Modern atomic theory was spearheaded by an Englishman named John Dalton back at the very start of the 19th century. Galileo explored it, as did Descartes and Sir Isaac Newton. For millennia this idea, the concept of what was called Atomism, was something that remained theoretical. It wasn’t just the ancient Greeks - there’s evidence of Indian philosophers in the 8th century BC having similar discussions, imagining what the smallest unit of matter could be. And although they, of course, lacked the technical ability to actually do this, they did believe that it existed. Ancient Greek philosophers, going back to the 5th century BC, theorised about what the smallest thing in the world was, imagining what would happen if every piece of matter was cut in half until it was impossible to cut any further. If you know your ancient Greek, you will know that the word “atom” comes from the ancient Greek word “atomon”, meaning something that is impossible to be cut or divided. The atom, or at least the idea of the atom, in fact, is nothing new. And you might think that, given they are so incredibly small, the discovery of the atom would be a relatively new thing. You’d need to put a hundred million side by side, and even if you could, they would be no bigger than your little finger. An atom is the smallest unit of matter that exists, they are tiny, about one hundred-millionth of a centimetre across. If you can think back to your science class at school, perhaps you remember something about atoms. Then in part three, our final part, we’ll talk about the aftermath of the atomic bomb, some of the ethical questions that it raised and ask ourselves whether such a huge loss of life could have been avoided. Then in part two, we will talk about the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and talk about the immediate aftermath of the events. In part one, today’s episode, we are going to talk about the run up to the dropping of the first bomb, how scientists discovered the potential for an atomic weapon, how the bomb actually worked, and the years that led up to it actually being dropped. So, this is what we’re going to talk about in this mini-series. And it’s no surprise that, when it comes to lists of what people believe are the most important events of the 20th century, the creation and dropping of the atomic bomb is always up there at the top. It didn’t just kill tens of thousands of people instantly, it didn’t just kill tens of thousands more in the following weeks, months and years, it changed the entire concept of what war was, and ushered in a new, nuclear, age. There are few times in history where you can say that an event truly changed the course of world history, but at 8.15am on August the 6th, 1945, when the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima was one of them. I'm Alastair Budge, and today is the start of another three-part mini-series, this time on The Atomic Bomb. The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English. Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.

Bomba in english