The Manhattan Project

Book Id: WPLBN0000700290
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 6.17 MB.
Reproduction Date: 2006

Title:	The Manhattan Project
Author:
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Government publications, Energy, Energy and research series
Collections:	Department of Energy Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Government Printing Office


Citation APA MLA Chicago The Manhattan Project. (n.d.). The Manhattan Project. Retrieved from http://self.gutenberg.org/

Excerpt
Excerpt: From Protons to Neutrons: Fermi Rutherford, Einstein, and Bohr proved to be wrong in this instance, and the proof was not long in coming. Beginning in 1934, the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi began bombarding elements with neutrons instead of protons, theorizing that Chadwick?s uncharged particles could pass into the nucleus without resistance. Like other scientists at the time, Fermi paid little attention to the possibility that matter might disappear during bombardment and result in the release of huge amounts of energy in accordance with Einstein?s formula ... which stated that mass and energy were equivalent. Fermi and his colleagues bombarded sixty-three stable elements and produced thirty-seven new radioactive ones? They also found that carbon and hydrogen proved useful as moderators in slowing the bombarding neutrons and that slow neutrons produced the best results since neutrons moving more slowly remained in the vicinity of the nucleus longer and were therefore more likely to be captured.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents: Introduction:The Mnstein Letter, vu -- Part I: Physics Background, 1919-1939, 1 -- Part II: Early Government Support, 5 -- Part III: The Manhattan Engineer District, 13 -- Part N The Manhattan Engineer District in Operation, 19 -- Part V The Atomic Bomb and American Strategy, 45 -- Part VI: The Manhattan District in Peacetime, 55 -- Manhattan Project Chart, 58 -- Notes, 59 -- Select Bibliography, 61 -- Manhattan Project Chronology, 62