THE three physicists that made the nuclear bomb possible worked in Berlin during Nazi rule.
In 1938, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission – splitting an atom of radioactive material into lighter atoms, which causes a sudden, powerful release of energy.
Who invented the nuclear bomb?
The discovery of nuclear fission paved the way for nuclear technologies and nuclear weapons.
However, the title of "father of the atomic bomb" is given to J. Robert Oppenheimer, who used nuclear fission to create an atomic bomb during WWII in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
An atomic bomb is a type of nuclear bomb.
What was the Manhattan Project?
Oppenheimer headed up the Manhattan Project – code name for the American-led effort to develop an atomic bomb.
Work towards the project began in 1939, due to fears that German scientists had been developing a nuclear weapon and that Hitler was prepared to use it.
In 1942, facilities were set up in remote areas of New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington, alongside sites in Canada, for research and testing.
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Oppenheimer became director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in northern New Mexico, where the first Manhattan Project bombs were created and tested, in 1943.
On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert in New Mexico, the Trinity Test saw the first atomic bomb successfully detonate, creating a mushroom cloud around 40,000 feet high.
Scientists under Oppenheimer developed two bomb types: a uranium-based weapon called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based bomb named “the Fat Man”.
What is the difference between a nuclear bomb and an atomic bomb?
An atomic bomb is a type of nuclear bomb.
Nuclear bombs can be formed in two ways: nuclear fission or nuclear fusion.
Atomic bombs use nuclear fission, which means they gain energy by splitting atoms in materials such as uranium or plutonium.
Hydrogen bombs use nuclear fusion, getting energy through the fusing together of atoms.
Fusion requires very high temperatures, so atomic bombs are typically used to trigger hydrogen bombs.
Hydrogen bombs also create a lot more energy than atomic bombs.
Has a nuclear bomb ever been used?
Nuclear weapons have been used twice in warfare – the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US in 1945.
The nuclear armament of nine countries has also allowed leaders to use their arsenals either as a deterrent or to incite fear in other nations.
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