Topic：How did Phillips design an atomic bomb in his junior year at Princeton?
Phillips read over the books on nuclear-reactor technology, general nuclear physics, and current atomic theory. Besides, he listened to Dyson's explanations of the basic principles of nuclear physics. That wasn't enough.
In order to find more useful information. Phillips went to Washington D.C.,to search for records of the Los Alamos Project that were declassified between 1954 and 1964. He discovered a copy of the literature which carefully outlined all the details of atomic fissioning known to the world's most advanced scientists in the early 1940s.
The biggest problem involved in the explosion of an atomic bomb was how to arrange the explosives around the plutonium. Another problem he was faced with was which explosive he should use to create a very high density. After finding errors Philips ran through a se- ries of new calculations carefully figuring the arrangement of the explosives around the plutonium. If his equations were correct, his atomic bomb would explode effectively as expected. But he should know the exact nature of the explosives he would use. Fortunately, he got the very information about these explosives from Du Pont Company. Now, so to speak, he already succeeded in designing an atomic bomb on paper.
