Science and Personalities leading to the Development of the Atomic Bomb

Gary Latshaw, Ph.D.

Getting Around in the 1900s

Physics in 1900
Newtons Laws of Motion and Law of Gravity Thermodynamics Maxwells Equations (Electromagnetic Radiation) Concepts of Quantum Mechanics (Planck)

Maxwells Equations
ElectrostaticsPermittivity of Free space (eo) Magnetics Permeability of Free Space (uo)

c 1

eouo

Presumed an Ether Existed

Ether contained the properties of permittivity (eo) and permeability (uo). Ether sustained the propagation of electromagnetic waves much like air sustains the propagation of sound.

Albert Einstein < 1905

Expelled from Luitpold Gymnasium .. your presence in the class is disruptive and affects other students Dropout! And Romancer! Passed on Second Attempt the Federal Institute of Technologys (FIT) entrance exam Graduated FIT with 3.3, but was refused a teaching job due to his independent behavior Help from a friend: Technical Expert 3rd Class at the Swiss Patent office in Bern

Einstein in 1905

Photoelectric Effect* Brownian Motion* Special Relativity *Referenced in Nobel Prize in 1921

Special Relativity

Physical Laws are the same to all nonaccelerating observers. Speed of Light is measured as the same to all observers!

No Ether !!

Michelson-Morleys Frustration

They had been trying to detect the velocity of the ether for over 20 years!

1907: E =

2 mc

Einstein realized that a consequence of Special Relativity was that Mass and Energy were manifestations of the same quantity. Mass could be converted to energy and energy to mass Motion is a form of energy kinetic

energy Collective motion of atoms is revealed as temperature!

Adding energy>increases temperature

Burning Candle

Carbon + Oxygen Carbon Dioxide

Loss of Mass: approximately

5/10,000,000000 of input masses

(5 over 10 billion)

In 1930 the Cyclotron Was Invented

Nuclear Physics was limited by available energy of accelerators. Ernest Lawrence at UC Berkeley invents the cyclotron. The cyclotron circulates particles and causes them to gain energy with each revolution.

First Cyclotron

Working Cyclotron

Lawrence was known for his salesmanship and bringing about big physics.

25 years after 1907 Prediction of E = mc2

Rutherford got a University grant of 1000 to buy a 300 kV transformer Walton and Cockcroft split the atom! And Released 2 Energy per

E = mc

Observing E = mc2

Loss of Mass: approximately

3/1000 or 0.3% of input masses

(10 million times chemical reactions)

Einstein Explains

E=

2 mc

Anything Practical?

Not yet! All that external energy to cause a relatively few reactions, big deal! Accelerator was necessary to overcome electrostatic repulsion between the nuclei.

Leo Szilards Patent Chain Reaction

Hungarian Jew who moved to Berlin. Worked with Einstein in 1919 and shared patents on a electromagnetic refrigerator pump. 1932 Hitler elected Chancellor of Germany; 1933 Hitler obtained Special Powers as Chancellor and President 1934 Szilard went to London.
Took out a patent on chain reaction that might produce electrical energy or possibly an explosion.

Chain Reaction

One nuclear reaction entices one or more reactions to occur.

Thus, nuclear reactions can be sustained.

Does nature offer a convenient way to make this happen?

Meanwhile in Italy..

Enrico Fermi was bombarding large nuclei with neutrons and observing their reaction products. Typical Reaction Nucleus gains a proton:

X + n N+1 ZX* N+1 Z+1Y + eZ

Chemical Differences expected by increasing the atomic number.

Then came Uranium

Uranium was the largest stable nucleus Fermi thought that he had created a transuranic element (element with more protons than uranium) But chemical analysis of the products confusing Work repeated in Berlin by
Lise Meitner (female Jew), Fritz Strassmann (refused to join Nazi-associated

Chemical Society), Otto Hahn (anti-Nazi)

Meitner and Frisch concluded

+ 1 neutron ~14256Ba + ~92 36Kr + several neutrons More neutrons are released! Energy is released!
238 92U

Fission Reactions

These types of reactions provide mass to energy conversions

Approximately 8/10,000

= .08%,

about one tenth of fusion reactions (one million times chemical reactions)
Fission Reactions could form a basis for Chain Reactions!

Credit for Fission Discovery went solely to Hahn who received Nobel Prize
Initially Hahns refusal to acknowledge the contributions of Meitner was consistent with political expedience of not associating with a Jew. However, he continued to profess fission was his discovery. Documentation in letters gives credit to Meitner.

Anyway, 6-months after Fission is Discovered

American newspapers openly discussed the prospect of atomic energy or atomic bombs. Most American physicists doubted practicality of atomic energy or atomic bombs. So...

Szilard visits Einstein interrupts vacation!

July 12, 1939 Eugene Wigner drove Szilard to Peconic where Einstein was vacationing Einstein greeted his guest in an undershirt and rumpled, rolled-up pants Economist Sachs was consulted by Szilard Later in July, Edward Teller drove on a follow-up visit August 2nd, Einstein mailed final draft to Szilard

Einsteins Letter to Roosevelt

September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland Sachs delivered the letter to Roosevelt on October 11 Roosevelt formed Uranium Committee with $6,000 budget
This was enough to start experiments by Fermi

and Szilard

Large scale project began December 6th

U.S. Army Denies Clearances!

US Army denied security clearances to Szilard and Fermi

In 1999/2000refugee from fascism was Fermi, a FBI improperly accused Dr. Wen Ho Lee, a undoubtedly a fascist physicist at Los Alamos, of Szilard, in terror of the providing classified data to theNazis, was very proChinese German

FBI reversed Armys Denial

Szilard and Fermi produce Nuclear Reaction

Szilard had a very creative mind and could leap to conclusions. Fermis thinking process was methodical. Design for the reactor developed in letters the two exchanged.

Technical Challenge

Nuclear Reactor:
Control fission process so each fissioning nucleus

creates only ONE other fissioning nucleus Control: density, speed of neutrons (slower were better)

Nuclear Explosion:
Bring materials together fast enough with enough

density that the ensuing nuclear reaction stays together long enough to produce an explosion

December 2, 1942

Nuclear Reaction Sustained for 28 minutes Uranium spheres embedded in graphite blocks

After the experiment, Szilard and Fermi found themselves alone in the building

On that day, Szilard said to Fermi

I thought this day would go down as a black

day in the history of mankind

Arthur Compton reported the results to Washington as The Italian navigator has just landed in the new world.

Manhattan Project

All-out effort to develop an Atomic Bomb Lead by

General Leslie Groves and UC Berkeley Professor J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppy

An ambitious hard-driving general and a brilliant theoretical physicist

Modern Nuclear Power Reactor

Tickling the Dragon

Fast-moving Uranium Mass drops through hole in a larger mass Combined mass for an instant is critical Able to sustain a nuclear chain reaction

Major Issue- Fissionable Fuel

Acquiring Fissionable Materials

Plutonium 239Pu Uranium 235U

Plutonium could be produced by nuclear reactor with modest concentration of 235 92U
First Large Scale Reactor at Hanford, Washington

235 92U was separated Oak Ridge Facility

by diffusion (UF6)

Experimental Quantities of Material were produced by the Berkeley Cyclotron

Two Designs for Gadget

Gun-Triggered
Feasible with
235 92U 235 92U

was difficult to obtain

Implosion
Used 23994Pu Was obtained from Nuclear Reactor

Building the Gadget

Three Bombs:
Trinity Los Alamos Test - Pu/Implosion July 16th, 1945

Little Boy U/Cannon- Hiroshima August 6th, 1945

Fat Man Pu/Implosion- Nagasaki August 9th, 1945

German Effort Werner Heisenberg

Leading German Physicist in charge of German effort to develop an atomic bomb Germans acquired a shipment of uranium from South Africa
Was he truly dedicated to the task?

New Letter Asking Not to Use the Atomic Bomb

Nazis surrendered on May 7, 1945 Leo Szilards motivation for building the bomb vanished. Szilard, Einstein, Teller, and many other prominent scientist wrote letter to Truman asking that the atomic bomb NOT be used.

Letter by Szilard and 58 Others

We believe that the United States ought NOT to resort to the use of atomic bombs in the present phase of the war, at least not unless the terms which will be imposed upon Japan after the war are publicly announced and subsequently Japan is given an opportunity to surrender.

Truman Gets Letter Late

Letter given to Truman after the first bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima

Trumans Diary

I have told the Sec. of War, Mr. Stimson, to use it so that military objectives and soldiers and sailors are the target and NOT women and children. Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world for the common welfare cannot drop that terrible bomb on the old capital or the new. He and I are in accord. The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender and save lives. I'm sure they will not do that, but we will have given them the chance. It is certainly a good thing for the world that Hitler's crowd or Stalin's did not discover this atomic bomb.

Post-WW II Atomic Bombing

United States and the Soviet Union went on to develop H-bomb which used fusion and produced even larger energy yields. Both countries deployed a total 40,000s nuclear weapons. Massive nuclear exchange would release about the same as the ancient meteorite impacts that have been responsible for severe global climate changes resulting any extinction of many prehistoric species .

Physics 2004, Add

Quantum Mechanics General Relativity Existence of Dark Matter and Vacuum Energy Global Constraints
Global Warming Exhaustion of Petroleum Resources

Genetic Engineering

Where will these scientific understandings lead us?