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Nuclear Weapons
This category is for questions about weapons that use nuclear fission or fusion to gain explosive power.
3,869 Questions
What were the chances of people dying in the Holocaust?
To survive in a Camp, you had to forget tomorrow, you had to forget your family, or your past. Think of NOW, nothing else, and unless you were picked for death when on a parade, or died from disease, or lack of food, you might, just might, live until tomorrow.
People who thought about tomorrow, or their past, or their families, died...they just died, sometimes for no real reason such as being beaten by the guards. They died because their 'spirit' was broken. They 'thought' too much.
You had to keep your spirit, your humanity, you had to accept what was going on around you, and think of NOW.
Who was the pilot of the B29 which dropped Atomic bomb?
There were two such missions over Japan. The first was commanded by Colonel Paul Tibbets, who flew the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, and dropped the atomic bomb, "Little Boy," on Hiroshima. The second mission was commanded by Major Charles Sweeney, who flew the B-29 bomber, Bockscar, and dropped the atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on Nagasaki.
Did Winston Churchill create the atomic bomb?
The atomic bomb was first developed by a team of scientists in the United States under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer in a project called the Manhattan project (named after the location where much of the work took place). The project was aided by Great Britain and Canada and took 6 years from inception in 1939 (initiated by a letter from Albert Einstein to President Roosevelt warning of German research in nuclear fission), and culminating in the first successful detonation of an atomic device in New Mexico in 1945.
It should be noted, however, that the British did, in fact, first discover the properties of nuclear fission in Uranium235 in 1939, on which the first atomic bomb was based.
Whats the closest the world has ever come to a nuclear war?
The Cuban Missile Crisis of October, 1962, was the closest we've been to a nuclear exchange. See the link below for more detailed information.
How many people can get killed by a nuclear bomb?
Cannot answer, but I can list some of the variables it depends on:
- Yield
- Burst height/depth
- Target location
- Terrain
- Weather
- Building construction
- etc., etc.
etc.
The Tzar Bomba (a 50MTon bomb, largest ever exploded) if detonated at optimal airburst altitude would have a blast radius of 60 miles! How many cities in a modern metropolitan area do you think that would eliminate?
When was the first h-bomb dropped?
1952 the first fusion bomb was built and tested in the Ivy Mike test shot. This device (called the Sausage) was 80 feet tall 20 feet in diameter with a 2 foot thick steel wall casing, it was liquid fueled with a cryogenic mix of deuterium & tritium.
1954 the first deliverable fusion bomb was built and tested in the Castle Romeo test shot. This device (called Runt) was 15 feet long and 6 feet in diameter, it was dry fueled with lithium deuteride. This device became the MK-17/24 bomb carried by B-36 heavy bombers. Note: the earlier and higher yield Castle Bravo test shot device was also small enough to be deliverable, but was not built in a weaponizable configuration, it like Ivy Mike was a physics experiment and they did not want to add anything that might interfere with measurements.
How many nuclear bombs were dropped on Iraq?
None. Nuclear weapons have not been, nor are likely to, authorized for use.
Deadly radiation left over after a nuclear blast?
nuclear radiation, either prompt or in fallout. Can be any mix of Alpha, Beta, X-rays, Gamma, and/or Neutron.
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, great anticipation and fear ran rampant at White Sands Missile Range near Alamogordo, New Mexico. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project, could hardly breathe. Years of secrecy, research, and tests were riding on this moment. I think it is obvious that this Q is as difficult to rationalise as the one Truman was asked. There can be no right answer: Either way many people are going to die. I suppose the simple truth is that using the Atomic Bomb Truman ensured that the deaths would be those of the Japanese & not those of invading US forces. The straight answer to the question has to be yes: But it is not something one would wish on ones worst enemy.
Us drops atomic bomb on japan?
- August 6, 1945: Hiroshima, MK-I Uranium gun bomb, 9,000 pounds 15Kton yield.
- August 9, 1945: Nagasaki, MK-III Plutonium implosion bomb, 10,000 pounds 22Kton yield.
- August 14, 1945: Japan surrenders.
The production schedule for additional bombs in 1945 was:
- September 1945: 3 MK-III Plutonium implosion bombs.
- October 1945: 3 MK-III Plutonium implosion bombs.
- November 1945: 7 MK-III Mod 1 Plutonium/Uranium composite core implosion bombs.
- December 1945: 7 MK-III Mod 1 Plutonium/Uranium composite core implosion bombs.
If Japan had not surrendered when it did, the US had the ability to have dropped up to 23 atomic bombs on Japan in 1945! The MK-IV (an easier to assemble, maintain, arm/disarm design) would probably have gone into production in early 1946.
While I have no precise data on the yield of the MK-III Mod 1, I assume it was probably expected to be higher than the MK-III. Probably between 30Kton and 40Kton. However it was not designed to improve yield, it was designed to balance Plutonium and Uranium production capacity (Uranium was easier to enrich to weapons grade than Plutonium was to produce in reactors).
See: Swords of Armageddon by Chuck Hansen.
Note: unforeseen events would likely have prevented meeting the full schedule of 23 bomb. One of these (wigner effect) happened in October and forced the shutdown of at least one of the three Plutonium production reactors and reduction in operating power of the others to limit the damage. However had the war still been going on then it might have been decided to sacrifice the reactors to keep production up as long as possible. Perhaps the MK-III core might even have been redesigned to be just Uranium should all three Plutonium production reactors completely fail.
When did the nuclear bomb explode?
In war: August 6, 1945 and August 9, 1945. They have never been used since.
In peacetime: some were dropped, some were detonated on the ground, some were detonated under the ground, some were detonated under water, some were detonated on steel towers, some were detonated hanging below balloons, some were detonated in the air after being shot from artillery pieces, some were detonated in the air on rockets fired from fighter intercepter planes, some were detonated high in the atmosphere or in space carried there on rockets, etc.
The first post WW2 tests were in the summer of 1946: Crossroads Able was dropped from a B-29. Crossroads Baker was suspended underwater from a barge in the center of Bikini lagoon. Due to unanticipated contamination from the Baker shot, the Crossroads Charlie shot was canceled.
Although most major powers (particularly the US and Russia) have ceased all nuclear tests, testing continues today by other nations.
What country invented the nuclear bomb?
Since Leo Szilard invented the atomic bomb in 1933 in London and patented it in 1934, I would have to say it was invented in England. But he was unable to build it at the time.
It took another 12 years and a gigantic investment in industrial infrastructure before the US was able to build the first ones based on this patent.
Who won the Nuclear Arms Race?
The nuclear arms race is sen as a metaphor, and can only be won when one country or power will control the power of the people, due to nuclear weapons.
No arms race is ever won; they either result in an actual war (which might be won or lost) or a stalemate of some kind and disarmament.
Who first used the term Cold War?
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/site/comments/cold_war/ Dave Wilton, Sunday, June 04, 2006
Claim for coinage of cold war is disputed. It was probably coined independently by both George Orwell and by journalist and speechwriter Herbert Bayard Swope. It is often ascribed to columnist Walter Lippmann, who did not coin it but was instrumental in popularizing the term. Prize for first published use goes to George Orwell who used it in a 19 October 1945 article in the Tribune: A State which was...in a permanent state of "cold war" with its neighbours. But it was Swope's independent coinage that inspired others to use the term. Swope used the phrase in a draft speech for Bernard Baruch in 1946. Baruch omitted the phrase from the final draft of the 1946 speech, but did use it in a 1947 speech in Columbia, South Carolina: Let us not be deceived-today we are in the midst of a cold war. Baruch repeated the phrase in 1948 Senate testimony and it was picked up and used by Lippmann. Lippmann later stated that he was familiar with a French phrase, la guerre froide, from the 1930s. Swope recounts his coinage of the term in a 10 May 1950 letter to Lippmann: The first time the idea of the cold war came to me was probably in '39 or '40 when America was talking about a "shooting" war. I had never heard that sort of qualification. To me "shooting" war was like saying death murder-rather tautologous, verbose and redundant. I thought the proper opposite of the so-called hot war was cold war, and I used that adjective in the early '40s in some letters I wrote, before our war. I may have been subconsciously affected by the term cold pogrom which was being used to describe the attitude of the Nazis toward the Jews in the middle '30s. I never heard the French expression to which you refer. According to the Wikipedia article on the subject, "The term "Cold War" was introduced in 1947 by Americans Bernard Baruch and Walter Lippman to describe emerging tensions between the two former wartime allies", the United States and the USSR.
Why did the world fear a nuclear war?
I'm sure you're reffering to the cold war. Nuclear war was avoided becasue both sides have nuclear weapons. Knowing if one side uses the other side will fire back neither side decided to use. In theory nuclear weapons may have saved more lives than have been killed. If it weren't for nuclear weapons we most likely would have seen bloodshed between the West and the USSR during the cold war.
Why did the US build a hydrogen bomb?
Most Western Nations were surprised at how quickly the USSR was able to create their own fission (atomic) bomb. So instead of enjoying 5-10 years of atomic superiority, Western Countries were now looking at an unexpected threat.
By pushing the development of the fusion (hydrogen) bomb, it was hoped that Western Countries could once again gain weapon superiority.
Which is most powerful a nuke an atomic bomb or a hydrogen bomb?
An H-Bomb is 1000 times stronger than an atomic bomb. Atomic explosions are based on splitting atoms and is a fission explosion or fission bomb. The Hydrogen bomb (also called H-Bomb) is a Fusion reaction where atoms are forced together.
Atomic bombs were used in World War II, Hydrogen bombs have been tested, but not used in war.
Who was the president when they droped the nuclear bomb on japan?
Harry S. Truman. FDR died about 4 months prior to the atomic bombs being dropped.
What kind of weapons did they have in the 1800?
Early 1800s you had smooth bore muskets. Not very accurate, which is why they would line up troops in mass formations and have them shoot at each other. Brown Bess for example.... They also had cannon but those also were not very accurate.
Around the time of the Napoleonic wars you had the introduction of shrapnel rounds.
By the middle of the 1800s they had rifles, which were quite a bit more accurate than the muskets. Sharps rifles could kill at 1000 yards. The Gatling gun was also introduced around 1860.
By the end of the 1800s you had cartridge guns such as the Colt Peacemaker and Winchester rifles. Also the first machine guns.
Look up black powder guns, early cartridge revolvers and rifles.
Why is Hydrogen bomb more destructive than atom bomb?
A hydrogen bomb is more destructive than an atomic bomb because it has hydrogen. Hydrogen is highly flammable, and if a hydrogen bomb exploded with enough force and just enough fire, a huge wide area of a fiery explosion will occur. This is more destructive than the atomic bomb. Fire basically engulfs everything and destroys all in its path, making for an effective bomb.
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Wrong!
Hydrogen does not burn in a hydrogen bomb, it fuses releasing atomic energy too. This fusion reaction is over in microseconds, much faster than combustion can start; also it reaches temperatures in the tens of millions of degrees, much hotter than any chemical fire or fission bomb. The reason a fusion bomb is usually more destructive than a fission bomb is the fusion bomb has no upper limit on yield, the fission bomb cannot be built with a yield over 1 megaton. One can just keep adding fusion stages until you get the desired yield.
How many people died from use of nuclear bombs or reactors?
More than 50 people died directly in the Chernobyldisaster on 26 April 1986 in Ukraine (then part of USSR). Estimates of the number who died later from radiation and other sicknesses range from possibly 4,000 to close to a million.
No one died in the Three Mile Island accident in the US.
Two people died in the Tokaimura, Japan nuclear accident 30 September 1999. More than 660 workers and nearby residents were exposed to excess radiation, but it is not known how many later suffered sickness or cancers as a result.
There may have been several deaths from the Fukushi,Japan nuclear disaster on 11 March 2011. Numbers of people have been exposed to excess radiation.
When was the first nuclear bomb made?
There are records of the Mongols using bombs against the Japanese as early as 1281 AD. The Chinese are commonly credited with the invention of the first form of gunpowder, Black Powder, but there is no definitive date or creditation for that.
Did Germany develop nuclear weapons during World War 2?
No it wasnt ready yet.
The US made no explicit threats to "nuke" anybody during the war. If they had it would not have meant anything to anybody, because only very good physics students understood the destructive potential theoretically available from nuclear fission. To the average person such blather would have sounded like science fiction.
The closest the US came to issuing any nuclear threats was in the Potsdam Declaration, made by President Truman in late July, 1945, while at an allied conference at Potsdam Germany. Truman had received word that the first test bomb had been successfully exploded July 16. Until the moment that first bomb detonated, no one could be sure it would work. This was over two months after Germany had surrendered. So nobody threatened Germany with an unproven device no one was sure would even work. The whole project was incredibly secret anyway, and no one dared breathe a word of it. There would have been no blustering about it because the US was already deathly afraid the German physicists led by Werner Heisenberg were already working on their own bomb, so if the US started talking about its own nuclear devices the fear would have been that this might spur the Germans to accelerate their own efforts to create a bomb. The Germans already had guided missiles, which nobody else had, and had been bombarding London with them for months. If they had a bomb to stick on them the results would have been a catastrophe. The US did not know until the war was over that the German bomb program had taken a wrong turn and was nowhere near as advanced as had been feared.
What Truman did say in the Potsdam Declaration was that the Japanese needed to surrender immediately, or face "prompt and utter destruction", "the like of which the world has never seen". That's pretty clear. But the Japanese made no effort to give up.
The commander of the world's first nuclear bomber unit, the 509th Composite Bomb Group, which dropped the bombs on Japan, was Paul Tibbets. He was at the controls when the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He had formed and trained the group for "special" bombing missions for over a year. Tibbets related that the plan was always to drop the bombs on Germany, but they just were not ready in time.
Which President made the decision to drop the atomic bomb?
the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S Truman from Missouri.
Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the Manhattan Project, the massive undertaking by the US, Canada and Great Britain that created the first atomic "pile," the first sustained, controlled, man-made nuclear fission reaction, and the first atomic explosive device. Implicit in his authorization is his intent to use it against a foreign enemy. Roosevelt died just three months before the Trinity "shot," the first detonation of an atomic warhead in the New Mexico desert in July 1945.
Harry S. Truman, FDR's vice president, had been essentially kept in the dark with regard to the atomic bomb until Roosevelt's death. Once he became president in April 1945, however, he was quickly apprised of the status of the bomb project, and he insisted on daily reports about it. After the Trinity "shot," Truman took the decision to use the two remaining bombs against Japan.
