How exactly do atom bombs work? Is it a chain reaction or the splitting of 1 atom? wot does the plutonium do?

Answer 1

Yes it is indeed a chain reacion.

Plutonum is the fuel for the reaction & the victim too...
2 or more pieces of Plutonium are combined & when they exceed the "critical mass" the reacation starts.

Plutonium atom is very heavy & hence very unstable. i.e can be split into 2 or more atoms.

nucleaus break down at one point & (electrons,protons..) emit the stuf inside with huge amount of energy.
Because of the very high energy of the emitted atoms they can break down other neighbouring Plutonium atom(s). This is how the chain reaction happens. So its pretty clear that when this starts there is no way to stop it... :)

FYI : The same thing happens inside the Nuclear Power stations. But the secret behind is that the speed of the emitted atoms are controlled & slowed down in a special way. the change of the energy is converted to heat & the heat is used to make steam out of water. The steam is then used to rotate the turbines... :) :)


1)
This is a huge subject. lol!! The relationship with the released energy is given by the so called Einstein's equation. E = mxc^2

m- mass
c- velocity of light

2)
In a nuclear reaction 1 atom can be broken down to 2 or more small atoms or 2 or more small atoms can form 1 or 2 differant atoms. These are called Fission & Fusion respectively. Both are used in nuclear power plants. But mainly in atomic bombs the first method is famous...
Plutonium is only one nuclear fuel.. there are quite alot of other nuclear fuels.. (Uranium)

Hope this is clear... :)

Answer 2

The energy from an atomic bomb comes from the splitting of many, many atoms! When an atom of plutonium splits, it also emits 2-3 neutrons. These neutrons can hit other plutonium nuclei and make them split also. This sets up a chain reaction. Each atom that splits releases a small amount of energy, but having a very large number split will give an enormous amount of energy.

To sustain the chain reaction, there has to be enough plutonium so that the neutrons havea good probability of hitting other plutonium atoms. The amount needed is called the 'critical mass'. If you have less than this critical mass, the reaction will just fizzle out. The way the bomb itself works is sometimes to take two pieces of plutonium that are smaller than this critical mass and put them together to make something that is larger. Another option is to compress the plutonium to the place that the density is high enough so that the neutrons will hit other atoms. This is actually the way most nuclear triggers work.

Answer 3

Atoms split all the time. The key behind an atomic bomb is to get a lot of them to do it all about the same time.

If you have enough radio-active material together in the same place that you can create a chain reaction, one atom will split and release multipl neutrons with enough energy to split two more atoms. The key is to have enough material around that the neutrons are more than likely going to run into something else to continue the chain.

This isn't enough to get a bomb. This is enough to get a melt down. What you have to do to make it an explosive chain reaction is to get a lot of radioactive mass together in the same place at the same time.

One bomb design that does this is to have a mass that is in the shape of a sphere with a cylinder cut out of the middle. You have another mass in exactly the size and shape of the cylinder. Then, you find a way to put the cylinder into the hole so quickly that it doesn't have time to heat up and start a melt down. Instead it cascades so quickly that most of the material experiences fission before it can get blown back apart. So, yes, it is a chain reaction, but it is one that uses up a bunch of the plutonium fuel for the reaction in a very short time.

Another bomb design uses a hollow sphere of plutonium that is imploded into a very small volume by plastic explosives. Again, the idea is to bring the supercritical mass all together at the same time.

Answer 4

Sorry, the answer to the first question is classified.

A chain reaction starts with the splitting of one atom (or just a few concurrently). When an atom splits, it throws off mass energy as particles and radiation. Those other particles contain energy; so when they collide with nearby atoms, those nearby atoms in turn split. The period between the first atoms splitting and the second set of atoms splitting is called a generation.

A chain reaction is sustained when more atoms split during the next generation than during the current generation. It's something like how a family tree sprouts more branches for each generation of that family.

Plutonium is one of the metals that has atoms that will split relatively easily. So it can be used to start and sustain a chain reaction.

Answer 5

The key to a nuclear explosion is radioactive material at critical mass. This is done by explosive compression of Uranium 235 or Plutonium. One atom splitting could potentially release enough energy to be audible. Once the sub-critical mass becomes critical, neutrons are released and start the nuclear chain reaction. One atom gets smashed, breaks apart, releases energy and neutrons, the neutron smash a few more, until you have a big boom.

Answer 6

when heavy unstable nuclei split into smaller nuclei when bombarded with slow moving neutrons a part of the mass is converted into energy as per the equation E=mC^2this reaction is called atomic fission
on splitting each nucleus gives out two to three neutrons which help to split further nuclei and this thus sets off a chain reaction.this is the principle of the atom bomb
the unstable heavy element can be Uranium or Plutonium
one of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a Uranium bomb and the other was a plutonium bomb

Answer 7

Yes, it is a chain reaction.

(I assume you mean nuclear fission [atomic bomb], not fusion [Hydrogen bomb])
To simplify the process, fission is the splitting of atoms.
They key is that a high energy neutron hits the nucleus of a fissionable atom and split it in smaller parts. The two main parts go off and form two new atoms of different elements. But other high energy neutrons are released as well and those neutrons go off and collide with other nuclei causing them to split.
A run away chain reaction quickly ensues if the conditions are right and the process releases a great deal of energy.

Some elements are more suited to splitting than others.
Plutonium and Uranium and great examples of fissionable material. Hydrogen, for example, would not be fissionable.

Answer 8

The plutonium is the "fuel" of the chain reaction. The atoms of plutonium are easily disturbed and will spontaneously decompose to break apart and release energy. This energy and radiation particles trigger more and more reactions in neighboring atoms. That is how the chain reaction proceeds.

Answer 9

The plutonium gives off the radioactive bits (particles)
i think every time a particle crashes into another plutonium molecule and splits it, the newly split bit gives off some more particles ( maybe 3 or more, i cant remember, been 20 years since i learned this at school) Every time this happens, the reaction gives off a bit of heat. As you can imagine, this results in the extremely rapid split of pretty much all of the molecules, giving off billions and billions of little bits of heat very quickly, otherwise known as a god damn mighty explosion

Answer 10

It is a chain reaction. Plutonium is unstable, meaning the atoms break apart very easily.