Originally posted by shadowRRL
Assess the significance of the Manhattan Project to society.
Is there anybody out there that know this stuff...
HELP NEEDED URGENTLY!!!
this is basically me crapping on in one of my assessments, i received an alright mark for the entire assess. it's not the best, but i crapped on hard... as you can see:
1. Gather, process and analyse information to assess the significance of the Manhattan Project to society.
The Manhattan Project was the code name used for the United States effort to produce the atomic bomb during World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineering District of the US Army Corps of Engineers in New York, where much of the early work was done.
In 1938, German scientists discovered nuclear fission. Physicists, many of whom were refugees from Nazi persecution, raised the possibility that Nazi Germany might develop an atomic bomb. They included Hungarian physicists Szilard, Teller and Wigner Teller who was to become the father of the H-bomb.
1939 saw Szilard, Teller and Wigner convincing Albert Einstein to write a letter to the American President Franklin Roosevelt, which advocating the immediate development of an atomic bomb. Consequently, Roosevelt set up an Advisory Committee on Uranium in October of that year.
December 1941 saw the Japanese attacking Pearl Harbour, bringing America into the war. This attack had accelerated the race for the atomic bomb. The army was soon brought into the construction activities necessary for the Manhattan Project to proceed. The theoretical physicist Oppenheimer was then appointed to direct the weapons design and manufacture.
The significance of the Manhattan Project had been aided by Enrico Fermi, who had created the first chain reaction in a reactor. Four years later, bomb-grade U-235 had been produced, to be fashioned into a bomb. Other developments in Washington used Pu-239. The Pu-239 bomb was made by having a sphere of Pu-239, surrounded by explosives.
The resulting implosion would then result in a supercritical mass faster than was possible in a barrel. With the successful explosion of the first atomic bomb using Pu-239, the resultant explosion created an energy value equivalent to twenty-thousand tonnes of TNT.
At the same time, the U-235 bomb (nicknamed Little Boy) was on its way to the Pacific, to be dropped on Hiroshima. Three days later, a Pu-239 bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
The Manhattan Project was the largest and most expensive project of the war, costing approximately US $2 billion dollars in 1945.
The Manhattan Project is considered to be an engineering feat unparalleled to that day. However, the most significant aspect of the Manhattan Project had been assurance that humankind possessed the power to destroy itself.
The Cold War and the resulting arms race had cost us the chance to eradicate disease and hunger, by focussing our attentions on the development of atomic bombs such as U-235 and Pu-239 bombs, creating energy values equivalent to twenty-thousand tonnes of TNT, destroying two cities (Hiroshima and Nagasaki), while costing $2 billion US dollars during 1945. The Manhattan Project was a success to society, its significance lies in the fact humankind has developed the power and has the capability to destroy itself and the world.