Atomic+Bomb

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The Atomic Bomb By Kieran //** Som etimes you might ask yourself; “Why was the Atomic bomb even invented”? Or, “Why did they even need to make it”? The Americans Made the A-Bomb because they were worried that the Nazis would make and use a nuclear weapon before they did. They also needed to make it because they were threatening to use it on Japan unless they surrendered, and they didn’t. After he found out about the threat of the Nazi’s getting a nuclear weapon before the Americans, President Roosevelt ordered the U.S. to start a secret project to make an A-bomb. It was named The //__Manhattan Project__// after Vannevar Bush took over because it was a name that nobody would suspect to be a secret and that’s where Vannevar’s office was. There was no real inventor of the A-Bomb, because there were many different parts invented by many different people. One of the most famous inventors is Albert Einstein. He predicted that mass could be converted into energy, which is how the A-Bomb is set off. It was later on proved in 1932 by two scientists. What happens in an A-Bomb explosion is this: A neutron would split a uranium atom, sending out more neutrons that will split more uranium atoms, and so on. This process is happening billions of times in a fraction of a second in an A-Bomb, and each time an atom is split, it creates energy. With all of that energy, they figured out how to make a bomb out of it, and Walla! The project to make an A-Bomb was started. After they figured how to make the A-Bomb and built the first one, they wanted to blow up 100 tons of TNT, because they thought it would give them an idea of the A-bombs explosion. Boy, were they wrong. That test took place on May 7, 1945. Then they decided to test the real A-Bomb. They hoisted it up onto the top of a hundred-foot tower, and, from about 20 miles away, detonated it. The A-bomb blew up in a massive ball of fire that reached 2,000 feet across. The heat was so intense, it could be felt 11 miles away!!!! The test happened at 5:29 AM, so the sun didn’t even rise yet and it still lit up the entire sky in a “blinding light” as one of the officers who worked on the Manhattan Project said. And instead of being equal to 100 tons of TNT, it was equal to 20,000 tons!!!!!! It also melted the steel tower it was on to nothing, melted the sand near it and created a huge crater. It was also so powerful that 100 miles away, the force broke every window on the houses. The government didn’t want them to know that it was an A-bomb so they were forced to tell them that a nearby explosives store had tragically blown up. Now that they knew it worked, they had a deadly, nuclear weapon. The United States and the Russians had caused Germany to surrender in 1994. But Japan didn’t surrender. Now the U.S. decided to plan an invasion on Japan to get them to surrender. But then the government came up with a better idea. They decided to demand Japan to surrender. If they didn’t, they would drop an A-bomb on the industrial city of Hiroshima. And you guessed it, they didn’t surrender. So on August 6, 1945 the Enola Gay, flown by colonel Tibbets, set out from a little island named Tinian near Japan carrying the //__Little Boy__//, an A-bomb that was only 2ft. 4in. tall and 10ft. 3in. long. It weighed 8,900 pounds. Hiroshima had about 320,000 people and about 75,000 houses at the time, and when the A-Bomb was dropped, 100,000to 130,000 people died instantly, and about 50,000 houses were destroyed. The bomb blew up 580 meters above the ground and it even caused some people and some buildings to dissapear because the temperature was several **MILLION** degrees celcius at first. Also, when it blew up, there was a terrible wind that picked people up and blew them all over the place. Then, due to radiation, starvation, and injuries, thousands more died weeks, months, and even years later. In fact, thousands are still dying today. But, surprisingly, the Japanese still didn’t surrender! So the Americans decided to drop another A-bomb on Japan. It happened 3 days later, on August 9, 1945, on another industrial city named Nagasaki. It had about 200,000 people living there at the time. The A-bomb this time was named //__Fat Man__// because it was 5 ft. tall and 10 ft. 8 in. long. It killed around 50,000 people and injured just as many. But even now Hiroshima is more famous because of it being the first Atomic Bomb victim.

Badash, Lawrence. "Atomic Bomb." __Http://go.grolier.com/__. Crewe, Sabrina, and Dale Anderson. __The Atom Bomb Project (Events That Shaped America)__. Grand Rapids: Gareth Stevens, 2004. "Nuclear weapon." __World book__. 2005th ed. 2005.