Enrico Fermi's Life

Then he went to teach at Berkley University.4 Another main person in the research project was Enrico Fermi. Fermi was a graduate of the University of Pisa, where he received his Ph.D. Fermi then went to the University of Rome teaching chemistry and biology. Fermi played a major role in the development of the bomb by creating a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction, which was critical to making the atomic bomb.4 Richard Feyman was another scientist which worked on the atomic bomb. Feyman graduated from Princeton where he excelled in physics and other scientific studies. Feyman's big duty on the Manhattan Project was to break big problems into smaller easier to do problems.4 The Manhattan Project, also had to have facilities for the research and testing of the atomic bomb. Some of the facilities built by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included: power stations, factories, steel works, hospitals, laboratories, and housing for everybody that worked on the project.. Other facilities that were built for the construction of the bomb were plants to make the radioactive material needed to construct the bomb. Oak Ridge, Tennessee was used to make uranium which was used as an explosive to react with plutonium. The plutonium itself was made in Hanford, Washington.5 To make this explosion possible, a piece of uranium was fired at another piece of uranium to make the critical mass that was needed for an explosion. Critical mass is the exact amount of

The beginnings of the Nuclear Age started when Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt warning him of a dangerous weapon the Nazis had begun researching, known as the atomic bomb. (1) Though, when President Roosevelt first read this letter, he was too preoccupied with events in Europe to be bothered with such ideas. He at the time did not take the creation of such weapon to seriously, nor did he believe America had the resources for such a task. (2) Finally, on October 19, 1939 President Roosevelt wrote back to Einstein stating that the United States had begun to research the power of uranium. (2) With the help of the British, whom reluctantly gave the United States leadership on this project, in June of 1942 the Manhattan Project had begun, though most of the world had no idea that this was even happening, not even Vice President Truman. (2)

Well known scientist Albert Einstein, who fled from Nazi persecution, and Enrico Fermi who escaped Fascist Italy, were now living in the United States, on which they both agreed that the President should be enlightened of the vulnerability of atomic technology that was in the hands of Axis power. Fermi made an attempt and travelled to Washington in March to express his involvement with the government officials, who showed little to no concern. Einstein who as well shared a great concern in this topic; penned a letter to President Roosevelt imploring the development of an atomic research program later that year. Roosevelt saw neither prerequisite nor adequacy for such a project, but agreed to proceed gradually. In late 1941, the American effort to scheme and build an atomic bomb which received the code name as the Manhattan Project. The very first research was placed at only a few universities such as Columbia University, University of Chicago, and the University in California at Berkeley. The

Leo Szilard was a Hungarian Physicist who dedicated himself to learning how to create a successful chain reaction to make an atomic bomb before the Germans had a chance to do so. Szilard convinced Albert Einstein to help research with him on how to create an atomic bomb. The “Einstein-Szilard” letter, sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt led to the foundation of research into nuclear fission by the United States government. This ultimately encouraged the development of the program, the Manhattan Project.

This thought, as well as many others, ran through the heads of the scientists of the Manhattan Project, including the “father of the atomic bomb” himself, J. Robert Oppenheimer.

During World War II (WWII), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) organized a committee to advise him “on questions of policy relating to the study of nuclear fission” (Stimson 1947). This committee was involved of all aspects of the atomic project from whether

The Manhattan Project was assembled when “in 1939 the world’s scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting a uranium atom.” (US History 1) This caused many people to panic and it was later agreed that this issue of the Axis powers developing nuclear weaponry should be brought up to the United States, which could perhaps stop the Germans from causing unspeakable destruction to much of the world. Scientists Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, who both were living in the United States after leaving their previous countries to escape from either persecution or just leave the fascist state that Italy was currently in. Fermi was the scientist that went to Washington in order to express his concerns about this development of the splitting of the uranium atoms but not many others shared his concerns. Once Fermi

Fermi was worried that the ruler of Italy would follow the laws that Hitler was putting in place. But Fermi ignored his worries and focused on his studies. Fermi was studying atoms. Atoms are made up electrons, neutrons and protons. The center of the atoms is a nucleus. In 1934 Fermi was doing experiments by shooting neutrons into the nuclei of various atoms. One atom that caught his eye was the uranium atom.(Gonzales page 11). When he shot neutrons into the atom the atom would change, he didn’t know how it was changing though. What he didn’t realize was when he shot the neutrons into the atom,that the atom was really splitting into two. He recorded his experiment in his notes and showed it to other scientists to see if they could find out what was happening.(Gonzales pg 13) One of the scientist was Lise Meitner, she was a physicist who worked with German scientists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman. (Gonzales pg

In 1939, during World War 2, German physicists learned how to split an Uranium atom. Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi knew the dangers of this, and knew they had to tell President Franklin Roosevelt, and warn him of this. Few of the government officials told people of their uneasiness. Because the president still was not aware of this, Albert Einstein decided to write to him. Einstein’s letter urged the development of an atomic research program. Roosevelt didn’t see the necessity for such a project, but decided that he would follow through with the plan, slowly. The project started in late 1941 and was called the Manhattan Project (The Manhattan Project, pars 1-3).

At the end of World War I and the beginning of World War II scientist started to develop new ways to to react to wars.Scientist like Julius Robert Oppenheimer with the help of Albert Einstein created the first atomic bomb called the “Little Boy” and the “FatMan”. Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico. He was incharge of gather the best minds to develop weapons of mass destruction. Oppenheimer along with 200 other physics developed weapons that would change the world forever.

A man who is almost synonymous with the development of the atomic bomb as well as with the conflicts between the desires of the government

The EMP proposition was first theorized by Enrico Fermi, the Nobel Laureate and Manhattan Project physicist. The Manhattan Project was secretly organized in 1939 in order to produce the first nuclear weapon. The project succeeded in doing so, and led to the first and only atomic bomb used in battle. At the end of WWII (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). After the nuclear explosions, scientists

In the late 1930s, the world began to panic due to the fear of Germany discovering how to develop the atomic bomb. Scientists Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, both who escaped from another country and now were living in the United States, agreed that they should inform the president of the catastrophic events that would take place if the Nazis got their hands on such a powerful weapon. Enrico Fermi went to Washington hoping to convince government officials of the threats, however few of them shared his opinion. Einstein wrote a letter to Franklin Roosevelt, the president at that time, and urged him to begin a program that would research the new atomic technology. President Franklin

Nuclear weapons are made by plutonium, a man made element, that is produced in nuclear reaction. What plutonium is, its transuranic radioactive chemical? Which is why nuclear weapons contain so much radiation. Enrico Fermi was the main one to make all of this making possible, basically making the plan go through. Although Albert Einstein was the main one of the process of making the nuclear weapons created.

The result of all this talk was that in 1942 Fermi gathered scientists at the University of Chicago to discuss their theories and possibly create a self-sustaining chain reaction. By November of that year they had constructed plans and were prepared to build this new model known as Chicago Pile-1. Nuclear Engineering U.S. Department of Energy describes the model as, ―In addition to uranium and graphite, it contained control rods made of cadmium. Cadmium is a metallic element that absorbs neutrons. When the rods were in the pile, there were fewer neutrons to fission uranium atoms. This slowed the chain reaction. When the rods were pulled out, more neutrons were available to split atoms. The chain reaction sped up‖(par 21). In December of 1942 the scientists were ready to demonstrate their hard work. This was a huge break through in the nuclear world.