Splitting Uranium

WinstonSmith

Hey. I have no scientific background but have recently become quite interested in it. I've always felt a bit of curiosity about physics and astronomy etc, but heightened by Stephen Hawking's series on C4, I was wondering about a couple of things. To make the atom bomb, an atom of uranium is split, yes? What would happen if one were to split an atom of something else?

cianl1

Generally, much of the same.

Large release of energy along with the production of lighter nuceli and free neutrons and the emission of photons. However the production of nuclear weapons is based on the splitting of heavy nuclei, most commonly uranium-235 (Little Boy) and plutonium-239 (Fat Man).

Should find all the info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission

Ponster

WinstonSmith wrote: »

What would happen if one were to split an atom of something else?

As Cian said, pretty much the same thing. The difference is that Uranium, when it is split by neutrons, emits two neutrons when it absorbs one. Once you have enough uranium (~size of a golf ball) you can then set up a chain reaction. Once the first atom is split the process continues on by itself.

If you spilt an atom of something else you won't get extra neutrons being emitted and therefore no chain reaction so useless as a source of fuel.

ray giraffe

If you were to split any atom lighter than Iron there would not be a release of energy but a net absorption of energy. However this would useless for bombs.