Sunniva Rose - TEDxOslo - Thorium Energy. History of nuclear weapons. A nuclear fireball lights up the night in the United States nuclear test Upshot-Knothole Badger on April 18, 1953. Nuclear weapons possess enormous destructive power derived from nuclear fission or combined fission and fusion reactions. Starting with scientific breakthroughs made during the 1930s, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada collaborated during World War II in what was called the Manhattan Project to counter the suspected Nazi German atomic bomb project. In August 1945 two fission bombs were dropped on Japan ending the Pacific War.
The Soviet Union started development shortly thereafter with their own atomic bomb project, and not long after that both countries developed even more powerful fusion weapons known as "hydrogen bombs. " Physics and politics in the 1930s and 1940s[edit] In the first decades of the 20th century, physics was revolutionised with developments in the understanding of the nature of atoms. H. From Los Alamos to Hiroshima[edit] Sound Waves. Amazing Resonance Experiment! MythBusters - Fun With Gas. Speech Jammer Christmas Moments. Pendulum Waves.