1. By : Matt Hutchinson
Honors History 9
1936-1940
80 years ago

2. “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

5. What are the physics behind the atomic bomb and
how has it changed the world politically?

6.  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

8.  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

9.  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

11.  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.

12.  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

13.  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

14.  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”

15.  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

16.  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-238
 The ratio from uranium ore to uranium metal is 500:1
and 99% of the uranium is uranium-238
 They 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

18.  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
30,000 ft

20. “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

21. Fat
man
Little Boy

22. Nagasaki
Hiroshima
Kokura

23.  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 “The city was hidden by an awful cloud, boiling
up, mushrooming, terrible and incredibly tall”
-Colonel Tibbets

24.  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*

25.  A=TriNitroToluene
 B=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.

26.  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
Critical mass=the minimum amount of energy needed for a nuclear reaction

27.  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 killed
 Each day 2,000 people died

28.  The bomb exploded
within 550 ft of its target
 The width of the fire ball
= 18,000 ft
 4 miles square, in the 40,000ft high
city's center the ground
was charred

29.  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.”

30.  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”

31.  Was an plutonium-239 bomb weighing in at 10,200 lb
 It 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

32.  Maj Charles W. Sweeney, aircraft commander
 Capt Charles Donald Albury, co-pilot (pilot of Crew C-15)
 2nd Lt Fred Olivi, regular co-pilot
 Capt James van Pelt, navigator
 Capt Kermit Beahan, bombardier
 Master Sergeant John D. Kuharek, flight engineer
 SSgt Ray Gallagher, gunner, assistant flight engineer
 SSgt Edward Buckley, radar operator
 Sgt Abe Spitzer, radio operator
 Sgt Albert Dehart, tail gunner
 CDR Frederick L. Ashworth (USN), weaponeer
 LT Philip Barnes (USN), assistant weaponeer
 2nd Lt Jacob Beser, radar countermeasures

33.  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!

34.  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

35.  The bomb exploded
several miles from its
target
45,000ft high

36.  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
“Something huge had just cracked… the
proud dream of greater Japan”
-Robert Guillino (French reporter)

37.  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

38.  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

39.  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 5
 Able- would be dropped from a B-29
 Baker-would be detonated 90ft below the water

40.  200 goats
 200 pigs
 4,000 rats

41.  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

43.  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.

44.  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 bomb
 Ob shot knot hole- a series of 11 atomic bomb tests in
Nevada, including the first atomic canon
 Castle-bravo- the largest atmospheric bomb ever
detonated in U.S. history
 Operation wigwam- the deep underwater portion of
Operation Cross Roads (11 years later)

45.  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.

46.  1945 US- 9,400
 1849 Russia-13,000
 1952 UK-185
 1960 France- 300
 1964 China-240
 1967 Israel-80
 1974 India-70
 1990 Pakistan-70
 2006 North Korea-<10

47.  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

48.  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

49.  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

50.  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

51.  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

52.  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?
And
 Should other countries get nuclear weapons?

53.  Do you think that the A bomb was a good thing and
benefited the nation/world?

54. 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.