Quiz: What Do You Know About the History of Atomic Weapons?

Test your knowledge of the historic events

Barbara Goodman

En español

Published August 02, 2019

9 Questions

Quiz: What Do You Know About the History of Atomic Weapons?

[ {
  "question" : "In December 1938, where was fission (the basic process that splits a heavy element and releases energy) first discovered?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "New York",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Berlin",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Moscow",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Berkeley, California",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Researchers soon discovered that fission could create a chain reaction that led to the release of large amounts of energy.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What was the Alsos Mission?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "The discovery of the neutron",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Secret operations in Europe to determine to what extent the Nazis were developing an atom bomb",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Research on the fission of uranium",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A study of bomb design by a group of elite scientists",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "“Alsos” is the Greek word for “groves.”",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "When did President Franklin D. Roosevelt first approve funding for the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the world’s first atomic bombs?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Oct. 9, 1941",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Dec. 6, 1941",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Aug. 13, 1942",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Sept. 3, 1941",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "There was so much secrecy behind the project that Roosevelt’s last vice president, Harry S. Truman, didn’t learn of it until after Roosevelt died and Truman became president.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Where was the first atomic bomb built?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Oak Ridge, Tennessee",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Los Alamos, New Mexico",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Chicago",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Hanford, Washington",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory was chosen in part because the location was not easily accessible.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Who was the military commander of the Manhattan Project?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "J. Robert Oppenheimer",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Leslie Groves",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Albert Einstein",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Enola Gay",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Groves was in charge of the operation; Oppenheimer was the lead scientist at the bomb laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What was the name of the bomb used at the first atom bomb test in July 1945?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Gadget",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Fat Man",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Little Boy",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Thin Man",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The bomb had the explosive equivalent of 21,000 tons of TNT.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Which nation built the next atomic bombs after the United States?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Soviet Union",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Great Britain",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "France",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "China",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Soviet spies were able to infiltrate the U.S. atomic bomb programs during World War II, contributing to the USSR’s ability to detonate its own bomb in 1949.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What is “mutual assured destruction” (MAD)?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "A deterrent strategy in which both sides in a nuclear exchange would face devastation",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "An indicator of the number of bombs a nation could stockpile",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A theory about the effectiveness of a doomsday machine",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "A civil defense system to intercept missiles",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Robert McNamara, U.S. secretary of defense in the 1960s, surmised that as long as the U.S. and the Soviet Union could impose massive damage upon each other with nuclear weapons, their relationship would remain stable.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "This area of the Marshall Islands was used by the U.S. for experimental atomic explosions from 1946 until 1958.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Aitutaki",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Bikini Bottom",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Navarino Island",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Bikini Atoll",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Bikini Atoll was the site of tests including the explosion of the first U.S. hydrogen bomb to be dropped by a U.S. airplane.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

Quiz Progress

0 Correct

0 Incorrect