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    Frisch-Peierls Memorandum

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    Christian Schneider
    The Frisch–Peierls memorandum was written in 1940 by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while working at the University of Birmingham in England. It was the first document to provide a practical analysis of what would be needed to produce an atomic bomb. It calculated that around 1 kilogram of uranium-235 would be sufficient to create an explosive chain reaction and nuclear blast. This challenged earlier assumptions that tons of uranium would be required and made the prospect of a practical bomb more realistic. The memorandum helped accelerate British and American atomic weapons programs during World War II.

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    Frisch-Peierls Memorandum

    Uploaded by

    Christian Schneider
    432 views3 pages
    The Frisch–Peierls memorandum was written in 1940 by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while working at the University of Birmingham in England. It was the first document to provide a practical analysis of what would be needed to produce an atomic bomb. It calculated that around 1 kilogram of uranium-235 would be sufficient to create an explosive chain reaction and nuclear blast. This challenged earlier assumptions that tons of uranium would be required and made the prospect of a practical bomb more realistic. The memorandum helped accelerate British and American atomic weapons programs during World War II.

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    Frisch–Peierls Memorandum

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    The Frisch–Peierls memorandum was written in 1940 by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while working at the University of Birmingham in England. It was the first document to provide a practical analysis of what would be needed to produce an atomic bomb. It calculated that around 1 kilogram of uranium-235 would be sufficient to create an explosive chain reaction and nuclear blast. This challenged earlier assumptions that tons of uranium would be required and made the prospect of a practical bomb more realistic. The memorandum helped accelerate British and American atomic weapons programs during World War II.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    432 views3 pages

    Frisch-Peierls Memorandum

    Uploaded by

    Christian Schneider
    The Frisch–Peierls memorandum was written in 1940 by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while working at the University of Birmingham in England. It was the first document to provide a practical analysis of what would be needed to produce an atomic bomb. It calculated that around 1 kilogram of uranium-235 would be sufficient to create an explosive chain reaction and nuclear blast. This challenged earlier assumptions that tons of uranium would be required and made the prospect of a practical bomb more realistic. The memorandum helped accelerate British and American atomic weapons programs during World War II.

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    FrischPeierls memorandum

    The FrischPeierls memorandum was the rst technical exposition of a practical atomic weapon.[1] Written
    by Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls while they were both
    working at the University of Birmingham in England,
    the memorandum contained new calculations about the
    size of the critical mass needed for an atomic bomb, and
    helped accelerate British and U.S. eorts towards bomb
    development during World War II.

    Strictly Condential
    Memorandum on the properties of a radioactive super-bomb
    The attached detailed report concerns the
    possibility of constructing a super-bomb which
    utilizes the energy stored in atomic nuclei as a
    source of energy. The energy liberated in the explosion of such a super-bomb is about the same
    as that produced by the explosion of 1000 tons
    of dynamite. This energy is liberated in a small
    volume, in which it will, for an instant, produce
    a temperature comparable to that in the interior
    of the sun. The blast from such an explosion
    would destroy life in a wide area. The size of
    this area is dicult to estimate, but it will probably cover the centre of a big city.

    Background and inuence

    Given to Marcus Oliphant, Oliphant passed the document


    on to Henry Tizard, chairman of the Committee on the
    Scientic Survey of Air Defence who consequently requested the setting-up of what was to become the secret
    MAUD Committee. The memorandum (a copy of which
    is held in the Public Record Oce at Kew) is dated March
    1940.

    In addition, some part of the energy set free


    by the bomb goes to produce radioactive substances, and these will emit very powerful and
    dangerous radiations. The eect of these radiations is greatest immediately after the explosion,
    but it decays only gradually and even for days
    after the explosion any person entering the affected area will be killed.

    The two men were the rst to calculate that an atomic


    bomb would require about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of the
    isotope uranium-235.[2] (The estimate of 1 kg turned out
    to be too low; see Critical mass.) Before it had been assumed that the bomb itself would require many tons of
    uranium, implying that it was theoretically possible, but
    not a practical military device. An earlier letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed by Albert Einstein
    (but written by Le Szilrd), had suggested it may need
    to be delivered by ship but might very well not be small
    enough to drop from the air.

    Some of this radioactivity will be carried


    along with the wind and will spread the contamination; several miles downwind this may kill
    people.

    The memorandum helped galvanize both Britain and


    America down a path which led to a report by the
    British MAUD Committee, the Tube Alloys project, the
    Manhattan Project, and ultimately the atomic bombings
    of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    3 See also
    EinsteinSzilrd letter

    Contents

    Timeline of the Manhattan Project


    Allied technological cooperation during World War
    II

    The memo was written in two parts. The second was an


    explanation of the science supporting their conclusions.
    The rst was an elegant and comprehensive outline of
    the implications of their calculations. It included a proposal that the best defence against such a weapon would
    be to develop one before Germany did so. In a few short
    pages these two scientists had anticipated the policies of
    deterrence which would later shape Cold War geopolitics.

    4 References
    [1] Kelly, Cynthia C. (2004). Remembering The Manhattan Project: Perspectives on the Making of the Atomic
    Bomb and Its Legacy. World Scientic. p. 44. ISBN
    9812560408. Retrieved 2012-09-30.

    The memorandum opens with:


    1

    [2] The energy liberated by a 5 kg bomb would be equivalent to that of several thousand tons of dynamite, while
    that of a 1 kg bomb, though about 500 times less, would
    still be formidable. Frisch-Peierls Memorandum, March
    1940, retrieved 2011-12-04

    World Nuclear AssociationOutline History of


    Nuclear Energy

    External links
    Stanford UniversityThe FrischPeierls memorandum (PDF)
    Frisch and Peierlss second memorandum

    EXTERNAL LINKS

    Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

    6.1

    Text

    FrischPeierls memorandum Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisch%E2%80%93Peierls%20memorandum?oldid=557197482


    Contributors: AxelBoldt, Stevertigo, Charles Matthews, Fastssion, Christopherlin, MakeRocketGoNow, AKGhetto, Wiki-Ed, Kjkolb,
    Rwendland, Jmcc150, Ian Dunster, Gaius Cornelius, Welsh, Petri Krohn, JimmyGuano, Sct72, Cordless Larry, Bdushaw, Sibadd, Chris55,
    Myasuda, Thijs!bot, Headbomb, Brumnick, Daytona2, Rich257, Hugo999, JulesN, Binksternet, SeaRisk, Snocrates, CapnZapp, Addbot,
    Yobot, MaxDel, EmausBot, GoingBatty, ZroBot, KLBot2 and Anonymous: 10

    6.2

    Images

    File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0


    Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

    6.3

    Content license

    Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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