Who invented the nuclear bomb?
THE three physicists who made the nuclear bomb possible worked in Berlin during Nazi rule.
In 1938, Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner and Fritz Strassman discovered nuclear fission - the splitting of atoms into two or more smaller atoms - which paved the way for the nuclear bomb.
Who invented the nuclear bomb?
J. Robert Oppenheimer earned himself the title "father of the atomic bomb" after leading the Manhattan Project, a program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.
The American theoretical physicist was the director of the laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico,.that designed the bombs using nuclear fission.
An atomic bomb is a type of nuclear bomb.
What was the Manhattan Project?
Oppenheimer headed up the Manhattan Project - code name for the American-led effort to develop an atomic bomb.
Work towards the project began in 1939, due to fears that scientists in Nazi Germany had been developing a nuclear weapon and that Adolf Hitler was prepared to use it.
In 1942, facilities were set up in remote areas of New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington, alongside sites in Canada, for research and testing.
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Oppenheimer became director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in northern New Mexico, where the first Manhattan Project bombs were created and tested, in 1943.
On July 16, 1945, in a remote desert in New Mexico, the Trinity Test saw the first atomic bomb successfully detonate, creating a mushroom cloud around 40,000 feet high.
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Scientists under Oppenheimer developed two bomb types: a uranium-based weapon called “the Little Boy” and a plutonium-based bomb named “the Fat Man”.
What is the difference between a nuclear bomb and an atomic bomb?
An atomic bomb is a type of nuclear bomb.
Nuclear bombs can be formed in two ways - nuclear fission or nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fission is the splitting of an atom into two or more particles whereas nuclear fusion is the fusion of two or more atoms into one large one.
Atomic bombs use nuclear fission, which means they gain energy by splitting atoms in materials such as uranium or plutonium.
The other type of nuclear bomb is the hydrogen bomb
Hydrogen bombs use nuclear fusion, getting energy through the fusing together of atoms.
Hydrogen bombs create a lot more energy than atomic bombs.
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Has a nuclear bomb ever been used?
Nuclear weapons have been used twice in warfare - the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US in 1945.
The nuclear armament of nine countries has also allowed leaders to use their arsenals either as a deterrent or to incite fear in other nations.