused major casualties, the bombing of Hiroshima killed 180,000 people (Kennedy, Chapter 36). Three days later, on August 9th, 1945 the second and final atomic bomb that would ever be dropped on a city was called Fat Man which destroyed Nagasaki casing 80,000 deaths (Kennedy Chapter 36). The Manhattan Project was eventually absorbed into the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). After the bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki other nations scrambled to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. This would eventually lead up to the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. Even though the Manhattan Project is now gone, the terrible consequences of its invention of the atomic bomb still linger today (“Key Issues: Nuclear Weapons: History: Pre Cold War: Manhattan Project” Web; “Little Boy and Fat Man” Web).

The Atomic Bomb or known Atom Bomb was created by a scientist, which assembled the first bomb. He and General Leslie Graves officially and successfully tested it in New Mexico, July 21, 1945. Despite this, two refugees from Italy and Germany in the early 1940’s, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard were the first to ever produce a controlled chain reaction. The bomb was created to use during WW2 and end it. This was big for America as president Franklin was notified that Germany was working on a similar weapon to use on America and its Allies. This bomb was needed to win the war and it took approximately 160,000 lives as a result while also having many affects on the people then, the people today, and the environment (Henretta, Edwards, & Self, 2012). The US was the first and only country to this day to drop an atomic bomb on another country, not once, but twice. This did end the war; however, the results were quite devastating to Japan. The environment and lives lost were all greatly impacted however, the world as a whole would be impacted for years to come. It also had its political reasoning behind it to show the global power of America. The devastation caused by the bombs also created deterrence from using them in the future at the time. Furthermore, now as other countries have improved technological

The nuclear fission process that Meitner had discovered would end up playing a crucial role in World War II and the world. The atomic bomb, created by Robert Oppenheimer and his team, was based on the basic elements of nuclear fission. Meitner accomplished nuclear fission by bombarding a large isotope with a smaller one, commonly a neutron. The collision caused the larger isotope to break apart into two or more elements, which is called nuclear fission. Reactions of this type also release a lot of energy. The energy comes from the atomic and subatomic particles that change into the form of energy during the explosion. You can prove this by attempting to make an extremely accurate measurement of all the masses of all the atoms and subatomic particles you start with prior to the explosion and all the atoms and subatomic particles are returned, and then calculate the difference in mass in the two sums, you find that the answer is larger than 0 – which proves that mass goes disappears during the transition. This loss of matter is called the mass defect. The missing matter is converted into energy. To calculate the energy released or the mass defect, you can use the equation Einstein is famous for discovering: E=mc2. In the equation, ‘E’ represents the amount of energy produced, m is the so called “missing” mass, more formally known as the mass defect, and c is the speed of light, which is an extremely large number. Therefore, we get the equation that m = E/c*c. The speed of light is squared, making that part of the equation a very large number that, even when multiplied by a small, minute amount of mass, yields a huge amount of energy. If we look at the equation for the fission of U-235, we would notice that one neutron created three. These three neutrons, if they encountered other U-235 atoms, could initiate other fissions, producing even more neutrons, that would in turn, initiate other fissions. It’s the domino effect – except this time, instead of a row of dominos, it is a wide-spread fan of dominos. In terms of nuclear chemistry, fission a continuing cascade of nuclear fissions that can be dubbed a

The United states making the atomic bomb was done at University of Chicago in 1942. The U.S.A. used the bombs to make japan surrender, also because japan fought to the death and it almost like a last result for us. The bombs were dropped at the city of Hiroshima, japan and Nagasaki, Japan. The day they were dropped was on August 6, 1945 on the two cities. As a result of the bomb at Hiroshima between 80,000 and 120.000 people died. At the other city of Nagasaki 30,000 and 75,000 people died. Later, there were tons of cases of cancer deaths from the radiation from the two bombs. Even the pilot that dropped the bomb said, "what have we done."  Even Albert Einstein later said, "I wish I never suggested it." But, in the end Japan

- An atomic bomb is a powerful bomb that releases nuclear energy by fission of heavy atomic nuclei that causes damage through heat and radioactivity. The atomic bomb is a nuclear weapon that is also known as a hydrogen bomb.

It was only used in war. (other than test) The atomic bomb gets its power from the release of energy by splitting the nuclei of elements such as plutonium or uranium.

Eager to end WWII the atomic bomb was created to end the fight between Japan and the United States. The U.S. dropped it on the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The atomic bomb was created with uranium (U-235) and by using fission it would form a large nuclear chain reaction that would be devastating. The creation of this mass destruction weapon was called the Manhattan Project. The project cost around two billion dollars. In mid-July, 1945, these bombs were tested to see if they would be successful at halting Japan. On August 6, 1945 a day in history and a day that will never be forgotten the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb “Little Boy” on Hiroshima in Japan. Three days later the second bomb dropped called “Fat Man” on the city of Nagasaki. The

Perhaps the most advanced weaponry that can be used in war. The atomic bomb was made using plutonium, plutonium is created when an atom of uranium-238 absorbs a neutron and thus becomes plutonium-239. The atomic bomb had a blast radius of 3km this meant that anything that was in the blast radius would be decimated. The plane that had carried the bomb also known as “little boy” was Boeing B-29 plane also nicknamed “enola gay.” The most expensive thing about World War 2 was not the atomic bomb but the plane that carried it. The B-29 plane made by Boeing was specialized for the atomic bomb because it had a carry load and releasing capability of up to 10,000 pounds of atomic bomb. The United States of America also did a lot of nuclear testing to make sure that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 100% possible. By July 25th 1945 a fully capable nuclear atomic bomb was ready for testing and though the war with Germany was over, the war against Japan was still raging on. On July 16th, America had tested their first and successful atomic bomb trial. The bomb was detonated near Los Alamos research facility. In all the Atomic bomb was one of the most cutting edge pieces of weaponry available, because it allowed to deliver immense force and was able to decimate

Atomic bombs are made up of uranium, that has an isotope that creates a nuclear chain reaction. The immediate energy release per atom is about 180 million electron volts. It is caused by a sudden release of energy produced by splitting the nuclei of the fissile elements making up the bombs' core.