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Manhattan Project Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
Manhattan Project Quizzes, Trivia

Manhattan Project Trivia

Manhattan Project Trivia Quizzes

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2 Manhattan Project quizzes and 20 Manhattan Project trivia questions.
1.
  Manhattan Project   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The Manhattan Project of 1940-45 brought together finest minds of the Allied countries to produce the first nuclear weapon. They succeeded, and knocked Japan out of the war, but left the shadow of nuclear death over mankind to this day.
Average, 10 Qns, brian59, Sep 30 23
Average
brian59
Sep 30 23
8258 plays
2.
  The Manhattan Project   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The use of the first atomic weapons changed the course of history in the summer of 1945. How well do you know the details surrounding the the birth of the Atomic Age?
Tough, 10 Qns, MageJack, Mar 27 11
Tough
MageJack
1701 plays

Manhattan Project Trivia Questions
1. General Leslie Groves was chosen to be the military leader of the Manhattan Project. What major project had he overseen for the Army just prior to this appointment?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: The construction of the Pentagon

He was a Colonel when the Pentagon was built and was promoted to General before taking on the Manhattan Project.

2. The Manhattan Project effectively started with a letter from two famous scientists to President Roosevelt in 1939, whom they warned of the possibility of nuclear weapons being developed by Germany. They were ...?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Einstein and Szilard

Einstein had no further hand in the bomb development. Szilard became an effective campaigner against the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1923, interestingly for the photoelectric effect, rather than the much better known Theory of Relativity. Szilard was also a Nobel laureate.

3. The first two atomic weapons utilized different elemental isotopes to create explosive fission. Which isotope of Uranium was used?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: U-235

U-235 is a fissile isotope, meaning it is capable of spontaneous supercritical interaction if enough mass is brought together in the right geometrical configuration.

4. The Manhattan Project would not have come to fruition without an exceedingly able leader. In overall command was an Army General. What was his name?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Leslie Groves

Leslie Groves was a colonel in the Army Engineers. Initially disappointed not to get a field command, he more than served his country in the Manhattan Project, named after his previous command in the Manhattan Engineer District. Bush (no relation to either of the Georges) was scientific advisor to several presidents in the 1940s. MacArthur and Stillwell were brilliant field commanders.

5. Natural uranium ore is composed mostly of two isotopes. What percentage of the isotope needed for an atomic weapon is found in uranium ore?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: 0.71%

That isn't very much, is it?

6. Probably the General's wisest decision was to pick a theoretical physicist with little practical engineering experience as overall scientific leader of the Manhattan Project. Who was it?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: J. Robert Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer was probably the greatest physicist NOT to win the Nobel Prize. He developed theories of condensed matter and even Black Holes, thirty years in advance of his time. He fell foul of the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the McCarthy era. Serber worked on the Manhattan Project as did Feynmann. Urey discovered deuterium (heavy hydrogen) and developed a model of Earth's primordial atmosphere.

7. Special plants were built to separate and concentrate the required uranium isotope from the natural ore. Where were these plants built?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: Oak Ridge, TN

The two plants for U-235 production were the K-25 and Y-12 plants. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), formerly known as X-10, is also in Oak Ridge. Hanford was the site of the plant for plutonium production.

8. Nuclear explosives require suitable fissile fuel, an excess of neutrons to sustain a chain reaction, and a sufficient mass to sustain fission of most of the available fuel. This mass is called what?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Critical mass

Early calculations indicated a critical mass of several hundred pounds. This was later revised to only a few pounds. Associated shielding and detonating high explosives resulted in the earliest nuclear weapons being very large and heavy - 12,000 pounds or more.

9. The 509th Composite Group was an air combat group created to deliver the atomic bombs over mainland Japan. Who was the commanding colonel of the 509th?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: Paul Tibbets

Sweeney and Hopkins were also members of the 509th. Charles Schultz (creator of the "Peanuts" comics) served in the European theater in the 20th Armored Division from 1943 to 1945.

10. Only two elements were fissile (i.e. broke into two roughly equal daughter nuclei) with thermal (i.e. slow) neutrons and produced one or more further neutrons to sustain the chain reaction. These were ...?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Uranium 235 and Plutonium 239

Uranium 235 was separated painstakingly from the much more abundant Uranium 238 in natural Uranium by gaseous diffusion of Uranium hexafluoride through thousands of barriers, or as painstakingly by electromagnetic separation by Calutrons. Plutonium 239 was produced by the transmutation of Uranium 238 in reactors at Hanford, Washington.

11. The very first of the atomic weapons was detonated in the New Mexico Desert. What was the date of this test of the weapon?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: July 16, 1945

The first atomic bomb detonated was of the same type as 'Fat Man' used over Nagasaki (using plutonium). The 'Little Boy' bomb (using uranium) was thought to be of a more reliable design, so they didn't bother testing it before using it over Hiroshima.

12. The first controlled nuclear chain reaction was conducted at the University of Chicago in 1942 by the great Enrico Fermi, using natural uranium and neutron moderating or slowing by graphite. In what building was this first "atomic pile" located?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Squash courts

The squash courts used for the first test were actually underneath the seating area of a football stadium. It was a walled-in space that could be flooded with water if necessary. There was, in fact, a vogue for "swimming pool" reactors after the war when ordinary water was used as both coolant and shielding agent.

13. What was the name given to the first atomic weapon tested in New Mexico?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: The Gadget

Jumbo was a large steel vessel meant to contain the first explosion, but it wasn't used. Little Boy was the name given to the bomb dropped over Hiroshima. I made up "Thin Man".

14. To achieve nuclear detonation it is necessary to assemble the required mass in microseconds before the developing chain reaction blows the components apart. What two methods were employed?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Gun and implosion

Plutonium 239 reacts quicker than Uranium 235, hence the quicker implosion method, using focused shock-waves from a sphere of high explosive impinging on a hollow sphere of plutonium, was used at Alamagordo and Nagasaki; the gun method, using a subcritical "bullet" of Uranium 235 fired by a small cannon into a target of the same material. This was used in the Hiroshima bomb.

15. Hiroshima, the target of the first bomb used against Japan (dropped by the Enola Gay). Nagasaki was the second target. Which plane dropped the Nagasaki bomb?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: Bockscar

All of these planes were part of the 509th Group, but only Enola Gay and Bocks Car actually carried live bombs to their targets.

16. Most of the theoretical work on the atomic bomb, and all of the final assembly, was conducted at a secret site in New Mexico where a whole town was erected in secret around a former boys' school. What is the name of the place?

From Quiz Manhattan Project

Answer: Los Alamos

Los Alamos continued to be the most secret town in the U.S. until well after the Cold War. Dugway is the U.S. Army chemical weapons test range in Utah. Alamogordo was the site of the first nuclear explosion and White Sands was a missile testing area close by.

17. Nagasaki was not the first choice of targets on the day the atomic bomb was used on it. Which city was the first choice, but spared due to local weather conditions?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: Kokura

Kokura had been the second choice of targets when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped three days earlier.

18. Where was the base used by the 509th Group to launch the planes that dropped the bombs over Japan?

From Quiz The Manhattan Project

Answer: Tinian

The planes launched from Tinian's North Field on their 13 to 14 hour round trips.

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