The Los Alamos Primer: The First Lectures on How to Build an Atomic Bomb, Updated with a New Introduction by Richard Rhodes by Robert Serber (PDF)

Description

More than seventy years ago, American forces exploded the first atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing great physical and human destruction. The young scientists at Los Alamos who developed the bombs, which were nicknamed Little Boy and Fat Man, were introduced to the basic principles and goals of the project in March 1943, at a crash course in new weapons technology. The lecturer was physicist Robert Serber, J. Robert Oppenheimer’s protégé, and the scientists learned that their job was to design and build the world’s first atomic bombs. Notes on Serber’s lectures were gathered into a mimeographed document titled TheLos Alamos Primer, which was supplied to all incoming scientific staff. The Primer remained classified for decades after the war. Published for the first time in 1992, the Primer offers contemporary readers a better understanding of the origins of nuclear weapons. Serber’s preface vividly conveys the mingled excitement, uncertainty, and intensity felt by the Manhattan Project scientists. This edition includes an updated introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Richard Rhodes. A seminal publication on a turning point in human history, The Los Alamos Primer reveals just how much was known and how terrifyingly much was unknown midway through the Manhattan Project. No other seminar anywhere has had greater historical consequences.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The annotations cover some of what was learned later, corrections to the math, and the human context. This makes more interesting reading than the original handouts.The biographic appendix in this edition of the primer is a nice Who’s Who of the Los Alamos community.The site nuclearweaponarchive.org discusses the engineering design of nuclear weapons in more detail, based on later testing.This shows where they were at the start of the process. The basic facts of the physics involved are now in the public record, which as Serber says, is not the same knowing as the engineering details.If you just skim the equations and read the conclusions in this book, I think you could understand the basics with today’s high school math and physics. It takes more math and physics to derive some of the formulas.For more of the human dimension I’d refer you to the biography of Serber

⭐, still available as a used book, and to Richard Rhodes’ books. The biography describes his trip to Japan to assess the bomb effects, and his post-war career. He was not treated as badly as Oppenheimer, but he did face some questioning in the McCarthy Era.

⭐I am very happy with this book. It provides some additional information that further explains the Manhattan Project LA-1 Primer. And that was exactly what I wanted.

⭐However, not so hot for insight. My favorite book for learning calculus is less than 200 pages, the one I had in school was over 1,000 pages. If you are looking for the first book, this is definitively that first book. If you are trying to fill in some holes and you have, say, a modern bachelor’s degree; this book is a fun hour read.

⭐This book was a new addition to my library on ‘Special Weapons’. I’ve had a long term interest in all things dealing with them. The Los Alamos Primer would have been a great purchase if it had simply consisted of the original lectures. The 4 men who contribute to this work have produced an important book. Richard Rhodes introduced and edited (conducted) this book. I believe any book with his name attached, is worth a buy. I find his writing to be very clear and interesting. Robert Serber, who gave the original lectures, does an excellent job of a literary ‘voice over’ on them. He explains, expounds, and fills out the basic lectures. On top of what those 2 guys have made, this box of Cracker Jacks came with a very nice surprise. Included in this book are 2 old (1940-41) memorandums by Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch. These were instrumental in the notification of the Atomic potentials to the US/British governments. I have read about them, but never expected to read them. In 3 words- BUY THIS BOOK!

⭐It was a total surprise to realize each and everyone of the Los Alamos team was handed the mimeographed primer prior to commencing their work in the lab. The amount of info that was already understood, the insightful, intelligent guesses are just spellbinding. You get a true sense of the absolute conviction that the bomb will be built, it will be dropped and it will work. Concurrent projects of uranium separation at Oakridge and the manufacture of plutonium at Hanford Washington…proceeded with total conviction even though the explosive power of fission, while calculated had never been observed. In today’s world where everything is miniaturized and communication is at the speed of light, nonetheless, both the uranium bomb and the plutonium bomb were only a few pounds in weight as necessitated by 1945 technology. With higher quality nuclear materials and infintely better tampers and higher neutron efficiency, you can only guess the small size of today’s devastating nuclear devises.

⭐This is a fascinating insight into what physicists were thinking at the time of building the bomb, together with a sometimes amusing retrospective by Robert Serber. Although it is technical in places the lectures were originally simplified to present the essential physics, which is perfectly accessible to any high-school graduate.The Frisch-Peierls memorandum is a nice touch; after reading Serber’s lectures it gives and idea of what others were thinking and where the major uncertainties lay.The electronic version of the book loses a star due to the execrable editing; despite the steep price the publishers evidently decided none was necessary. The display equations are simply copy and paste images interspersed with improperly typeset inline math littered with errors. The original lecture extracts and Serber’s commentary are in the same font and it’s not always easy to tell which is which. A shoddy job, UCP.

⭐This little book is great for anyone interested in the history of the Manhattan Project. It describes the theoretical challenges in learning how to do something that had never been done before. What’s more they (the scientists at Los Alamos) had very little on none of the active material on which to test their theories. There is mathematics in the book but for the reader who is not mathematically inclined it can be passed over as a demonstration that it was done and is correct without the reader having to verify it. The Introduction by Richard Rhodes is great – written after the fact – he gives an overview of the Project which had established the need for the Primer.

⭐This is a good book for someone who already knows a little about modern physics in general or the making of an atomic bomb. Written by the scientist who was charged with bringing new arrivals to the Los Alamos up to speed. Reading this book is like enrolling in a short course taught by a master teacher. You learn the same things that a scientist or engineer working on the Manhattan Project would have learned.If you have a month and want to learn as much as possible, read Richard Rhode’s books on the subject

⭐and

⭐. Be prepared to be exhausted. If you have an afternoon and want to learn as much as possible sit down with this book. You’ll learn a surprising amount of material. It’s the ultimate crash course in fission bombs.

⭐I was about to give three stars then had a thumb through it again. It’s not bad at all. Interesting coverage of what is, after all, a “historical document”.I guess for good reasons there is a lack of detail in places, but the accompanying text explaining some of the work is not bad.Worth a read for the scientifically curious…

⭐A very good read. Contains a lot of information not in other texts. Some reviews complain that it contains some maths, but the maths is really basic that a child could understand. Full of historical nuggets.

⭐Robert Serber wurde 1938 Assistenzprofessor in Berkley, dort schloss er sich der sehr aktiven Theoriegruppe Oppenheimers an. Als Robert Oppenheimer die wissenschaftliche Leitung des Manhattan-Projekt übertragen wurde, avancierte er zu dessen rechter Hand. Er gehört zu den Teilnehmern der Sommer Konferenz 1942 in Berkley, auf der Bethe, van Vleck, Rabi, Teller u.a. die prinzipielle Möglichkeit einer Atombombe diskutieren. Serber gehört neben Bethe und Teller zu jenen Forschern, die das gesamte Feld überblicken.Nachdem das Los Alamos Labor im Frühjahr 1943 seine Arbeit aufnahm, hält Serber fünf Vorlesungen über den damaligen Stand der Erkenntnisse über Kernphysik. Edward Condon machte dabei Notizen, die nach eingehender Diskussion, die Basis des Skript der vorliegenden Zusammenfassung bildeten. Kopien davon wurden im weiteren an die neu ankommenden, frisch rekrutierten Postdos und anderen Mitarbeiter verteilt.Die Lektionen behandeln solche Themen wie die Energie des Spaltungsprozesses, schnelle Neutronen Kettenreaktionen, Spaltungs- Querschnitte, Neutronen Spektrum und anderes mehr.Da die Zeit drängte – man hatte immer noch keine Informationen, wie weit Deutschland mit seinem Uran-Projekt voran gekommen war, musste sich Serber bei der Themenauswahl auf das notwendigste beschränken und häufig Erklärungen weglassen. Obwohl die Darstellungen also oft nur grobe Entwürfe sind, enthielt die Zusammenfassung doch alles, was man in April 1943 über den Bau einer Atombombe wusste, merkt der Autor in seiner Einleitung an.Das schmale Bändchen ist ein ausgezeichnetes wissenschaftlich technisches historisches Zeitdokument, das legendär bei den Studenten jener Forscher, die nach dem Bau der Bombe an ihre Lehrstühle zurückkehrten – betont Robert Rhodes, Autor von ‘Making of the Atomic Bomb’ – dem Standardwerk zu diesem Thema, in seinem Vorwort. Das Skript wurde erst 1965 vollständig de-klassifiziert, als das Material längst aus anderen Quellen öffentlich bekannt war. Im Anhang enthält es das Frisch- Peierls Memorandum aus dem Jahre 1940 über die Möglichkeiten einer Kernspaltungs- Bombe. Ergänzt wird das Buch, mit einem Personenverzeichnis, mit biographischen Anmerkungen, und einem Index.

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⭐The Primer is part of the history of the development of the atomic bomb.It is an account of what was known and what was not at the beginning of the Manhattan Project.So it is kind of historical document and that is its value, especially with the notes.Some background in physics is necessary.The low score is due to the very poor quality of the kindle edition.It is impossible to distinguish between the original document and the notes, as should be according to the text.Considering the high price of the kindle edition, I was expecting something better.

⭐A really bright grade 13 physics student could follow the math involved. Its not as hard as you might think.The book covers the history as well as the physics.The theory of how to build the bomb was pretty well understood, but making it happen was pretty tricky. Plus, sourcing the materials was the hardest part of all.Great book.

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