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The development of nuclear weapons by the Manhattan Project during World War II was one of the most dramatic scientific/technological episodes in human history. This book offers a concise survey of the essential physics concepts underlying fission weapons. It describes the energetics and timescales of fast-neutron chain reactions, why only certain isotopes of uranium and plutonium are suitable for use, how critical mass and bomb yield can be estimated, some of the design details of the Little Boy and Fat Man bombs, and much more.
B Cameron Reed is the Charles A Dana Professor of Physics at Alma College, Alma, Michigan. In addition to a quantum mechanics text and two other books on the Manhattan Project, he has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals in areas such as astronomy, data analysis, quantum physics, nuclear physics, and the history of physics. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, "For his contributions to the history of both the physics and the development of nuclear weapons in the Manhattan Project".