Great Physicists · Modern
Fermi & the Bomb
Enrico Fermi, the last physicist equally great at theory and experiment: beta decay, slow neutrons, the first self-sustaining chain reaction under Stagg Field in 1942, Los Alamos, and Fermi estimation.
Step 1 of 5 · Overview30 min read ·
Key idea
Prereqs: Atoms & nuclei; Einstein. Next: Oppenheimer; Nuclear energy. Sources: Gino Segrè & Bettina Hoerlin, *The Pope of Physics* (2016); Richard Rhodes, *The Making of the Atomic Bomb* (1986).Next: 1. Life