The atomic bomb

By: M. Awais Yaqoob

What is an Atomic Bomb?• Powerful explosive nuclear weapon

fueled by the splitting, or fission, of the nuclei of specific isotopes of uranium or plutonium in a chain reaction

• What is fission? – The act or process of splitting into

parts

Who Created the Atomic Bomb and When was it Created?

• Named the Manhattan Project• The leader of the Manhattan Project was U.S.

Army Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves; His team worked under the direction of American physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer

• Development of the atomic bomb began in 1942

What is the Atomic Bomb Made From?

When was the First Bomb Dropped?• The first atomic explosion was conducted, as a

test, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945

• August 6, 1945 the US drops first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan ("Little Boy")

• August 9, US drops second atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki ("Fat Man")

Statistics of the Bomb

• 60,000 to 70,000 people were killed by the Hiroshima bomb

• 40,000 by the bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Blue= Death TollRed= Injuries

Why was the Atomic Bomb Dropped?

• To save Americans soldiers lives– Options were to invade Japan or drop atomic

bombs• Invasion of Japan had casualty numbers of

500,000 to 1 million soldiers killed/wounded– Fierce house-to-house combat

• Atomic bomb losses projected at American aircrew

– Decision made by President Harry S. Truman

Negative side to to the Atomic Bomb (people’s opinions)

• People thought the bomb was not dropped on European enemies but on people of a nonwhite race

• “ A few scholars, notably Gar Alperovitz, have further charged that the atomic holocaust at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was not the final shot of World War II but the first salvo in the cold war.”

Who Delivered the Atomic Bomb?

• The USS Indianapolis – Delivered parts of “Little Boy” on July 30, 1945 in

a Top Secret mission• Dropped 2 weeks later

– Torpedoed by Japanese submarine• 300 killed on impact• 900 sailors went into the Pacific for over 5 days• 321 survived to be rescued

– 4 later died in the hospital

Works Cited

• Microsoft, Encarta, Microsoft Corporation, 2003

• Stanton, Doug. In Harm’s Way. Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2001

• Bailey, Thomas A., and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant.

10th ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Health and Company, 1994.