Edward Teller - John von Neumann suggesting an implosion (76/147)
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- čas přidán 25. 09. 2017
- To listen to more of Edward Teller’s stories, go to the playlist: • Edward Teller (Scientist)
Hungarian-American physicist, Edward Teller (1908-2003), helped to develop the atomic bomb and provided the theoretical framework for the hydrogen bomb. He remained a staunch advocate of nuclear power, calling for the development of advanced thermonuclear weapons. [Listener: John H. Nuckolls]
TRANSCRIPT: One of the very ingenious people in Los Alamos, Seth Neddermeyer, had idea that instead of starting with two pieces, we should start with a shell and surround it with high explosive and have the whole thing converge and that might work fast enough. It was a proposal that looked good but was not yet accepted. In the meantime, I had a personal proposal. I found in many other instances that when I had a problem it always could be solved by getting the advice of somebody who was, in my opinion, better than anybody else, a fellow Hungarian, Johnny von Neumann. Oppenheimer was under orders to keep Los Alamos closed, or almost closed, not letting- let many people in but when he got convinced that somebody would be really needed, he was very good at getting him so we got permission for Johnny von Neumann to come in and help us. We told the problem, he made some suggestions, I won't reme- I won't mention them, they did not turn out to be very good. But that first evening, I invited Johnny for dinner and that dinner I remember, for reasons more than one. I remember sitting with him near the heating equipment which did not function perfectly and which would send off a loud report of some inst- unstable condition once every half hour. I don't know that Johnny was really alarmed but he told me- I would feel that it is a real shame to be killed in Los Alamos by a mere sub-critical explosion. That was a part of it. Another part was that I told Johnny about the proposal of Seth Neddermeyer and Johnny did something extremely simple, I don't know why all of us did not do it earlier. He assumed, as was the sort of obvious thing to assume, that uranium or plutonium would be incompressible and then let it be sent in by the velocity that an explosive could produce. As the material got into smaller and smaller radii, in order to make room for the incoming material, the shock formed had to go faster and faster. The material had to accelerate. And in order to do so, had to have a big pressure. And Johnny came to the conclusion you could do that; in the process you would produce more than 100 million atmospheres. And I have told you that at the George Washington University we had conferences. One of them was about the interior of the Earth, where I learned that a pressure- at a pressure of barely a few million atmospheres, not 100 million, iron in the center of the Earth would be compressed. If Johnny was right about these big pressures, then the material, plutonium or uranium, would surely be compressed and compressed material can lead to neutron multiplication in smaller amounts. You could get nuclear explosions by the method of an initial implosion, we could get the job done, with less materials, at a much earlier time, possibly before the end of the war. That point we put next morning before Oppenheimer. He caught on very fast. The whole program of the laboratory was changed. The implosion was put down as number one priority. - Věda a technologie
I mean you can’t expect a guy to just walk into a top secret research base in the middle of nowhere and ask him how to solve problems with the most complicated weapon ever at that point all within a few hours. Teams couldn’t figure it out after weeks. Johnny Von Neumann was one of the most gifted people ever but even he would need like three hours to think about it 😂
A marvelous story. John Von Neumann’s brilliant contributions were absolutely crucial to the ultimate success of the Manhattan Project. And to his credit, Teller always had enough integrity to give credit where credit was due.
pig
Not even close to being true. Without Seth Neddermeyer, there would have been no implosion bomb.
Von Neumann, ahem, "borrowed" a lot of other people's ideas, calling them his own. I am not a fan.
@@peterwexler5737Which ideas, and do you have any reputable sources? If so, please share.
As Teller stated at the beginning of this video, the implosion idea originated with Seth Neddemeyer. Von Neumann contributed analysis that gave the method validity. George Kistiakowsky made it work.
Actually, the implosion idea was first brought up by Richard Tolman to Robert Serber at a summer conference in Berkley in 1942. Implosion was included in a memo from Tolman to Arthur Compton from that conference. Several other memos exist from Tolman to Compton and Vannevar Bush about implosion. Notes of a 1943 meeting exist where Compton and Bush urged Oppenheimer to pursue that method. The idea of using implosion was part of the Los Alamos Primer lectures which Neddermeyer was required to attend. There is a sketch showing the implosion method that is part of the Primer. Neddermeyer was intrigued by the idea and championed it, and was ultimately put in charge of the implosion program. But, as you have pointed out, it took Kistiakowsky to make it work. To quote Robert Serber, "So the story of Seth Neddermeyer the lone genius coming up with implosion on his own is all hokum."
And credit to Oppenheimer for quickly grasping the idea and prioritizing effort to focus on the new strategy. A lot of brilliant people and flexible minds working in concert made the project successful.
Ik just watch the video dude explain how a Ukrainian man made it work George I Don’t get it
So it was just a bunch of boys who figured it out pretty much Seth was working on the idea they didn’t use to lenses or they might have that’s what I’m stuck on which seems pretty simple did George make the change where the lenses would implode by using a high velocity bullet made out of uranium or plutonium to detonate then the lenses in the bomb make the nuclear fission work?
This whole time I thought it was Leo Szirad and Seth neddymer with help from opp,James,and enrico
"... killed by a mere subcritical explosion." I am still laughing!
lol ikr apparently he would've been fine killed by a proper a-bomb detonation :D
better than dying on the toilet
@@morpher44Radiation poisoning, cancer, really?
if you are going to go better go with a Big Bang lol
Very interesting and worthwhile video.
I agree, similar to Stephen Hawkings at Cambridge with problems assigned on Friday evenings and intended to take all weekend to solve. As the story goes with one such problem, and told by a fellow classmate who asked Hawkins on Monday morning and 30min before class was to begin for his take on the solution, to which Hawkins responded that he hadn't even looked at the problem yet, and then proceeded to work on and obtain the solution before class began.
Great upload, thx
A brilliant man!
And a war criminal.
@@laurenth7187 Not exactly. There are weapon makers and weapon users. It seems the decision to drop a bomb is relegated to slimy politicians who have studied law and morality all their life.
A flawed genius would be a better label for him. He pushed for hawkish policies on nuclear/thermonuclear weapons proliferation. Not to mention stabbing Oppenheimer, his former boss in the back during the security clearence hearing in the 1950s.
It's such a damn shame - Von Neumann's life was cut short. Teller lived to be almost twice his age. I actually had no idea Teller lived into the 2000s. I think the last of the OG physicists was John Wheeler, who also worked on the Manhattan Project and died at 97 in 2008. Along with Teller, he pushed for the development of the H-bomb.
Legend
One of the great Hungarian!
He was a Jew. His genetic make up is overwhelmingly Jewish.
Man, he was completely unethical.
Genius but unethical.
The same colleagues of him didn't like him.
He was ruthless he wanted to build the " backyard bomb" a gigantic earth level catastrophic bomb generating 1 gigaton of explosion!
That would mean an explosion at the size of France all at once!
He was in favor of atmospheric nuclear testing he was horrible i am sorry.
Those who really knew him and worked with him are confirming that at other videos and documentaries.
Backyard bombs,each explosion would wipe out whole countries and whole Nations instantly with catastrophic level consequences for humanity probably extinction event at that case.
The man was crazy.
Genius but a mad scientist.
We are lucky his mad ideas didn't prevail.
@@ZA56AA He invented the modern computer.
@@gspcro9047 excuse me? Hungarian is a nationality.
@@Dubickimus Most of these "great Hungarians" were in fact children or grandchildren of the Jewish immigrants, who had been coming to Hungary from all over the world throughout the first half of the 19th century. As such, they were very business-minded people and strict internationalists, so it is quite unlikely that they would give a single a damn about anything as vain as the Hungarian national pride...
What Teller is going on about is that the first implosion weapons did not work by classic implosion with deformation of the sphere but worked mainly by compression of a near critical only slightly hollow sphere. This helped the device work even if the external explosives did not compress fully symmetrically . This insight was the Christy core. Without such a core only U235 gun type weapons would have been possible and at the rate that US was refining that isotope, the production rate would have been something like one in six months. With an interval like that, the Japanese might have been tempted to prolong the war.
Yes, when the British started their bomb project they went straight to a plutonium device and didn’t even bother with a uranium bomb. It’s a funny trade off. Enriching uranium is very difficult, but it makes such a foolproof bomb that the Americans didn’t even test it before dropping it on Japan (plus they didn’t have enough to spare on a test). Making plutonium is easy by comparison, but it requires a much more complicated bomb to make it work.
@@NoahSpurrier It's not that easy - you have to build a massive reactor of unenriched natural uranium with moderators, then push stuff through in about 24hr ?? per slug installed. The issue is that the Pu is created by decay of a Np isotope. If that isotope is formed and then gets hit by a further neutron then Pu 241 will be the decay product. Thus the conversion efficency per load is just terrible and the loads have to be stripped of converted Pu chemically and then re-installed.
Pu 241 has a short half life and plenty of neutrons and makes the engineering of the implosion bomb required and more difficult.
The U bomb details , specifically the initiator have never been released. The slug that was fired was hollow and that ended up on finger of U235 . in assembly the L to D ratio of the inner finger is changed and hence the required critical mass reduces. There is allegedly a torus x 3 off U235 on the outside of all of this but I'm uncertain if this was a loose or tight fit on the assly. Logic says it was a loose fit Logic says the Finger was tapered and the projectile matched . There were likely two Po /Be initiators in the projectile centre section crushed by hardened steel pins at instant of full assembly. Finally there had to be a crushable stationary steel insert down the far end to stop the projectile bouncing after it stopped. There's a lot to go wrong. I am sure several dummy assemblies were fired and then cut up afterwards.
A decent take on Japanese strategy, however the Japanese surrendered after two bombs. US could have secretly made two uranium bombs six months apart and dropped a week apart and Japan would have no idea what they were or how many the US had or how long they took to make. I think two devastated cities a year would make surrender mandatory especially if Tokyo and the palace were soon to follow Nagasaki.
@@ethorii If the Pu bomb had failed under test then what you suggest might well have happened. But that would mean that the US would have had to delay the dropping of the first bomb until say Dec of 45. Meantime what would the US army do ? Just hold Okinawa I guess. The US was not interested in bombing Tokyo atomically as it had been largely burned out in the normal civilian areas. The US wanted the emperor alive to lend credibility to any administration imposed on Japan. Otherwise anarchy and the Russians might intervene.
Well Japan was not in the discussion when the bomb research going on. US leaders and media quickly made it Japan centric. Ever considerd, Japan has been blocked and they lost most the terrirtory and there is no OIL to last more than a few weeks ?
The Litlle Boy gun model was not even tested before application. It was assumed to be guaranteed to function as designed. Shows how terrifyingly simple it is to construct U235 gun model fission atomic munitions. Make a sphere of U235. Does not even need to be super perfect sphere. Cut it into two hemispheres. Smack them together to create non critical neutron exchange to self boost them. Not make an enclosed gunbarrel. With one hemisphere of U235 wedged in closed off end. Place second U235 hemisphere into the other end with high explosive charge. At detonation point and time shoot one hemisphere with high explosive into the other. When two hemispheres collide they will compress laterally creating sufficient heat and pressure to cause chain reaction. Now becouse it is lateral compression the detonation won't be efficient. Only small amount of U235 will fission, and yield will be moderate with great amount of unfissiled fissible material spread out. A combination atomic bomb and radiological dirty bomb. That was Little Boy at Hiroshima. Yield of between 10K and 13K tons of TNT detonated above the city center Bridge.
The Fat Man implosion device over Nagasaki was smaller, lighter, more efficient and yielded around 20K. Though some say it was only 15K. But implosion device is far more difficult to engineer and manufacture.
Bro is on a watch list
@@RICHFRVR R U telling me I gave some hassish smoking khat chewing Q'uran thumping kabob eating garlic smelling fat islamofascist with bad breath amd 10 chatell wives an idea of how to strike the infidel in his misguided holy war against modernity. Well if so, let that strike be inside Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran, China, or Russia. Let Islam burn itself. 3500 years ago it was "Let My People Go". Today it is "Let my People be!".
@@RICHFRVR feds coming any moment now
he's part of the Einstein bloodline.
Can't wait to watch Oppenheimer on a big screen!
Truly great videos - I would suggest though, you make these videos when the subjects are a bit younger.
Would you.
czcams.com/video/Y2jiQXI6nrE/video.html 54:59
Take that.
28.10.1997 was Tuesday.
My 1st child got a set of textbooks for the new school session. I went through the books flipping from page to page. I dislike this name I found in one of the book; Mr. Rasamanie.
Who is that and why should we care ?
Lao tze.
The egomaniac teller
eccentric egomaniac