Nuclear

(Fission)Bombs
Dylan Thomas
What are Nuclear Bombs?
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force
from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.
Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small
amounts of matter

How Effective are Nuclear Bombs
A nuclear bomb has the equivalence of 1.2 million tons of tnt
The only two bombs used were against the Japanese by the US during
WWII
These bombs destroyed two cities

Inside of a Nuclear Bomb
It all starts with the atom. An atom is
composed of three subatomic particles, a
proton, a neutron, and an electron.
Atoms proton to electron ratio is always 1:1,
if the number of neutrons change, it is called
an isotope
What is an Isotope?
An isotope is an atom that has different
amounts of neutrons. Depending on the
element and the number of neutrons, an
atom nuclei can be either stable or un-
stable.
So What?
When an atom is unstable, it emits particles.
This is where simple atoms can become
destructive
There are three types of particle
emission(radioactive decay): Alpha decay,
Beta decay, and Spontaneous fission
Nuclear fission
Nuclear fission is the separation of the nucleus by
shooting a neutron into the nucleus
Scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman discovered
that neutrons could split open a uranium atom into two
smaller pieces
This led them to discover that the neutrons created in
fission could ignite a chain reaction of extreme energy
U -235 and its Importance
U-235 is one of the few elements that can undergo
induced fission
Induced fission-A neutron is absorbed by a
uranium-235 nucleus, turning it briefly into an excited
uranium-236 nucleus, with the excitation energy
provided by the kinetic energy of the neutron plus the
forces that bind the neutron.
Fission Bomb Design
In the bomb, the nuclear fuel must be separated to
prevent premature detonation
The minimum critical mass must be reached, the
minimum mass of fissionable material, in order for the
bomb to detonate
The material must be close together or the bomb will
not function as intended
The neutrons are introduced into the fissionable
material forcing the bomb explode
Extra info:
Little Man and Fat Boy
Little Man was 10 feet 6 inches in length and
29 inches in diameter, weighing in at about
9,700 pounds. (dropped at Hiroshima)
Fat Boy was 10 feet 8 inches in length and 5
feet in diameter, weighing 10,000 pounds.
(dropped at Nagasaki)
Why are Nuclear Bombs so
Effective?
A wave of intense heat comes from the explosion
Pressure also comes from the shock wave, created
by the blast
Radiation
Radioactive Fallout (clouds of fine radioactive
particles of dust and bomb debris that fall back to
the ground)

Transformational Power of
Chemistry
Chemistry takes something as simple as an
isotope and transforms it into one of the most
destructive forces that we know of. Through a
few steps, an element can be transformed into
a weapon of mass destruction.
Works Cited
Harris, William, Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. and John Fuller. "How Nuclear Bombs Work" 05
October 2000. HowStuffWorks.com. <http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm> 31
August 2014.
Nuclear weapon. (2014, August 29). Retrieved September 1, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapon
Nuclear fission. (2014, August 29). Retrieved September 1, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission