ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
History of Technology Videos 160 videos
What's the deal with wind? And why does it have to be so...windy?
How did people move stuff around before the wheel was invented? More importantly, why didn't they take a break for a few minutes from moving stuff...
History of Technology 4: Nuclear Bombs 16 Views
Share It!
Description:
Word to the wise: if you ever work on a weapon that can destroy the world, you might want to leave it off of your LinkedIn profile.
Transcript
- 00:02
Remember nuclear power? [Picture of a nuclear power plant]
- 00:05
That little thing that redefined the energy potential of the world?
- 00:08
All sunshine and puppies, right? [Rainbow coming out of a nuclear power station cooling tower]
- 00:10
Nothing dark and scary about it…
- 00:12
…Uh…that can't be good. [An explosion turns people into skeletons]
Full Transcript
- 00:14
Okay, so it wasn't all rainbows and love.
- 00:16
Originally, scientists were trying to make a nice, efficient energy source to solve all [Scientists in a control room]
- 00:20
our worlds problems...
- 00:21
But nuclear research got redirected, and fast.
- 00:25
The new goal?
- 00:26
To build the most destructive weapon ever known to man kind. [Nuclear bomb with a devil face]
- 00:29
And guess what?
- 00:31
They succeeded.
- 00:33
Yay…?
- 00:34
The world’s first working nuclear bombs, or atomic bombs back then, were made in the USA. [Nuclear bomb with 'made in the USA' written on it]
- 00:39
The super secret program that created the bomb was called the Manhattan Project, even
- 00:45
though they were nowhere near Manhattan.
- 00:46
They actually did most of the experimenting out in Los Alamos, New Mexico. [Workers preparing experiments]
- 00:52
Robert Oppenheimer was the head of the Manhattan Project.
- 00:55
We wonder if he would've left that off his LinkedIn after…y'know…death and destruction [Oppenheimer's LinkedIn profile]
- 01:00
happened.
- 01:01
He had a team of high profile scientists under his wing. [Oppenheimer flies in with wings]
- 01:04
One of the most important of these science-minded types was Enrico Fermi, who’d escaped fascist
- 01:10
Italy to come to the US.
- 01:13
Fermi actually was on the ground floor of the whole "nuclear bomb" thing. [Fermi stood next to a bomb with his thumbs up]
- 01:17
Fermi was one of the first guys to alert FDR on the dangers of the Nazi’s nuclear program, [A bird drops a message to FDR]
- 01:24
and was like, "yeah, the U.S. should probably get in on that too…"
- 01:29
He also oversaw the world’s first nuclear chain reaction.
- 01:33
We wonder what his LinkedIn profile would look like… [Fermi's LinkedIn profile]
- 01:36
Anyway, as impressive as Fermi was, Oppenheimer was still the boss of the Manhattan Project,
- 01:41
which successfully tested the first bomb at Trinity Site in Alamogordo, New Mexico on [Footage of Manhattan project workers]
- 01:47
July 16th, 1945. [Footage of the nuclear explosion]
- 01:49
No one knew what to expect.
- 01:52
Would the bomb poison all of America with radiation? [Map of America gets sick]
- 01:56
Would it blow a hole in the space-time continuum allowing vicious extra-dimensional beings [An alien appears and shoots the Earth]
- 02:01
into our world?
- 02:02
Probably not to all of the above…
- 02:04
But there was only one way to find out...
- 02:07
Three, two, one….boom. [Countdown]
- 02:09
After the bomb dropped, there was a blinding flash that could be seen for about 200 miles. [Huge explosion]
- 02:16
Next came a mushroom shaped cloud that reached 40,000 feet and blew out the windows of houses
- 02:23
up to 100 miles away.
- 02:25
All this created a half-mile wide crater and transformed the desert sand around it into [Shockwave smashing windows]
- 02:32
glass.
- 02:34
When folks nearby asked what had gone down, government officials said… [People looking confused]
- 02:38
"Our bad…a huge ammunition dump exploded in the desert. [Government worker with long nose]
- 02:43
Definitely not a giant bomb.
- 02:45
Hah.
- 02:46
No way.
- 02:47
Noooo way….hey look, a squirrel." [His nose grows longer]
- 02:48
Y'know.
- 02:50
More or less.
- 02:52
Somewhat surprisingly, people actually fell for this.
- 02:54
But can we blame them?
- 02:55
Most had never heard of an atomic bomb.
- 02:57
They had no idea that such a devastating weapon could exist. [Atomic bomb flying above a field]
- 03:01
Plus, squirrels are pretty distracting. [Squirrel jumping off a fence]
- 03:05
And in retrospect, extra-dimensional raiders may have been a preferable outcome to the test. [Aliens appear and a man runs away]
- 03:11
You know, they could be friendly.
Related Videos
GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?