Living with the BombLiving with the Bomb

Mr. BachAccelerated world history

Hudson high school

The Mahabharata (5The Mahabharata (5thth Cent. Cent. BC)BC)

• A single projectile charged with all the power in the Universe...An incandescent column of smoke and flame as bright as 10,000 suns, rose in all its splendor...it was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes an entire race.

•   • "The corpses were so burned as

to be unrecognizable. Their hair and nails fell out, pottery broke without any apparent cause, and the birds turned white.

•   • "After a few hours, all foodstuffs

were infected. To escape from this fire, the soldiers threw themselves into the river."

Trinity – July 16, 1945Trinity – July 16, 1945

• “I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”– J. Robert

Oppenheimer (quoting the Bhagavad Gita)

• “Now we’re all sons of bitches.”– Ken Bainbridge

The Race to Split the AtomThe Race to Split the Atom

• Albert Einstein informs FDR of the potential to build an atomic bomb (August 2, 1939)

• Worried that Hitler has started to pursue the bomb.

The Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project

• The nation’s best physicists are assembled at Los Alamos Lab (New Mexico) to build an atomic weapon.

• Uranium Enrichment Plant built at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

J. Robert OppenheimerJ. Robert Oppenheimer

• Manhattan Project Director

• Becomes an outspoken opponent of the bomb after WWII

The First Sustained Nuclear The First Sustained Nuclear ReactionReaction

• Enrico Fermi creates the first man-made nuclear reaction under the football stands at the University of Chicago.

• December 2, 1942.

How Does a Nuclear How Does a Nuclear Reactor Work?Reactor Work?

Red Gate WoodsRed Gate Woods

GadgetGadget

• The first atomic bomb is exploded in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945.

• The U.S. has now entered the Atomic Age.

How Does an Atom Bomb How Does an Atom Bomb Work?Work?

• Atomic fission (splitting nuclei)– Byproducts = heat and gamma radiation

• Unstable elements needed to build a bomb, 2-3 pounds of:– Uranium-235 or– Plutonium-239

Fission ReactionFission Reaction

Stages of the Atomic BlastStages of the Atomic Blast

• Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) – wipes out all electrical devices

• Flash of light – will burn corneas• Intense heat flash – vaporize people near

ground zero• Blast wave – pressure from bomb flattens

buildings• Heat wave – fire then fills the void of the

blast wave and burns

Radioactive FalloutRadioactive Fallout

• Radioactive debris starts to fall from the sky

• Causes gene mutation in living things and death from radiation sickness

• Environment becomes uninhabitable• Nuclear Winter – fallout debris blots

out the sun.

Hiroshima and NagasakiHiroshima and Nagasaki

• August 6, 1945 – Enola Gay drops “Little Boy” on Hiroshima (immediately kills 80 thousand people)

• August 9. 1945 – Bockscar drops “Fat Man” on Nagasaki (immediately kills 60 thousand people)

Then . . . August, 29, Then . . . August, 29, 19491949

• Soviets test “Joe #1”

• Soviets obtain technology for A-Bomb partly through espionage– Causes fear and

panic in the United States

The Hydrogen BombThe Hydrogen Bomb

• Nicknamed the “Superbomb”

• Edward Teller – Father of the Hydrogen Bomb

Fusion ReactionFusion Reaction

• Atomic bomb is the detonator for a Fusion bomb.

• Fuses together the nuclei of hydrogen to create helium– The Power of the

Sun

Fusion ReactionFusion Reaction

The Hydrogen BombThe Hydrogen Bomb

So Why is So Why is “World War III” “World War III”

a Cold War?a Cold War?