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Why Are They Called Fermi Questions?

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Why Are They Called Fermi Questions?

Source: U.S. National Archives Published: July 1945

Danny Sheridan
May 14, 2020
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Why Are They Called Fermi Questions?

www.factoftheday1.com

Source: U.S. National Archives
Published: July 1945

Why Are They Called Fermi Questions?

Circulated: May 12, 2020

A Fermi question is named after Enrico Fermi, a Nobel-prize winning Italian-American nuclear physicist. In 1945 he worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II.

During the Trinity test, which was the first detonation of a nuclear device, Fermi estimated the energy released by the blast.

“About 40 seconds after the explosion the air blast reached me. I tried to estimate its strength by dropping pieces of paper before, during, and after the passage of the blast wave. The papers during the shock wave fell about 2 1/2 meters… estimated to correspond to 10 kilotons of TNT.”

Fermi’s incredibly simple and fast calculation was within the right order of magnitude; the actual yield was 18.6 kilotons.

Bonus: A video of the Trinity test blast.

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Why Are They Called Fermi Questions?

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