The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 1 — Workers raised the Trinity test bomb up the steel tower in July

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 2 — CHAPTES THE TRINITY TEST In the desolate New Mexico desert stood at tall steel tower Perched on its top was a huge metal ball covered with wires going in every direction Searchlight beams lit the tower but no one was in sight At 5 29 a m on July 16 1945 a radio announcer's voice boomed through the area It is now zero minus twenty minutes It was nearly time to test the most destructive weapon that had ever been made A BOMB TO END THE WAR It had taken many months of development before the weapon could be tested From May through November 1944 Dr J Robert Oppenheimer fought to field test a new weapon the plutonium atomic bomb Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico where the bomb was developed But General Leslie Groves the head of the Manhattan

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 3 — Project disagreed The Manhattan Project THE FISSION PROCESS was the code name for the research project that produced the atomic bombs Groves Fission is a reaction that happens when a neutron strikes an atom causing the atom to believed the United States couldn't afford split This releases more neutrons The process to waste any plutonium on a test continues to multiply as more atoms split Oppenheimer and his scientific team causing a chain reaction that releases energy knew the process of fission inside the If enough atoms split the chain reaction provides the energy needed to create an plutonium bomb should work in theory atomic explosion Now they needed to actually test the weapon nicknamed the gadget The gadget's explosives were designed to fire at the same moment to create the chain reaction caused by fission which in turn would set off an explosion There was so much riding on this bomb President Franklin D Roosevelt and US military leaders believed it could end World War II 1939 1945 Oppenheimer knew the bomb needed to be tested In November 1944 Groves finally gave in FINDING A TEST SITE To keep the gadget a secret the Manhattan Project's scientists and military staff needed to find a remote location where no one could witness the test code named Trinity They considered eight possible locations from Southern California to the Gulf Coast of Texas In May 1944 Oppenheimer physicist Kenneth Bainbridge and US Army officers set off to find a New Mexico location For three days they drove around the desert looking for a flat desolate

The Dropping of the Atomic Bombs — page 4 — Nuclear Fission destion produce neutron release of energy nucleus chain reaction neutron splitting of nucleus fission product The fission process releases an enormous amount of energy Finally they found the perfect site The area was called Jornada del Muerto in Spanish or the Journey of Death It was 210 miles 338 km south of Los Alamos The spot was within a few hours drive of Los Alamos yet far enough away to keep the top secret laboratory from being linked to a possible explosion The government didn't want any news to get out that the United States was testing a bomb The Los Alamos site was on the border of the US military's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery

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