The Physics of the Manhattan Project

by Bruce Cameron Reed

Overview

How did scientists calculate the critical masses of uranium and plutonium needed for the World War II Little Boy and Fat Man nuclear weapons? Using undergraduate-level physics, this book explains it.\

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030613754
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	01/03/2021
Edition description:	Fourth Edition 2021
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bruce Cameron Reed is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Physics at Alma College (Michigan), emeritus. He has published five textbooks and over 50 journal papers and semi-popular articles on the Manhattan Project; three of the texts are with Springer (one of these is currently in press, a popular treatment of the Project). In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in recognition of his contributions to promoting understanding of the history and physics of the Manhattan Project.

Table of Contents

Preface.- Preamble: Fundamental Data On Little Boy and Fat Man.- Energy Release in Nuclear Reactions, Neutrons, Fission, and Characteristics of Fission.- Critical Mass, Efficiency, and Yield.- Producing Fissile Material.- Complicating Factors.- Miscellaneous Calculations.- Appendices (A-K).

Editorial Reviews

The volume is targeted at readers with an advanced undergraduate physics background, with the goals of explicating the principles behind the fission bombs completed in 1945, and of using these principles to illuminate more general areas of physics, such as electromagnetism and statistical mechanics. … both physicists and historians might find it most useful as a reference work.” (Joseph D. Martin, Metascience, Vol. 30, August 25, 2021)

From the Publisher