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Who Invented The Atomic Bomb

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Throughout all of history, humans have been creating weapons for waging war against one and another or to protect something that is important to them. Over time, the weapons that humans use have gone from just a simple wooden club, to a forged sword, and to high power firearms. However, throughout history none of the weapons created led to a stalemate among any of the world’s super powers until the mid twentieth century with the development of the atomic bomb by the United States and the Soviet Union. The reason why the development of the atomic bomb led to a stalemate has to do with the idea of mutually assured destruction. The idea behind mutually assured destruction is that if one-country attacks with atomic weapons then the country being …show more content…

Two of the ocean based weapons tests were conducted during Operation Crossroads off the coast of Bikini Atoll. The first test during Operation Crossroads was the drop of Able which was drop from a height of around 1,500 feet and had a blast yield of 23 kilotons. [9] The Able test drop was used to see the effects of an atomic bomb on a naval fleet out at sea at sea level. The test consisted of over 150 naval vessels and out of them five vessels were sunk and the rest suffered server to minor damages. [9] The second test during Operation Crossroads was the shallow underwater detonation of Baker which was at a depth of 90 and had a blast yield of 23 kilotons. [9] The Baker test detonation was used to see the effects of atomic bomb on a naval fleet out at sea from underwater. The detonation of Baker resulted in the sinking of eight more vessels and "caused most of the target fleet to be bathed in radioactive water spray and radioactive debris from the lagoon bottom." [9] The last ocean based test was Operation Wigwam which was a deep underwater detonation at around the depth of 2,000 feet and had a …show more content…

There are several types of atomic bombs and the types changed based on how the bomb will achieve critical mass. The first type of an atomic bomb would be the gun-type fission bomb which was drop on the city of Hiroshima during World War II. Scientists and the military believed that the gun-type bomb was so reliable that they did not test it before dropping it on the city of Hiroshima. The gun-type bomb contained two-piece of uranium at both ends of a barrel, and when the two-piece of uranium are brought together it creates a chain reaction leading it to reach supercritical mass. [5] The second type of an atomic bomb would be the implosion fission bomb which was drop on the city of Nagasaki and tested during the project Trinity. The implosion type bomb contained a neutron core, a plutonium pit, a uranium tamper, and a layer of burning explosive. [5] Therefore, when the neutron core is crushed it releases neutrons into the plutonium pit which creates a chain reaction leading it to reach supercritical mass. [5] The third type of an atomic bomb would be the boosted fission bomb which was tested during Operation Greenhouse. The boosted fusion bomb utilized the same layer system from the implosion bomb, but in the fissile core a small amount of deuterium/tritium gas is added to cause the boost in blast yield. [5] The fourth type of an atomic bomb would be the staged radiation implosion bomb

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