- What is the atomic bomb?
- How an atomic bomb works?
- Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs
We explain what the atomic bomb is, its types, invention and how it works. Also, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.
What is the atomic bomb?
The atomic bomb, also called nuclear weapons, is a type of explosive device that operates on the basis of nuclear chain reactions. It is used, like all weapons of this size, for strictly military purposes.
These types of bombs are the most destructive and lethal devices ever invented by the humanity. They are classified as weapons of mass destruction, the use of which is today subject to strict conventions and protocols international
An atomic bomb can vary both in destructive capacity and in the materials it is made of, which are subjected to a exothermic reaction very violent, but when detonated it usually generates a gigantic cloud of smoke in the shape of a mushroom, very recognizable.
Only two atomic bombs have been dropped on civilian targets in the history. Its result was catastrophic in terms of death, destruction and residual effects.
The latter are due to the fact that these types of bombs not only produce an immediate impact, but also scatter unstable atomic elements (that is, radioactive material) everywhere. Thus, they permanently alter the biochemistry of the living beings around, due to radioactive poisoning.
According to their components and their way of operating, atomic bombs can be of the following types:
- Uranium bomb. The first type of atomic bomb invented, during the WWII, is composed of fissile isotopes (that is, breakable through specific physical procedures) of a chemical element called uranium (U), like U235. Of this type were the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, equivalent to hundreds of tons of TNT exploding in unison.
- Plutonium bomb. Endowed with a design More complex than uranium, this version of the bomb uses a tennis ball-sized amount of plutonium (Pu), surrounded by powerful plastic explosives that, when detonated, compress the metal the size of a marble, thus producing an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction that destroys everything in its vicinity and releases huge amounts of ionizing radiation.
- Hydrogen bomb. Also called the H bomb, fusion bomb or thermonuclear bomb, it differs from the others in that it uses the opposite physical principle: instead of fissioning heavy elements, it fuses light elements such as hydrogen (H). For this, it is necessary to have specific isotopes of this element, such as deuterium (2H) or tritium (3H), which are subjected to the initial energy of a smaller fission atomic bomb, thus producing the chain reaction that fuses hydrogen nuclei, releasing large portions of Energy and of heat. With this type of pump it can be achieved for an instant temperatures as high as the core of the Sun (15 million degrees Celsius).
- Bomb of neutrons. Neutron bombs, known as N bombs or increased direct radiation bombs, are derived from the same H or hydrogen bomb, causing a lower initial fission reaction (the primary reaction) and a greater fusion of the elements (the secondary reaction ). This results in a bomb that produces low physical destruction, but up to seven times more radioactivity in a short period of time. weather, than the most powerful hydrogen bomb. This means that it is much more lethal to living beings.
How an atomic bomb works?
Atomic bombs are governed by the principles of atomic reaction, that is, by the laws of physical regarding the behavior of atomic nuclei.
Its general meaning is to trigger a chain reaction that affects all the atoms of the combustible material, thus releasing in a very few seconds an enormous amount of energy, the product of the transformation of a atom in other.
This can happen in two ways, which we already looked at at the beginning:
- Nuclear fision. It is a question, simply put, of breaking the nucleus of the atom, especially those of heavy materials, which have voluminous nuclei full of energy. This is achieved by bombarding them with free neutrons, to destabilize the nuclear composition and promote the rupture of the nucleus, generating unstable atoms that initiate a long process of decay, until they become stable elements such as the lead.
- Nuclear fusion. In this case we are talking about the process against fission, which therefore consists of the union of two atomic nuclei to form a new, larger and heavier one, from two light elements. This process releases much more energy than fission, and is the same that occurs inside the stars, which are, seen like this, huge nuclear explosions in the space. It should be noted, however, that nuclear fusion has not been managed with the same capacity as fission, neither in bombs nor in atomic reactors, so that fusion bombs are actually fission / fusion bombs, since they require an initial explosion as a trigger for the fusion.
Either way, atomic bombs depend on a chain reaction, in which an atom reacts and releases energy and neutrons loose that can make the neighboring atom react, which repeats the operation and so on, faster and faster and more massive.
Who Invented the Atomic Bomb?
Like many other great (and terrible) inventions of humanity, the atomic bomb does not have a single author, but is the result of a diverse series of efforts and research. Many of them occurred in the framework of the Second World War (1939-1945).
However, two theoretical physicists, one German and one American, are often named as its masterminds: Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967).
Famous author of relativistic physics, Einstein laid the theoretical foundations for what later led to the atomic bomb, with his Theory of Relativity Special, published in 1905, and above all with its well-known formula of E = m.c2, that is, that the energy is equal to the mass by speed of light squared.
This formula allowed the feat of converting mass into energy and energy into mass, which is basically what happens in nuclear bomb reactions: an atom is "broken" and a part of itself is converted into free energy.
Later in the same 20th century, different physicists in Nazi Germany cultivated their knowledge of atomic nuclei. Among them were the physicist Niels Bohr, who theoretically devised nuclear fission, and also Otto Hans and Lise Meitner, who developed the bombardment of atomic nuclei with neutrons, seeking to discover elements heavier than uranium.
Many of these scientists had to flee their country, being Jews of descent. So this knowledge reached the United States, where other scientists such as Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman and John von Neumann, were also able to contribute to the so-called Manhattan Project: the American attempt to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis.
The Manhattan Project was led, precisely, by one of the most privileged scientific minds in the United States: Robert Oppenheimer. It was located in the Los Alamos desert, in New Mexico, where on July 16, 1945 the first atomic bomb in the history of mankind was detonated, under the code name of gadget ("artifact").
It is said that Oppenheimer himself, realizing what they had achieved, recalled the verses of the holy book of Hinduism, the Bhagavad-guita: "Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds."
Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs
In Hiroshima, the Genbaku dome is preserved in ruins as a monument.The only atomic bombs dropped on populations civilians were those that the United States government threw on the cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.
Nicknamed "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", these bombs instantly killed 140,000 and 80,000 people in each city, of which 15% to 20% were due to radioactive poisoning, which also left hereditary genetic sequelae in the population.
The bombardment was intended to force the government Japanese to surrender unconditionally, after the defeat of their German and Italian allies.
The United States government decided to attack civilian populations, to save itself the cost in its own human lives that would mean fighting Japan on the Pacific front, in what had already been a war cruel and costly to everyone. Justified or not, the US is to date the only country that has dropped a nuclear weapon on enemy populations.