In the 1930s, some scientists theorized that bombarding an atom's nucleus with a neutron from another atom would cause the first atom to split in two. The splitting atom would release another neutron, which would then strike a neighboring atom, causing it to split, and so on. It was thought that each splitting atom would release a tiny spark of energy. In a nuclear chain reaction, trillions of atoms would split in less than a …
showed first 75 words of 925 total

showed last 75 words of 925 total
…were ready to test bomb. In the New Mexico desert near the town of Alamogordo, a hundred foot tall steel tower had been constructed. Resting on top of the tower was the world's first atomic bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man". At five in the morning the bomb was detonated. The scientists watched from a concrete bunker ten thousand yards away. It was a success. The bomb exploded with the force of twenty thousand tons of TNT.