Mohammad Anis B.
Aguam
The Manhattan Project was a research and development project that produced the first nuclear
weapons during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United
Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major
General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; physicist J. Robert
Oppenheimerwas the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory that designed the actual
bombs. The Army component of the project was designated the Manhattan District;
"Manhattan" gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute
Materials, for the entire project. Along the way, the project absorbed its earlier British
counterpart, Tube Alloys. The Manhattan Project began modestly in 1939, but grew to employ
more than 130,000 people and cost nearly US$2 billion (about $26 billion in 2015[1] dollars).
Over 90% of the cost was for building factories and producing the fissile materials, with less
than 10% for development and production of the weapons. Research and production took place
at more than 30 sites across the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Two types of atomic bomb were developed during the war. A relatively simple gun-type fission
weapon was made usinguranium-235, an isotope that makes up only 0.7 percent of natural
uranium. Since it is chemically identical to the most common isotope, uranium-238, and has
almost the same mass, it proved difficult to separate. Three methods were employed
for uranium enrichment: electromagnetic, gaseous and thermal. Most of this work was
performed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to
produce plutonium. Reactors were constructed at Oak Ridge andHanford, Washington, in which
uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The plutonium was then chemically
separated from the uranium. The gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so a
more complex implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and construction
effort at the project's principal research and design laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon
project. Through Operation Alsos, Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes
behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up
German scientists. Despite the Manhattan Project's tight security, Soviet atomic spies still
penetrated the program.
The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity test,
conducted at New Mexico'sAlamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range on 16 July 1945. Little
Boy, a gun-type weapon, and Fat Man, an implosion-type weapon, were used in the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively. In the immediate postwar years, the
Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads,
developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories,
supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy. It
maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation
of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in January 1947.
Classical physics refers to theories of physics that predate modern, more complete, or more widely
applicable theories. If a currently accepted theory is considered to be "modern," and its introduction
represented a majorparadigm shift, then previous theories (or new theories based on the older
paradigm) will often be referred to as "classical".
As such, the definition of a classical theory depends on context. Classical physical concepts are
often used when modern theories are unnecessarily complex for a particular situation.
Modern physics is an effort to understand the underlying processes of the interactions of matter
utilizing the tools of science & engineering. It implies that nineteenth century descriptions of
phenomena are not sufficient to describe nature as observed with modern instruments. It is generally
assumed that a consistent description of these observations will incorporate elements ofquantum
mechanics & relativity.
Small velocities and large distances is usually the realm of classical physics. Modern physics often
involves extreme conditions; in practice, quantum effects typically involve distances comparable
toatoms (roughly 109 m), while relativistic effects typically involve velocities comparable to thespeed
of light (roughly 108 m/s).
