And any of Feynman's memoirs.

I love Feynman's writing style. The bonus of reading his memoirs is all the additional cool anecdotes, e.g. the lock hacking stories.

the one screwed up thing about the american government at the time on the atomic bomb was that the scientists told them there was a slight (very very small) chance that detonating one of those things could ignite the oxygen in the air causing a chain reaction that could incinerate the earth. to which the american government replied "do it"
as small as the odds were. thats still a big risk. imagined the scientists biting their fists waiting to see if it would happen

eh. people once cautioned us that driving in an automobile at speeds faster than 38 mph would cause one's eyeballs to implode. the scientists were wrong then, they're probably wrong now...

To Bullitt and Wolf
 

Ok..it's obvious that I never passed My US history class llooll

Actually, that thought has always fascinated me. I usually remember that bit of trivia if I happen to be down Los Alamos, New Mexico way. I imagine the physicists kissing their wives good-bye on the morning of the first test then going to stand on a mountainside somewhere and wondering...

The scientific detachment, looking at the blue sky, fluffy white clouds overhead, perhaps hearing the call of a meadowlark...

Waiting under the New Mexico sky...

For the end of the world...

Do you suppose they placed bets among themselves?

Not quite.

The "atmosphere catching fire" was a speculation raised fairly early on in the development of the bomb by Edward Teller, I believe. They stopped work for a bit, put a team of theoretical physicist to work on the math, and decided that wouldn't happen.

By the time they were ready to go on the Trinity Test (July 16, 1945) that was no longer even a consideration. Even so, Manhattan Project lore states that a press release was prepared announcing the death of several dozen prominent physicists in an industrial accident of some kind.

Seriously, read the book I posted a link to earlier.

You never had an opportunity to learn this stuff in US history class ... it's not taught.

I thought it was cool and so I researched it on my own.

There were bets placed on the yield of the Trinity gadget.

Fermi won.

To wolf,
Yes it's being mentioned in the book, we've also learned about the us dropping a-bombs over japan, and the making of it as well.

If you got much more than "following a crash development program, two atomic bombs were dropped on historically and culturally significant Japanese cities after the Japanese had been virtually defeated," you had a very unusual history textbook and instructor.

No, it wasnt much into details. But it did cover the us dropping a-bombs. and etc. What we used as a textbook was that greenish cover US history book.

Oh, that one. :worried:

I come from an era in which history books had red, white, and blue covers and had the founding documents printed on the endpapers.

We spent a lot of time on the endpapers.

Most "Social Studies" classes involved "World Cultures" ... you didn't get exposed to American History until your Junior year. American History ended at the Civil War.

There are many in education who, if the technology were available, cause American history books to drip actual blood. Be nice if the R,W & B ones were more in fashion.