HIS 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Fat Man, Plutonium, Nuclear Fission
29 Mar 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Lecture 14a: the making of the atomic bomb. Marked a turning point in the relationships of war & society. Development of nuclear physics in the early 1900s. Radiation was discovered around the year 1900 led to the discovery of atoms, which are made up of sub-atomic particles (electrons, protons, and neutrons) 1905: albert einstein"s theory of relativity (e=mc2) showed that even a tiny amount of matter could be converted into an enormous amount of energy. Many of the leading nuclear physicists were jewish and fled to britain and the. United states after hitler came to power in 1933 and germany greatly suffered. Lise meither & otto hahn were the first (german) scientists to recognize nuclear fission in uranium. A uranium atom is hit by a primary neutron and splits, giving off energy and more neutrons. If those neutrons were to collide with others chain reaction/atomic explosion. Leo szilard recognized that the discovery of nuclear fission might lead to a.
