Atomic Bomb Video Information

In class we watched a video called Trinity and Beyond for an introduction to atomic bombs. We got to know some science behind the bombs and some of the history of how and why they got started.

In 1939, Albert Einstein alerted President Roosevelt of activity in Europe. Some one was beginning to develop a bomb. Roosevelt took immediate precaution.

Before any bombs were exploded, they blew up 100 tons of dynamite.
The TNT was nowhere close to the force of the first atomic bomb. The first atomic bomb created a crater
Trinity: the first atomic bomb was exploded in July of 1945

Bombs were made of different materials. The little boy was simple and made with uranium. The fat man was a more efficient bomb made of plutonium. Plutonium encased the initiator. The plutonium was encased in lots of lenses. This made the plutonium implode. The uranium explodes and plutonium implodes.

In Hiroshima there were 7000 dead, and in Nagasaki there was 42000 deaths.
Baker was detonated 90 ft under water. It was catastrophic. It forced the Saratoga to sink to the bottom of Bikini Bay.

As a result of baker's huge explosion, a deeper under water test, codenamed Charlie, was canceled.

Operation Sandstone was to test new weapon designs. One bomb was a 37 kiloton explosion. A man passed the original designs to the Russians.

Ranger-Able was 1 kiloton, and in 1951 Easy was 47 kilotons and Item was 45 1/2 kilotons. George was about 225 kilotons.
 Scientists found that by burning a capsule inside the bomb acted as an initiator. It doubled the reaction of the bomb.

Then scientists invented the Hydrogen bomb. they used liquid hydrogen to make the explosion and it created so much heat that it incinerated everything.
Ivy Mike was the first full-scale test and was an enormous explosion. It was 10 megatons. It entirely destroyed the lab building that it was built inside.
Encore was a 27 megatons(?) and was tested in the same area as Grable. Grable was 15 kilotons. It did more damage than Encore and had a funny wave pattern. While Encore hardly damaged a jeep, Grable ripped the jeep apart. Grable was shot from a cannon and detonated in the sky.

In 1950 Castle Bravo detonated and was 15 megatons. It stripped the island of vegetation and made a crater 1 1/2 miles across.

The deep sea test was finally conducted.


Cherokee was 3.8 megatons, was detonated in 1956, and was the first plane-dropped Hydrogen bomb.
Lots of other tests were conducted. One of these was Monster Bomb. It was a 57 megaton Hydrogen bomb. It was the largest neuk weapon ever built. It was detonated it in the sky and its detonation went against the UN's rules. This started a weapon war. Atmosphere tests were banned because they interrupted radio waves.