A long time ago (3000 years), some "Thinkers" as they were called, thought of a theory of how the world was made up. Some people already thought that you could chop something in half and keep chopping it in half for ever, and there would never be any "smallest" or "uncuttable" part.
Then, some guy came up with a theory he called "Particle Theory." The theory was that you can chop something in half for a while, but then you will get to a small part, called a molecule, which is unbreakable. People went on believing this theory for a while, until about 2000 years later when someone broke open a molecule, and all these little Atoms came out! (well, there goes that theory out the window!)
There are 109 different atoms, 82 of them occur naturally, and the rest are man-made. (The man-made ones don't last more than a second usually.) Inside each atom there are several protons, electrons and neutrons. If there are more protons than electrons then the atom is positively charged; if there are more electrons than protons, then the atom is negatively charged.
There are two types of "Atom Bombs": Fission bombs (composed of uranium or plutonium) and Fusion bombs.
Uranium Bombs are detonated by a stream of Protons which are shot towards a uranium atom, which splits the atom into two smaller atoms, the atomic volume of both these smaller atoms is less than the atomic Volume of the whole Uranium Atom. This leaves a few Protons left lying around, which generates enough force to blow a whole city to kingdom come! This method is called "Atomic Fission." This is the method used in Nuclear Power Plants, and it leaves a lot of Radiation.
Hydrogen Bombs are detonated by the joining of two Hydrogen Atoms which creates a Helium Atom, which again, has a smaller Atomic Weight than the two Hydrogen Atoms put together! This leaves but one Proton, and enough energy to destroy an area greater than that of the Uranium Bomb! This method is called "Atomic Fusion". Unfortunately, the energy which is created by this Fusion can't be harnessed by Science the same way Fission can. Fusion is much "Cleaner" than Fission, and so there is much less Radiation left over.
How to make a Hydrogen bomb in 3 easy steps:Well, I'm sure if you are any type of nuclear scientist and you have read this then you will probably want to correct me in some way. If so, please email me at: nf@alphalink.com.au In the next issue there will probably be a huge corrections page for this article. Also, any comments on this article can be sent to me, and I will see that some or most of them are published.
Andrew Gerrand, [7/5/1997]