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First Atomic bomb explosion 17 July 1944

  • 09-03-2007 7:54pm
    #1
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,552 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/usa5.html

    While the link has some similarities to the Halifax explosion, too many things don't add up. The second test ( Trinity ) a year later July 1945 was to test the Plutonium bomb. The uranium bomb did not need to be tested as the mechanism is so simple, you just bring the two pieces of uranium together and then hold them together and do it all in about a millisecond and a half. Not rocket science. The problem is that any explosion that would crush or compress a bomb would trigger it too. Plutonium weapons are safer because they will only go off if you detonate the explosive lenses all at exactly the same time.


Comments

  • #2
    po0k
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,817 ✭✭✭✭po0k


    they wanted to see what it would look like.

    Those guys were in hog heaven out there, do you understand, man? They had the big weapons catalogue opened up. "What's G12 do, Tommy?" "Well, it says here it destroys everything but the fillings in their teeth, helps us pay for the war effort. Well ****, pull that one up. Pull up G12 please." (missle explosion noise). "Cool, what's G13 do?"


  • #3
    civdef
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,057 ✭✭✭civdef


    The uranium bomb did not need to be tested as the mechanism is so simple, you just bring the two pieces of uranium together and then hold them together and do it all in about a millisecond and a half. Not rocket science.

    Jeez, the US government would have loved to have had you around in the early 40's, they could have saved billions on the Manhattan Project, and Oppenheimer, Fermi and thousands of others could have spent the years they worked on it perfecting their golf skills.

    Hindsight is a great thing.


  • #4
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 93,552 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    getting the uranium pure enough was the hard part, well not hard exactly, just tedious and a ridicolous electricity bill

    IIRC every other country except Pakistan has gone for plutonium bombs

    also IIRC it's possible to detonate one type of atomic bomb by dropping one piece into another form a height of only a few meters !

    Actually one of the key problems with the atomic bomb was determining that you could build one with 11Kg or so of Uranium instead of a couple of tons


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