Atomic+bomb-p8

Erika
=The Atomic Bomb=

Introduction
The atomic bomb is considered a weapon of mass destruction. Only two atomic bombs have ever been dropped in the history of the world, both by the United States of America. Altogether we killed over 300,000 people within a week. But what really causes the giant explosion that causes buildings to evaporate? To sum it up we split the object named "uncuttable", the atom. Taken from atomic bomb;Wikipedia -complete citation in bibliography

**How it works**
The atomic bomb is a fission weapon, which means that it produces its power through fission. A single neutron is released and impact with a plutonium or uranium isotope causes the atom to split causing huge amounts of energy. These isotopes have had neutrons added until it reaches supercritical mass (one more neutron will split the atom). After this original impact, the atoms neutrons will hit other atoms in turn essentially causing a chain reaction. The first self-sustaining chain reaction was formed on December 2, 1942 in Chicago. This started the creation of the bomb.

Creators of the bomb
The bomb was researched and created through the Manhattan project, which employed hundreds of thousands of people. Scientists from all over the world worked to beat the Germans to the weapon. Some of the people whose big discoveries provided vital to the creation were Albert Einstien with his theory of relativity and Neils Bohr with his model of the atom. (We still apply both these discoveries today.)

Other People
General Leslie Groves was the head of the Manhattan project and organized most experiments and branches of the project. The man behind the actual research was American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. There is only one man in world history that has ever dropped the atomic bomb, Paul Tibbets.

Where we dropped the bomb
The two atomic bombs were both dropped on Japan. The first we dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945. This bomb was code named "Little Boy" and was a uranium bomb. Only three days later, we dropped a bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb was code named "Fat Man" and was made with plutonium. Both cities still suffer from radioactive effects. We set up our bases on islands near the home islands of Japan.

Why this mat[[image:250px-Hiroshima_aftermath.jpg width="231" height="136" align="right"]]ters
The dropping of the bombs took a matter of seconds. The effects will continue to last for hundreds of years. The people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima can not escape the horror of these weapons. Every year, babies are born with terrible birth defects because of the radioactivity. Continuing on in history, the atomic bomb went on to cause a massive state of fear within the US. Before the hydrogen bomb was invented, the cold war had thousands of United States citizens in constant fear. Now all this has past and we hope that anyone in control would be principled enough to use these weapons wisely, but the atrocity that we invented has changed history forever. Taken from Atomic Bomb, Wikipedia- complete citation in bibliography

The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan project is formally designated as the Manhattan Engineering District and it had labs and test sites scattered around the United States. Below is a map of some of the develpement sites in the US. Employing thousands of people, the project cost the government over two billion dollars. The first step to the bomb happened when the first self-sustaining chain reaction was formed.

From then on it was uphill; the bomb was quickly assembled. Of course many tests were needed to make sure the bomb was ready to drop on a city. We dropped the bomb in New Mexico desert. The temperatures of the explosion turned sand to glass. Taken from Manhattan Project; Wikipedia -complete citation in bibliography