• Question: How does a atomic bomb is produce? Einstein created it?

    Asked by Sismyke to Alex, Anaïs, Peter, Sarwat, Shreesha on 11 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Alexander Henderson

      Alexander Henderson answered on 11 Mar 2015:

      An atomic bomb is the uncontrolled fission (splitting of an atom) of radioactive elements which produces a lot of heat and energy. The tamed version of this is a nuclear power plant essentially. Einstein was a theoretical physicist who established the scientific theory behind it.

    • Photo: Peter Maskell

      Peter Maskell answered on 12 Mar 2015:

      The development of the atomic bomb was under a project called the Manhattan project http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

    • Photo: Shreesha Bhat

      Shreesha Bhat answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      Hi Sismyke,

      “I made one great mistake in my life… when I signed the letter to President Roosevelt recommending that atom bombs be made; but there was some justification – the danger that the Germans would make them.” These were the words of Einstein just few months before his death. Although, Einstein had no direct role in creating an atomic bomb, his formula E = mc2 showed that large amount of energy could be released from a small amount of matter. Later, as the world war was approaching, Einstein learnt that German scientists had succeeded in splitting uranium (fission process), which made him write a letter to the US president warning him that if US didnot start making the bomb, Germans will do it before them! Such was the role of Einstein, i would say a patriotic feeling helped in accelerating the research on atom bomb!

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