Part 1 of the History and How the Nuclear Bomb works

This post begins the 1st part in the 4 part series of the History and How the Nuclear Bomb works! Enjoy!

The 1st nuclear bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1941. This marked the end of World War II. 3 Days later, the second bomb detonated over Nagasaki. The events in Japan ended World War II but it began the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union, which is current day Russia. Between the 1940s and 1980s, both countries invested huge amounts of money in nuclear weapons and increased their stockpiles. The threat loomed over everybodies heads and schools held air raid drills incase of an emergency. During the 1970s and 1980s the tensions began to ease and when the Berlin Wall marked the fall of the Soviet government. The Cold War had finally ended.

As the tensions disappeared, the commitment to put a limit on nuclear arms came up. The commitment only allows 1550 warheads per country. 9 countries in the world possess the power of nuclear warheads but only 3 of them have the capability to strike any place in the world. Those 3 countries are the United States, Russia, and China. 

Nuclear bombs involve forces strong and weak. There are 2 basic ways to release energy from an atom, these ways also apply to the nuclear atom. The first way is fusion - the bringing together of 2 smaller atoms into 1 bigger atom. The second way is fission - scientists split up an atom into 2 smaller parts using a neutron. In either process, there are large amounts of heat and radiation given off.

That concludes this blog on the History and How the Nuclear Bomb works.

Citation -

Harris, William, Ph.D. Craig Freudenrich, and John Fuller. "How Nuclear Bombs

 

Work." HowStuffWorks. HowStuffWorks.com, 05 Oct. 2000. Web. 16 Mar.

 

2014