why did A.Einstein signed this paper to USA president?

Question

it's about the atomic bomb! i really don't understand what the hell was he thinking!

Answer 1

Since Einstein was one of the most famous scientists in the world during that time period, a lot of other scientists thought that the president would take the paper more seriously if he signed it. Since some of the notable atomic scientists of the day were german, the american scientists figured that the Nazis were probably working on an atomic bomb. If the Nazis had developed a bomb first, then we would be living in a much different world now. I guarantee that they wouldn't have hesitated to use it on many of the world's major cities. People who murdered millions in concentration camps probably wouldn't have had moral qualms about destroying major cities.

Answer 2

Einstein didn't encourage the development of the atom bomb. He became aware that Germany was developing one and that an arms race to get nuclear power was underway. Under those circumstances, Sillard approached him and explained how the nuclear reaction process might work. He pleaded with Einstein to convince FDR to begin developing a bomb. Einstein agreed and after several letters, so did FDR.

Einstein had no part in planning how the weapon would be used, or who the target would be. He only knew that he could not allow Germany to obtain one before the US.

Answer 3

At the time, the world was at war with Nazi Germany, Facist Italy and Japan. The Germans had worked out all the fundamental physics need to design and eventually build a nuclear weapon. Einstein, Silizard, Fermi, Bohr, and others knew this and they knew Heisenberg was conducting research in Germany that was weapon related. The Germans had also seized heavy water production facilities in Norway, furthering the fear that they had an atomic weapon development program well underway. Given the stories of life under Nazi occupation, and the knowledge of the attempted extermination of European Jews, Gypsies andother "non-Aryan" races, Einstein could not permit the US to be vulnerable to nuclear attack. SO he urged FDR to initiate the development of our own nuclear weapon on hopes of either beating the Nazis to a workable device, or at worst, having parity with them thus providing a deterent.

Answer 4

Einstein found out that using his theory of fission (i.e. splitting the atom) that Germany were stockpiling Uranium (and enriching it) to develop the atomic bomb - which technically would have ended world war II.

Instead the Americans developed the bomb much faster, as they already had enough Uranium (enriched to Plutonium 239) and then decided to throw it on Hiroshima instead - considering the Japanese then got involved.