World War Technology: The Atomic Bomb

The Mushroom Cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.

What is Atomic Bomb?

An Atomic bomb is an explosive device in which a large amount of energy is released through nuclear reactions. This makes an atomic bomb more called a nuclear weapon because it is more powerful device than any conventional bomb containing chemical explosives.

An Atomic Bomb is divided into two types:

1. The Fission weapon
2. The Fusion weapon

But most of weapon are fission devices and they use uranium or plutonium as the fissile fuel. While fusion weapons use a conventional fission bomb to initiate a fusion reaction that results in a greater yield when the weapon detonates like the bombing in Nagasaki, Japan.

Who created Atomic Bomb?

During World War II, the United States with the assistance of physicists, mathematicians and engineers were completed the Manhattan Project to produce the  first atomic bomb.

Albert Einstein

The physicist Albert Einstein did not participate directly in the invention of the atomic bomb, but was instrumental in facilitating its development. His special theory of  Relativity emphasized that a large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter. This was expressed by the equation E=mc2 (energy = mass times the speed of light squared).

The first demonstration of "Atomic Bomb" was at Trinity site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and it proved that the weapon would detonate and that the chain would build as predicted. The second and third demonstrations were conducted in Japan, which brought a quick end to the Second World War. Just up to and during World War 2, Germany was also working to develop atomic weapons, but was hampered by many technical and political problems (including sabotage and Allied bombings) which prevented their successfully completing their work. This left the U.S. as the only nation to ever unleash nuclear weapons in an attack.