BTW: The Trinity test bomb was detonated from a platform. Not dropped from a plane. Just sayin’.

Nuclear engineer here: Gadget (the device exploded in the Trinity Test) wasn’t dropped from a plane, but left on a 100-foot tower and detonated. Scientists at the time where concerned that the detonation might be dangerous to any plane overhead, so they made sure to not put any pilots at risk. Also, the Trinity Site is open to the public twice a year (perfectly safe - exposure is less than half that from an airplane flight).

fun fact: the reason nukes make mushroom clouds when they explode is that, because of the shock wave, all of the debris and smoke can only go one direction: up. so, when it goes up, it moves so fast that it not only breaks the sound barrier, but begins to roll into itself because what is on top has lost all momentum and is still being pushed inward from the shock wave. this creates the iconic nuke mushroom cloud effect.

Respect to that one man who experienced both bombings and still lived to tell the tale.

The Trinity test was conducted from a tower. Not dropped from an airplane.

imagine Oppenheimer never stoped making atomic bombs

I knew a decent amount about how nuclear fission and fusion work but this made it much clearer in my mind, thank you 🙏

For the record, the Trinity test was NOT dropped from an airplane, and the 'Jumbo' container (designed to catch any leftover plutonium in the event of a fizzle) was never used. The bomb (which was of the implosion design) was placed into a tower and detonated there. The gun assembly system as used in 'Little Boy' was not tested first as it was believed to be fool proof (placing two sub-critical parts together to make it critical is somewhat simpler than compressing a smaller sub-critical mass).

Huge respect to that Soviet Navy officer who prevented the launch of ballistic missiles aboard his submarine.

i just saw Oppenheimer at the theaters and the Trinity Test WAS NOT DROPPED FROM A PLANE

I had gotten a lot of this, but your explanation of radioactive decay was very well illustrated and finally clicked being able to visualize that for me. Great explanation.

Quick correction, Hirohito wanted to surrender even before the nukes but the warhawks in his parliment stood their ground, it was only after second that hirohito used the powers that he technically had but never used to overule parliment. 3:49

The terrifying part about the Tsar Bomba was that it was detonated at *half* of its possible power. It was capable of delivering a 100-megaton explosion, while they only detonated it at 50 megatons.

Whos here after watching Oppenheimer?

As they said in War Games: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."

I met a gentleman 95 years old. he lives in Ransomville, NY. he said he was the last surviving member of the Army unit that was at the Trinity Blast. very nice man, and very smart

Great way to explain fusion and fission! I had no idea how nuclear weapons actually worked but you laid it out in a really easy-to-understand way.

Well....we're on several FBI watch lists.....👍

As stated elsewhere, Trinity Test was a platform test, not an aerial test. There were planes airborne over the test site to measure the impact from the sky. The bomb released 25 kilotons of energy, not 1 like the video claims.

This is super interesting. The area my family lived in was hit by the radioactive rain after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and alot of them died from cancer, there is still a lot to learn about how radiation effects people. nuclear power is not something to toy around with.

5:10 Did anyone notice Jelly in his green jelly hoodie doing a 'nope' gesture during the UN resolution on calling of A-bombs? Those who did, leave a like here.

The difference between war crimes, mass murder and heroism is always determined by the victor.

This video is loaded with errors…. 1). The Trinity test (first bomb at Alamogordo) was detonated from a 100 ft high tower, not dropped from an airplane 2) The strength of the first successful US thermonuclear explosion was codenamed Mike at 10.4 MT (not 15 MT) 3). The yield of the Tsar Bomba was 50 MT not 57 MT 4) You said that by 1980 the nuclear test countries (other than US / USSR) were Britain, France & China. In fact it was more. Britain (1952), France (1960), China (1964) and INDIA (1974). Shortly afterwards it was Pakistan (1983) and much later North Korea in 2006. Shortly after that, I sort of gave up….. Sorry.

1:56 The trinity test did not yield 1 kiloton, it yielded 24.8 (+-2) kilotons. The device shown isn't a weapon, it's Jumbo, a device meant to contain the weapon if it failed. It was never used. The Trinity device wasn't dropped from a plane, it was detonated atop a tower. Sometimes I'm baffled by where KZfaqrs get their information from. Even Wikipedia gets these details right. Why's the primary at 7:40 edited to appear like its glowing green? 18:40 several thousand pounds of conventional explosive wasn't detonated in little boy, just 8lbs of cordite. 18:52 The uranium wasn't compressed to any meaningful degree. A change in density of the fuel isn't what initiated the reaction. 19:25 more powerful gun type weapons have been produced. The Mk-8 and Mk-11, for example.

2 things- the "giant bottle" thing in that photo was not the atomic test device, it was a container they almost used as a casing that the device would be detonated inside, in hopes that if it did not work properly, they would be able to collect & reuse the plutonium that, in the event of a fizzle, would be scattered inside. The device itself was much smaller, spherical and covered in cables that would set off the inner mosaic-like sphere of explosive lenses surrounding the fissile core. They ended up abandoning the idea of the container 2, here's the big one: the Trinity device was not dropped from a plane, it was detonated atop a 100ft. metal tower. This was so all the cameras & sensors would precisely capture the whole process from a controlled area

also, the scientist that created the Tzar Bomba, was originally going to make it twice it's big, but realized that most of the blast would just escape into space, so resolved to leave it at around half the size.

Fun fact: The tsar bomba was deliberately detonated at only half of its full capacity. That shot you saw was taken over 300 miles from the actual blast site edit: why is this getting so many likes

Even though most informed adults - world wide - realize that nuclear weapons are unimaginably destructive, I really don't think that they KNOW, just what kind of awful, horrific, catastrophic atrocities that a nuclear war would entail. Literally, there aren't enough adjectives to describe the result. You made a valiant effort with this video, and I appreciate the content. I really do. But I hope, for mankind's sake, that no one will EVER find out. 👍🇺🇲🌎🌏🌍✌️

you forgot to mention that the Tsar bomba was reduced by 50% so the crew can escape. the actual bomb was suppose to be twice as powerful lol.

Thanks for this simple explanation of fusion and fission atomic bomb.. hasn't understand this stuff since high school ..

the trinity test was actually located at an isolated desert NEAR soccoro, mexico called “jornada del muerto”. the bomb was nicknamed, “the gadget” and the bomb was actually detonated on top of a 100 foot tower.

My dad was born in Carazozo NM. He and my grandparents were contaminated by the radio active drift. They ALL had thyroid issues and cancer. A lot of Native Americans were caught up in the radiation as well. When they set off that first bomb they didn't know for sure what was going to happen. There are a lot of victims of the bomb. Many of them right here in the States.

Also, not Socorro. Many miles southeast of there. Not dropped. Detonated from a tower.

Who's here after oppenheimer

Making such a trivial error as claiming Trinity was dropped from a bomber -- it was actually detonated on a platform -- is amazing.

Nuclear Bombs are truly scary. The quote, "I have become death, Destroyer of Worlds" is so true. Love the video, by the way. Keep it up.

Many historians say the bombings did not lead to the Japanese surrender, and the Soviet declaration of war on Japan two days later was a bigger shock. It put an end to any hope the Soviets would negotiate a favourable surrender for Japan

Thanks for explaining how lethal these monstrous weapons are

Enjoyable account of our brief history into nuclear weapons. Overall well done. A couple of things I would like to clarify, though overall probably not the most important: Trinity Test: The device wasn't quite a bomb in it's final form. It was a contraption that was piecemealed together and literally in some places held together with tape. It was not dropped from an airplane, but instead was lifted via wench to the top of a tower and detonated. Tsar Bomba: was originally designed and created to be 100 MT, however due to it's absolute assurance that no pilot could survive dropping the bomb they then lowered it's payload to only be 50 MT. When you talk about diseases you can get from acute radiation you say "leukemia or cancers". Leukemia is cancer. It would be like if I told you, "You can have a honeycrisp or an apple."

I love how someone discovered a way to create a lot of energy FIRST thought how can we use it as a weapon

Who else is here after watching Openheimer?

Fact:a man in hiroshima survived the explosion from "little boy" and went to his home town,nagasaki,until it was nuked,he survived,he was both lucky and unlucky

Thank you for breaking these videos down simple enough for someone like myself. Scary to think about especially with everyone on edge these days . Great video nonetheless

A great man once said: “It’s easy to destroy but hard to build!” Point: imagine if humans dedicated all this to health and space travel!?!?

The most impressive image contains a common error of magnitude. At 7:30 we see a Tsar bomb that is 5 times higher, wider and deeper than the 10 MT bomb. It is labelled with 57 MT. However, the energy would have to be about 1250 MT to match this representation, i.e. an error of more than factor 20. A 57 MT bomb should have a cloud that is "only" 78% bigger in each of the three dimensions.

really good, understandable explanation of how nuclear weapons work.

Thank you for explaining how nuclear fission and fusion work, as well as the difference between atomic and thermonuclear explosions. This was the only time that I’ve been able to understand it. My husband will be so impressed!

Great explanation that doesn't require a lot of scientific understanding of how fission and fusion works. Thanks!

Yes the trinity test was fired from a tower. I think the 1 kilo ton yield confusion was that prior to the test shot of the nuclear weapon, they fired a test of 1,000lb of dynamite.

Y'all ought to check your facts. The trinity test was not dropped from an airplane, but a tall steel tower in Alamogordo, NM. And the Department of Energy states that the destructive power was just under 19 kilotons, not one kiloton. Other than that, great video!

WOW! I am literally doing a project on nuclear power and this was exactly what I needed! You explained every detail very well. Thank you very much! :D

Thanks! I was so curious how that all worked and you explained it perfectly!

Who is here after Oppenheimer? LOVED IT!

whos here after openhiemer?

My dad was a UN peace keeper in the new zealand army , taking medical supply's two weeks after the first A bomb went off , the way he had described what he had seen there two weeks after the bombing of hiroshima gave him nightmare's for the rest of his life , which drove him to drink a lot of alcohol , he used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night , My dad was never the same after he come home , he didn't come home alone , he bought something back with that also killed my brother , my brother died of leukaemia at the age of 18yrs old . trust me guys we don't want to use these weapons . life is short enough . the world only gets one chance to get it right , And we're only going to get it wrong one time only.

Okay, so you need to edit this video. Not sure where you got your information: 1) Trinity had to be detonated from scaffolding, for obvious reasons. No bomber/plane was used. 2) Trinity was in the "neighborhood" of 25 kilotons of yield. 3) U-235 is the only fissionable isotope of Uranium, and it only makes up less than 1% of all Uranium ore. Thus the need for large centrifuges. As most of Uranium is U-238. 4) "Purification" of isotopes of Plutonium (man made element) are required for a uniform fission explosion. Although technically, almost any of the isotopes could be used. 5) Hydrogen is typically "fused" to He (Helium) but fusion also is required for other elemental formation. All the way up to Fe (Iron if I'm not mistaken). 6) Since at the time, Hydrogen was the only element we believed we could "fuse", hydrogen isotopes such as deuterium (2) and Tritium (3) were used. 7) The location of the United States during world war II was CRITICAL in the development of the "Atomic" bomb as more than 30 different locations within the United States and Canada were used to develop the fissionable material and other components. If any of these sites were to have been "bombed" then the setback would have cost the development team. This is a big reason why Germany never had a chance. 8) The introduction of Fusion to the atomic bomb made it so that the actual destructive power of "nuclear" weapons was "limitless". 9) The amount of radiation caused by Fusion bombs/aka Thermonuclear devices, is exponential compared to that of fission weapons such as little boy and fat man. Both cities in Japan have been re-inhabited, however the Bikini atoll islands in the Pacific remain uninhabitable to this day. 10) The "Doomsday" device that has been theorized consists of a 5-7 stage cobolt salted fusion device that takes advantage of ever expanding/increasing heat. The myth follows that such a device has been developed in secret near the American seaboard and could be housed in a warehouse building without detection. This device, if detonated would destroy most if not all of the eastern coast of the United States if they were to launch a pre-emptive strike.

That's one value packed video, thank you.

Feynman wrote he (Nobel Laureate) watched an atomic bomb explode without any apparent safety precautions. People saw these things in real time. Not just the Japanese survivors were the only spectators

excellent presentation and very well laid out, really breaks things down well for even older kids to understand

Hey, wait a minute. You say the first atomic bomb was a prototype dropped from a plane. But all the history books, Wikipedia and videos say it was detonated atop a steel tower -- which was vaporized in the explosion. What the !! ?? How can you make such a howler of a mistake in military technological history? Who wrote this script?

Who is here after watching oppenheimer 😂

The Manhattan project didnt take place in Manhattan. They worked in Los Alamos

The first nuclear test was The Gadget, it wasn’t dropped from a plane. It was tested from atop a tower. Also, it wasn’t in the city of Socorro. Just Socorro County. The Trinity test sight is closer to Alamogordo or Bingham. Currently in White Sands MR, you can visit the site a few times a year and see the obelisk erected in 1965.

There is a feature-length documentary film that would go well as a companion piece to this one. The title is "Trinity and beyond: The atomic bomb movie." There is not a lot of humor in it, but it still presents technical information in a format that isn't too hard to understand. And, like this short documentary, it starts with the Trinity shot. And yes, the nuke wasn't dropped. It was on top of a tower when it was detonated. The next two were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After that the USA, and a few years later, the USSR, were setting these things off like fireworks in a variety of places - including the sea, high in the atmosphere, underground (and not just in Nevada), and space. One of the most interesting test shots was that of the US Army's "Atomic Cannon." It was a rather large piece of artillery, though not nearly as big as some freaky big guns the Germans used in World War One and Two. Of course it didn't have to be. It used conventional explosives to fire a shell that weighed, I think, around 750 pounds, and when it detonated seven miles downrange it yielded a 15 kiloton blast. That was the first and last time it was fired, even though a few more were built and equipped with nuclear ammo, and deployed. The history of this weapon gets a bit foggy after that. The guns and their shells were retired after a few years. This was in the 1950s. The rapid development of guided missiles, whether launched on land, at sea, or in the air made it obsolete even before it fired that first shot. I found a copy of the movie on DVD at our local library. It's probably available on a streaming site, maybe even KZfaq. I only had to see it once. I'm 79 years old, and thus part of the "duck and cover" generation. During the wild, wild period of nuclear testing we saw movies about it in school, watched them on television, and read about them in newspapers and magazines. Fun at the time, if you weren't too close to the tests. Not fun if you were.

The Manhattan project they figured out a way to split the atom, then put radioactive stuff into the bomb like uranium all that stuff, and that creates a huge explosion

This is the best explanation of what nuclear energy is and how it works, i get it now.

The "bomb" we see at around 1:50 is actually a giant metal casing that was going to be place around the Trinity bomb called "jumbo". The idea was to place the bomb inside it to catch any of the nuclear material incase the bomb didn't work. But then someone suggested that if the bomb did work, and it was encased in a giant metal cylinder - it would become the world's largest frag grenade. So they decided not to use it. It was blown up years later, and the remains of it can be seen near the Trinity bomb test site today.

The bomb at Trinity was not dropped from a plane, it was atop a 100 foot steel tower. Been there, very interesting place

2:00 - 2:09 all of that information is incorrect. The "gadget" from the Trinity Test had an estimated yield of about 19 kilotons. It was also hoisted up on a 100 foot tower and detonated remotely. The picture shown at 2:01 wasn't the bomb. That was an encasing they wanted to put the bomb in, in case it didn't achieve nuclear fission. They decided not to go with this, due to the HIGH amount of fragmentation it would've produced. It would've sent radioactive material for tens of miles across the desert.

Dont feel bad for the soviet pilot who dropped the bomb feel bad for the scientists who made the bomb.

Wow, I'm very surprised to hear u promoting nuclear energy. It's definitely a good thing when done properly, and thusly it's good that u show that. Absolute thumbs up.

The Trinity Device was actually staged upon a metal tower and detonated . It was not dropped from a plane. The first time an atomic bomb was dropped by plane was on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.

I find it concerning that the 2 bombs dropped on Japan by the USA is being presented as the USA having their hand forced because Japan would not surrender - for the record, Japan offered their surrender 3 times before the USA dropped their bombs anyway (twice before the 1st bomb and again before the second). The USA went ahead with the bombing anyway because there is a massive difference between testing in a test environment and testing in an active battlefield and they wanted real scenario data to more accurately measure how effectively they could destroy their enemies.

First off, the first atomic test in America, was not air dropped, it was a device suspended from a tower, and that test was called "Trinity"

Dude, get your history straight. The "Trinity" bomb was set on a tower, NOT dropped from a plane. Also, it was based in Los Alamos, not NY

2:11 The Trinity bomb wasn't dropped from a aircraft, it was detonated from the top of a 100 foot tower.

The best video I've ever watched on KZfaq.

The Trinity test was a tower shot of around 21 kilo tonnes and not the one kiloton airdrop that you have misleadingly stated. With regards to the second attack, Nagasaki was the secondary target after poor visibility spared the primary target Kokura. Running low on fuel, the fat man weapon was dropped around 3 maybe 4 miles from the intended target landing near the hills to the northeast and resulting in less damage even though the weapon was nearly 50% more powerful than the little boy weapon which had flattened Hiroshima. This is still regarded as a war crime by many outside of the United States. Many believe that this second attack brought the Second world war to an end. This is only partly true, as when the Soviet Union ended their neutrality with the Japanese empire and declared war and then invaded Manchuria with plans to take the Northern island of Hokkaido, the high command could see that the military situation was now impossibly hopeless. They were holding out for a conditional surrender to the allies in which they may keep the emperor Hirohito in place. This was accepted by the US administration although they still called it the unconditional surrender of the Japanese empire.

It should also be noted that standard ICBM (Intercontinental Balistic Missile) which is what most people would imagine under "a nuke" can carry up to 12 or so MIRVs with idependent payloads that can pepper the target area with nukes like carpet bomb...so the number of active misiles greatly underrestimate the destructive potential You're welcome

What a blast! Wonderful documentary to share with your entire nuclear family. Cheers!

The mind it took to discover and weaponize Nuclear fission/fusion is terrifying

he was like: "hey here's how a nuke works." and KZfaq was completely okay with it, yet KZfaq will copyright strike a stream when the streamer walks by a coffee shop playing a copyrighted song.

Already mentioned several times it wasn’t dropped. But it also was not dropped over Socorro NM. It detonated on a tower about 60 miles north of White Sands NM.

I love your video it was so nicely explained

it is said that the tsar bomba lost half it's destructive capability after the lead scientist behind the project feared that at it's full potential, the bomb could irreversibly damage the planet

Very informative. Thank you for the info.

Thanks man I really learned Alot

I think it’s really evil how they kept testing the bomb without having any care for the environmental or human lives :(

Dude be here teaching us how to make a nuke

"And Hirohito still refused to surrender." Seriously, did this guy ever watch Last Samurai and Emperor, in those films we found out the Emperors of Japan were just figurehead leaders without any real power, the Prime Ministers were really the ones with the power, Hideki Tojo was the real bad guy in WW2 in the Pacific, of course we rightly dealt with him after WW2 ended.

What is interesting is that Tsar Bomba was deliberately scaled back by half by its designer: it could have been equivalent to greater than 100 MT of TNT if they had used the designed load of deuterium. Ironically, the Soviets were worried about the very same thing some of the American designers of the bomb were worried about: an unstoppable chain fusion reaction of the gases in Earth’s atmosphere, which would have burnt Earth to charcoal. And just like J. Robert Oppenheimer was eventually persecuted by the U.S. government in part for advocating against the design of more powerful bombs, the Russian designer of Tsar Bomba was persecuted by the Soviet authorities for advocating the same thing.

Imagine surviving Hiroshima and trying to explain what happened to people in Nagasaki just moments before the second bomb went off. Not exactly the time you want to say "Hey look! I told you so! we are about to be vaporized!"

The first bomb. Known as the gadget, was on a platform. Not dropped

Explanation perfect,bravo

I’m “amazed” how you do history/educational videos and aren’t always accurate in your videos. You’d think you would look it up and make sure.

Otto Hahn technically didn’t figure that out, he performed the experiments but I’m pretty sure that Lise Meitner was the physicist who actually figured out what was happening

To think, living to experience all of these in person up front - and being able to tell the tale

Tsar Bomba was small to what the Russians were capable of creating. If that 57mt hydrogen bomb had included a uranium-238 tamper, the yield of the explosion would have been in excess of 100mt.

The trinity test bomb "The Gadget" was absolutely not dropped from a plane.

So hard to believe that just 20 pounds of matter can make an explosion powerful enough to destroy a large city