Hiroshima Nuclear Bomb! ! World War II ended dramatically in Hiroshima, Japan when American forces dropped the world’s first atomic bomb over the city’s centre. Due to the extreme amount of destruction that this nuclear weapon produced, Japan’s only option was to surrender. As a result of the unique shape and design, the Hiroshima bomb differed in the process of the explosion and the effects on the city compared to a standard atomic bomb. The Hiroshima bomb was created with nuclear energy which resulted in emitting fireballs, a shockwave and deadly radiation - something the world had never been exposed to before.! ! Nuclear energy is the ‘energy released when the particles of the nucleus (neutrons and protons) are either split or merged’ 1. …show more content…
! ! The Hiroshima atomic bomb was composed of 60kg of ‘highly enriched uranium-235’ 3, destroying 90% of the city due to the effects of extreme nuclear fission. This bomb was nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ due to its small size of a 3 metre length and 70cm diameter. Inside was a naval gun containing two uranium-235 particles that could be fired together to form the ‘supercritical mass’4, which triggers the atomic explosion. When the bomb detonated, Fireballs, Shock Waves & Air blasts and Radioactivity were the three destructive energy sources formed. Due to air absorbing heat, the fireball swells to an approximate 410m diameter with a temperature of 300,000 oC. The bright orange glow that creates the initial mushroom cloud shape was the fireball and it’s emitted thermal rays causing the ‘temperature on the ground near the centre to reach 3000 - 4000 oC’5. 50% of the energy was the shock wave which travelled 11km in all directions, destroying the city and transferring radiation across the city. The initial radiation was made up with gamma rays and neutrons, and