Energy+Group

= INVENTION, INNOVATION, INTE  RACTIONS Energy Group= Colin   =  Robert Oppenheimer   =  =      = =  Birth:  = =    When: April 22, 1904    = =    Where: New York, NY  = =    Education:  = =    Where: Harvard  = =    When: 1932  = =   Interesting Facts:  = =Name of Innovation: Uranium Atomic Bomb= =   Designed in: 1939  = =   Designed by: Robert Oppenheimer  ,  David Bohm, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Otto Frisch, Rudolf Peierls, Felix Bloch, Niels Bohr, Emilio Segre, James Franck, Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs and Edward Teller. = =   What does it look like/do:  = =   ·    The bomb itself looked big and chunky with a fin on the back. On the inside, two supercritical masses are in the center. A detonation charge is on the top of the supercritical masses and surrounding all of this is U-235 uranium. = = ·   The explosion causes the infamous mushroom cloud and incinerates everything close to it. It also releases radioactive vapor into the air. Even today, the radioactive vapor gives people Lukimia. On the ground = =   How does it work: Two supercritical masses go together and cause a chain reaction in the Uranium and explode with the force of 500,000 tons of TNT. = =   How was it a change? A change from what: Before, instead of atomic bombs, we dropped normal bombs out of planes. The atomic bombs are a lot more powerful. = = Why was it needed: To scare the Japanese into surrendering during WWII. = =   What led to it? Events in the world? Need? Accidental discovery: The thing that started the Manhattan Project was that Germany was trying to extract U-235 from U-238, useable in atom bombs. At the time, Germany and the USA were not the best of friends; in fact, the relationship between them was quite tense. = =   How did the world greet it: After the A-bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the world protested that all nuclear weapons should be disarmed. People are still protesting today. = =   Did it make life easier for anyone: It made us in the USA feel safer now that we’re a nuclear powerhouse. = = =
 * 1) His father was a wealthy textile importer from Germany. He immigrated in 1888.
 * 2) In the fall of 1929, Oppenhiemer had to adapt his teaching skills and give lectures in Dutch at the University of Leiden on a visit.
 * 3) In the 1930’s, Oppenhiemer was actually a supporter of communism!
 * 4) Oppenhiemer’s wife was actually a widow of a Spanish communist politician.
 * 5) During the first nuclear test at Los Alamos, a blind girl claimed to see the flash. In a town 140 miles away!