The 1945 Trinity test was run to prove the complicated “Fat Man” design would even work. But why were scientists so confident of the “Little Boy” design that the didn’t feel the need to do a full test of the design? The design was simpler, but still, no one had ever done it before. Was it purely for time? Lack of materials? Or was the design and principles so sound, it couldn’t fail?
In: 11
Actual ELI5
To make a nuclear bomb you need to have lots of neutrons in one area, let’s say it’s 10 neutrons in a 1 meter circle.
With uranium it works out that a one meter circle of uranium has 11 neutrons. So if we split it in half and have two semi circles of 5.5 neutrons each and then bring them together, we can be pretty sure it will work
Plutonium on the other hand is too big you can’t fit 10 neutrons into a 1 meter circle if they are connected to plutonium, but you can fit 50 neutrons in a 1.5 meter circle….
The question is how do you shrink the circle so that at least 10 neutrons are in that 1 meter circle.
The answer- explosives
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