The Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the code name for the development of the nuclear bomb. On July 16, 1945 the first nuclear test occured in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This test was code named "Trinity." J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director at Los Alamos, said this after he saw the explosion: "We knew the world would not be the same." He also said that a Hindu scripture came to mind which said: "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Only two months after the Trinity test, two nuclear bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. The official purpose of the detonations were to end the war. We thought that by devastating the Japanese with these bombs the war would be over. Deaths from the bombs are estimated at 100,000.
http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/timeline/manhattan.html

This is a picture of the "Trinity" test. Someone was obviously there to take the picture, making it a primary source. This shows how much power a nuclear bomb has.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_(nuclear_test)

This is also a picture of the "Trinity" test. As shown in the picture, it was taken just .025 seconds after the detonation. This shows that in less than two hundredths of a second, a nuclear bomb destroys close to 400 meters.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm
"A nuclear weapon of the "Fat Man" type, the plutonium implosion type detonated over Nagasaki. 60 inches in diameter and 128 inches long, the weapon weighed about 10,000 pounds and had a yield approximating 21,000 tons of high explosive" (Summary taken from gwu.edu)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm
"A nuclear weapon of the "Little Boy" type, the uranium gun-type detonated over Hiroshima. It is 28 inches in diameter and 120 inches long. "Little Boy" weighed about 9,000 pounds and had a yield approximating 15,000 tons of high explosives." (Summary taken from gwu.edu.)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/index.htm
Nagasaki, August 10, 1945. "Fat Man" was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. This picture was taken just one day after that. It shows the devastation that a nuclear bomb causes. It wiped out everything, leaving nothing in its path.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki


Testing of the nuclear bomb.
(Original work done by Jusitn VanDerHoeven)

Quiz Questions

1. What was the name of the bomb that was dropped over Nagasaki?
Answer: Fat Man
2. What was the name of the bomb that was dropped over Hiroshima?
Answer: Little Boy
3. Where did the first nuclear test take place?
Answer: Los Alamos, New Mexico

Other Facts:

• In 1939, we were worried that the Nazis were developing a nuclear bomb. In June 1942, the U.S. decided to develop its own program to make a nuclear. It was important that the United States developed the bomb before Germany or Japan.
• Albert Einstein sent a letter to President Roosevelt that warned him about the possibility of the Nazi government developing weapons of mass destruction. Einstein took responsibility for the development of the "chain reaction. He called it the "greatest mistake of his life."
  
• The director of this project was General Leslie R. Groves.
• Some of the early research took place at the University of Chicago. A lot of research was done by a man named Enrico Fermi.
• During the Trinity test, the heat was so intense from the detonation that it actually melted some of the desert sand into glass.
• The Trinity test made a crater almost 2,400 feet across and 10 feet deep.
  

Sources from "Other facts"

http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/manhattanproject.cfm
http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml
http://digitalvaults.org/#/detail/138/?record=138
http://www.atomicmuseum.com/tour/tr4.cfm