Why Only U-235 and Pu-239? Classroom-Level Graphs for Understanding Heavy-Element Weaponizability Factors

Autor/in	Reed, B. Cameron
Titel	Why Only U-235 and Pu-239? Classroom-Level Graphs for Understanding Heavy-Element Weaponizability Factors
Quelle	In: Physics Teacher, 58 (2020) 8, S.556-559 (5 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0031-921X
Schlagwörter	Graphs; Science Instruction; Physics; Weapons; Teaching Methods; Engineering; Nuclear Energy; Course Descriptions; Undergraduate Students; Humanities; Art; Majors (Students) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Grafische Darstellung; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Physik; Weapon; Waffe; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Maschinenbau; Atomenergie; Kernenergie; Kursstrukturplan; Geisteswissenschaften; Humanwissenschaften; Arts; Kunst
Abstract	For several years, I taught a general education course on the Manhattan Project for students majoring in the arts and humanities who needed a physical science credit as a condition of their graduation requirements. As might be imagined, the challenge in teaching this course was to find a balance between quantitative and qualitative content. A technical point of particular importance was to find a way to describe how fundamental-physics considerations restrict the number of possible candidate "weaponizability" isotopes to just a handful, of which only uranium-235 (U-235) and plutonium-239 (Pu-239) were practical for developing a first-generation nuclear weapon. After doing so, I could go on to describe how Manhattan Project engineers developed two weapons: a U-235 bomb based on isolating that isotope from its much more populous U-238 sister isotope, and a plutonium bomb based on synthesizing that element by neutron bombardment of natural uranium in a nuclear reactor. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	American Association of Physics Teachers. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740. Tel: 301-209-3300; Fax: 301-209-0845; e-mail: pubs@aapt.org; Web site: http://aapt.scitation.org/journal/pte
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01