Why Did The American Effort To Build The Atomic Bomb

The ingredients that went into baking the cake. The United States government initiated the Manhattan Project, when they were notified by a letter from Albert Einstein, which disclosed the prospects of a nuclear chain reaction to formulate a nuclear bomb, and it also announced that Germans had already begun experimenting with Uranium, according to Encyclopedia.com. The Manhattan Project required the construction of two colossal facilities: one in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and

On August 2, 1939, just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein and several other scientists told Roosevelt of efforts in Nazi Germany to purify uranium-235, which could be used to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly thereafter that the United States Government began the serious undertaking known then only as "The Manhattan Project." Simply put, the Manhattan Project was committed to expediting research that would produce a viable atomic bomb.

On August 2, 1938, in the heat of World War II, Albert Einstein, a physicist born in Germany, sent a letter to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States. The letter suggested America to build an atomic bomb before the Nazi Germany does. However, it took more than two months for the letter to reach Roosevelt. On October 19, 1938, Roosevelt agreed, replying, “I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board … to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium” (“President Roosevelt's response to Dr. Einstein”). As a result, America held a secret program, code named Manhattan Project, and started to build new, destructive weapons in a laboratory in Los Alamos,

For those not familiar with the Manhattan Project; it was an atomic research program approved by President Roosevelt. It would eventually produce the first atomic bomb used during World War II.

This Atomic Bomb also known as the Ultimate weapon was first used in WWII. The research and development of the weapon cost United States around the 2 billion dollars. US called this investment/project the Manhattan Project. The main goal of this project to build a bomb that was enough to make Japan surrender in World War II. With the help of United Kingdom and Canada, US built the world’s first Atomic Bomb and tested it in Alamogordo, New Mexico. At his point, US was quite happy with the result but the result they collected didn’t show a lot of radiation.

The letter stated that German Nazi’s were trying to purify Uranium 235, if they were to purify it they would be able to create an atomic bomb. He also told the president that the U.S. should start building in order to beat the other countries in making the nuclear weapons. On October 11th, 1939 Alexander Sachs (a scientist) went to President Franklin Roosevelt and discussed Albert Einstein’s letter. The president thought it was a good idea, so he started funding the project. This project was known as the Manhattan Project. Once it was approved many scientists got involved, some scientists that got involved were: Ken Bainbridge (test director of the project), David Bohm (theoretical physics, philosophy, and neuropsychology), Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigher, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peieris, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs, and Eward Teiler. All these scientists got involved thus starting the Manhattan Project.

The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear engineers; the name of this research was called, “The Manhattan Project”. On July 16, 1945, the detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb was detonated, it sent shock-waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would forever change the meaning of war.

In 1939, influenced and convinced by other prominent scientist. Albert Einstein who fled germany because of Nazi persecution, wrote a letter to president Franklin D. Roosevelt to persuade him that America should build an atomic bomb in response to Nazi Germany attempt to purify uranium atoms which could be used to create an Atomic bomb(cooper) . Because of Einsteins honorable body of achievements and reputation, the president listened to

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

On the morning of August 6, 1945, a B-29 Bomber that was names Enola Gay had flew over the City of Hiroshima Japan and dropped the first atomic bomb to have ever been made. The motive for the creation and research of the bomb was a direct result of the Japanese bombing on Pearl Harbor. When the bomb was finalized after all the research of splitting atoms and combining plutonium and uranium and knowing what to use, many tests were done and the bomb was presumed ready. But no one could have guessed the magnitude of this bomb. The city was engulfed in flames as the power of the bomb being equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT being dropped exploded. There was much work that went into making this project a success amongst all others. There was a wide variety of scientific brain knowledge, civilian knowledge and much military knowledge and assembly to make this project happen.

Before the U.S. could start the progress and research, they had to have the right scientists and enough uranium and plutonium to design the bomb (Crewe and Anderson 10). The U.S would travel the country in need of a scientist and would come across many who would possessed exactly what the development needed. The U.S. also needed plutonium and uranium to discover how it works and learn its explosive power, which led them to create factories to manufacture these elements. In the late 1930s, leading physicists like Enrico Fermi, Albert Einstein, and Leo Szilád recommended the U.S. work on the Atomic Bomb (“Manhattan Project”). In 1942, a secret government program called the Manhattan Project was launched to develop the Atomic Bomb (“Manhattan Project”). Eventually the U.S started this project which was kept in secrecy and under the radar. Where they set up shop was in Los Alamos, high in the mountains, which helped out with their secrecy (Crewe and Anderson 13). The head of this operation was J. Robert Oppenheimer, who told Groves that the Manhattan Project needed a central laboratory, where scientists could work together and design the Atomic Bomb (Crewe and Anderson 11). Throughout this project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was important in

The first atomic bomb exploded July 16, 1945. The bomb was so powerful that the heat generated by the blast was 4 times the temperature at the center of the sun, blew out windows in houses more than 200 miles away, and killed every living creature within a mile (Faragher, 721). Out of fear that the Nazi 's might develop an atomic bomb, Franklin D. Roosevelt established a small nuclear research program in 1939. The president released resources to create the Manhattan Project, which was the American effort to design and build an atomic bomb (U.S. History Online Textbook). However, the Manhattan project wasn 't placed under the direction of the average American citizen, but the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1942 the first chain reaction in uranium was produced by Novel Prize winner named Enrico Fermi.

It was Albert Einstein who influenced the idea of atom splitting that would result in atomic weaponry and destruction when writing a letter to President Roosevelt in 1939. German scientists had begun experiments in this, and that knowledge alone was cause for concern. Roosevelt approved this idea and decided it would benefit to get it done fast before Germany had made one of their own. The atomic bomb plan would be known under the code name The Manhattan Project in New Mexico.

In the summer of 1939, Einstein, along with another scientist, Leo Szilard, was persuaded to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alert him of the possibility of a Nazi bomb. President Roosevelt could not risk the possibility that Germany might develop an atomic bomb first. The letter is believed to be the key factor that motivated the United States to investigate the development of nuclear weapons. Roosevelt invited Einstein to meet with him and soon after the United States initiated the Manhattan Project (M. Talmey).

In the summer of 1939, Einstein, along with another scientist, Leo Szilard, wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt to alert him of the possibility of a Nazi bomb. President Roosevelt could not risk the possibility that Germany might develop an atomic bomb first. The letter is believed to be the key factor that motivated the United States to investigate the development of nuclear weapons. Roosevelt invited Einstein to meet with him and soon after the United States initiated the Manhattan Project.