If you have to young kids, my son loved these, and others like them, and they were much better than the bulk of the options available in the elementary school library

We apparently need more conservatives to become educators. Most aren't willing to make the sacrifice though.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Very cool story. The "Limo" they often used to drive to Lamy (nearest RR depot, south of Santa Fe) is in the National Nuclear Museum in ABQ

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Wow! That could be a vehicle that my mother-in-law actually drove! She said she made many trips to Santa Fe to pick-up and drop-off passengers. Her most well known was Enrico Fermi. None of them were allowed to drive Oppenheimer. She said he had his own vehicle that was protected by an FBI agent. She was one of just a few soldiers that actually were allowed to leave the base at all during her time there since it was such an ultra top-secret project.

She passed away 6 years ago at 97. I would have loved to been able to get her and my father-in-law's take on the movie.

I just asked my recently HS-graduated daughter if she had any idea who Oppenheimer was or if she had ever heard of the Manhattan Project. Nope to both. Not sure what to think. I have no idea how I learned of them but just know that I know who/what they are.

edit: she just came in and told me what the MP was so she at least learned that (obviously took her a minute to remember). Still didn't know who RO was though.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Definitely Not A Cop said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Dorm 15 said:

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Why Los Alamos?

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Oppenheimer lived in Albuquerque and thought the Sangre de Cristo mountains would be private and far enough removed to maintain the secrecy needed.

His idea.

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Wasn't their original operation in Chicago? How quickly did they move out there?

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Chicago was the first sustained chain reaction. I'm drawing a blank as to where the Manhattan Project started. But as others said, there were sites all over the country. Los Alamos, Hanford, WA, Oak Ridge, TN etc etc

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Yep,

Los Alamos: test site
Hanford: Fat Man, Plutonium implosion bomb
Oak Ridge: Little Boy, Uranium slug bomb

We took a shot at two different techs and both worked. Speaking of Tech, I did not learn this there. Most people have no interest in history and you really learn only what you love.

Los Alamos was the design and production lab. Im fairly certain all the early bombs were built there

Trinity (White Samds) was the test site

Oak Ridge produced the Uranium

Hanford produced the Plutonium

This seems like a humble brag

The "Limo" was a Plymouth sedan hacked in two and crudely extended with steel, wood, and canvas to holf an extra row or two of seats

Ugly thing, someone found it in a junkyard several years ago amd saved it

Looking forward to your review of the movie!

ChemEAg08 said:

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Viper16 said:

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Don't take this the wrong way Hollywood BQ, but what did you teach your child about US History over the years?

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More importantly, did you teach them about Texas history?

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Of course, don't all Texans do that?

middle age engineer here

dont think the name was brought up in any history or engineering class I took. I probably knew more about Feynman at graduation and maybe knew the hindu quote and something about a communist side piece.

Didnt get into it until a stop at the nuke museum in ABQ about 10 years ago. It helped that they have several ancestors of what I work on in the back lot.

Anything I know about Oppenheimer or the Manhattan Project is self taught. And I was a huge history nerd in high school and college.

To be fair to your daughter and her Nazi scientist comment, we did recruit a significant amount of German scientists for the Manhattan project and space race. Though only some were former Nazis.

beerad12man said:

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I won't be going on opening weekend but will be seeing it the weekend of August 4th.

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Wait and go on August 6th or August 9th.

HollywoodBQ said:

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The Fife said:

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My kids are 7.5 and almost 5. They don't know a thing about him!

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I assume they're also not asking for tix to a 3 hour long live action movie

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If it was a movie about Minecraft the big one would definitely want to go see

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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We apparently need more conservatives to become educators. Most aren't willing to make the sacrifice though.

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I'm seriously thinking about it.

I've had a great career in IT but, the constant push to stay on message and hype the latest software version or meaningless feature is tiresome. Having to work with folks who have less than stellar personalities and are willing to throw you and your team under the bus if they hear any layoff rumors, just gets old.

If you think NIL money kids have no commitment, you haven't seen a young Indian IT guy with a Green Card. Those guys have no loyalty at all.

I'd have to find a school district that would put up with me holding kids to standards though.

I can imagine teaching like Mr. Hand.


Even a Hiroshima reference in this classroom.

Ag83 said:

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I just asked my recently HS-graduated daughter if she had any idea who Oppenheimer was or if she had ever heard of the Manhattan Project. Nope to both. Not sure what to think. I have no idea how I learned of them but just know that I know who/what they are.

edit: she just came in and told me what the MP was so she at least learned that (obviously took her a minute to remember). Still didn't know who RO was though.

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Thanks for confirming.

aggiehawg said:

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There's a great musuem is Albuquerque. Virtual tours are here

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Take a trip to Los Alamos next time you're in New Mexico.

flakrat said:

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Looking forward to your review of the movie!

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I'll knock it out tomorrow night when my daughter goes to see Barbie.

Dorm 15 said:

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aggiehawg said:

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Dorm 15 said:

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Why Los Alamos?

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Oppenheimer lived in Albuquerque and thought the Sangre de Cristo mountains would be private and far enough removed to maintain the secrecy needed.

His idea.

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During his late teenage years Oppenheimer was sickly and his father sent him to a "school" in what became Los Alamos. Indeed he liked the area.

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He was a bit too wealthy to bother with the Los Alamos Ranch School. His family owned a ranch across the valley in the Sangre de Christos and he would make trips on horseback to the Pajarito plateau where Los Alamos is located.

Both of my Engineering degreed sons know who Oppenheimer was and the Manhattan Project. Maybe its more a difference in what boys are interested in versus what girls are interested in.

The Green Dragon said:

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This seems like a humble brag

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Don't know if that was directed at me but, it was an honest question.

What I want to know is - am I expecting too much of the education system or, did my daughter miss something that her peers got exposure to. Or maybe I'm just old.

If I wanted to humblebrag, it would be the fact that my daughter is a Sydney Private School Girl who made it through the Ratline at VMI without being an NCAA Athlete. These girls are groomed to marry the captains of Australian industry. So to come to America and do something that involves mud and gunpowder and Civil War uniforms, I'm impressed.

But not knowing about the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer, etc. Maybe I need to hit the reset button on my expectations.

Language Warning - here's some of Chris LIlley's finest work as Ja'mie Private School Girl

Was that photo taken at the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oakridge, TN?

I'm sure there is a similar photo taken of my brother and me during a family vacation in the late 80s.

fasthorse05 said:

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Leslie Groves was always my favorite.

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THE most important man in the Manhattan Project (imo).

davec81 said:

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beerad12man said:

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I won't be going on opening weekend but will be seeing it the weekend of August 4th.

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Wait and go on August 6th or August 9th.

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When I saw it being hyped at Universal Studios a few weeks ago, I figured they made the release date coincide with the Trinity test.

But it looks like the Trinity test was on July 16th.

I will always remember who Oppenheimer was. I had an Econ class first year at A&M. This had nothing to do with econ, but oh well. For some reason the TA decided if we could write down the name of the inventor of the atomic bomb we could get extra credit. I had no idea. If had known, I would have scored just enough to be exempt from the final. I'll never forget.

11 year old daughter and I just finished watching the Manhattan Project History Channel video on YouTube



I'd seen it before, but wanted a refresher before the movie.

Fun fact (according to the show, Oak Ridge was using 1/10th of the total electric consumption of the US by 1945. It used massive electro magnets to separate U235 from the other uranium atom U23something-or-other.

U235 was used in Little Boy. They couldn't extract enough of it to create a test bomb, so they had to trust the design. Which was to slam a chunk of U235 into another chunk at something like 3000 ft/sec.

Fat Man used plutonium. Due to instability of the plutonium, they had to change the bomb design to use simultaneous detonations around the spherical structure of the bomb to compress the plutonium from all sides

They were able to manufacture the plutonium in quantities enough to test its design in the Trinity test.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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. . . One of the books in my library is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes, which is where I gleaned the bulk of what I know about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.

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Fabulous book. Would highly recommend it.

carl spacklers hat said:

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Both of my Engineering degreed sons know who Oppenheimer was and the Manhattan Project. Maybe its more a difference in what boys are interested in versus what girls are interested in.

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Good point because I'm sure your boys are probably not into Kendall Jenner's 818 Tequila, or Truly or these goofy split toe boots that cost more than my A&M Senior Boots.
https://www.ssense.com/en-us/editorial/fashion/the-uncanny-appeal-of-margielas-tabi-boots

CanyonAg77 said:

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Los Alamos was the design and production lab. Im fairly certain all the early bombs were built there

Trinity (White Samds) was the test site

Oak Ridge produced the Uranium

Hanford produced the Plutonium

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Ames, IA was where the process for purifying uranium was developed. Iowa State College (now University) was the only academic institution to receive the Army-Navy "E" Award for their contributions to the Manhattan Project.

davec81 said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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. . . One of the books in my library is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes, which is where I gleaned the bulk of what I know about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.

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Fabulous book. Would highly recommend it.

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Los Alamos Primer is a good one to see the state of nuclear material science in the 40s. Plutonium hadn't been named yet so lots of references to element 94.

I bought a reprint a while back, but I see the PDF now is available free

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Los_Alamos_Primer.pdf

I have taken my kids to Los Alamos and the Bradbury Museum there. It's a great place to learn about Oppenheimer & the Manhattan project. My wife and I both love history and take our kids on vacation to national parks, museums, etc. This is how you you get kids interested in history. On a side note Bandelier National Monument (Anasazi Indian Ruins) is close to Los Alamos and is definitely worth the trip.

HollywoodBQ said:

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davec81 said:

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beerad12man said:

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I won't be going on opening weekend but will be seeing it the weekend of August 4th.

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Wait and go on August 6th or August 9th.

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When I saw it being hyped at Universal Studios a few weeks ago, I figured they made the release date coincide with the Trinity test.

But it looks like the Trinity test was on July 16th.

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It is closer to Trinity than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. I guess they decided against having it coincide with any of those.

flakrat said:

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. . . Fun fact (according to the show, Oak Ridge was using 1/10th of the total electric consumption of the US by 1945. . .

And why we have the TVA.



U235 was used in Little Boy. They couldn't extract enough of it to create a test bomb, so they had to trust the design. . . .

The Little Boy design was so simple that the scientists had enough testing data from their tests in Los Alamos that they were sure enough of the design to forgo a full-up test. Separating two different isotopes of the same element is extremely difficult, and costly.




Fat Man used plutonium. Due to instability of the plutonium, they had to change the bomb design to use simultaneous detonations around the spherical structure of the bomb to compress the plutonium from all sides

The Fat Man design was orders of magnitude more complex and required a full-up test for proof of concept. No one knew for a fact that Trinity would be a successful test. They almost placed the Trinity "gadget" in a huge steel container (nicknamed Jumbo) in order to recover as much of the plutonium as they could if in fact it was a fizzle.

And separation of plutonium is much, much simpler than uranium because it can be done chemically. That's why we invented it.

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AggieFeedMan01 said:

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I have taken my kids to Los Alamos and the Bradbury Museum there. It's a great place to learn about Oppenheimer & the Manhattan project. My wife and I both love history and take our kids on vacation to national parks, museums, etc. This is how you you get kids interested in history. On a side note Bandelier National Monument (Anasazi Indian Ruins) is close to Los Alamos and is definitely worth the trip.

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The Manhattan Project National Historic Park has sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Hanford.

the state of apocryphal American education in history and civics