Monday, July 16, 2007
This Day in American History
On this day in 1945, the United States exploded the first atomic weapon, in the desert of Alamogordo, New Mexico at what is known as the Trinity site. It was a 19 kiloton weapon. The reason we measured atomic weapon yields back then in kilotons of TNT is that earlier, in May, the Manhattan project workers had piled up and exploded 100 tons of trinitrotoluene near the Trinity site and then compared the nuclear explosion to that earlier chemical explosion. The first nuke was 19 190 times bigger. You can still see both craters on the desert floor. This was an important change in armament, but we are all thankful we have not yet begun to use these weapons routinely, even though we got all ready to.
UPDATE: Doug Sundseth corrects my math, yet again; the mistake stems from my inability to remember that the kilo in kiloton means 1,000, not 100. All fixed now.
Labels: WWII history; Pacific theater; Frist Atomic Bomb
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:09 AM 
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Thanks, you are correct, as usual. I keep thinking kilo is 100 when it's 1000. Good, because the nuclear crater looked way more than just 19 times bigger than the little one below it.
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