Atomic Bomb Development

Definition

The creation process of atomic bombs - weapons that use nuclear reactions to release massive amounts of energy. This occurred primarily during World War II under the U.S.'s Manhattan Project.

Analogy

Imagine you're baking a cake with an incredibly powerful secret ingredient (nuclear fission) that makes it exponentially more impactful than any other cake ever made (traditional explosives). That's what developing an atomic bomb was like - creating something with unprecedented power.

Related terms

Manhattan Project: The U.S.-led research project during World War II that resulted in the creation of atomic bombs.

Nuclear Fission: The process by which an atom's nucleus splits into two smaller nuclei along with some byproducts. This is what gives atomic bombs their destructive power.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The two Japanese cities on which the United States dropped atomic bombs in August 1945, leading to Japan's surrender in World War II.