Follow the link at the bottom of each section to see the answer page.
Easy Level Questions
Where was Oppenheimer born?
What were the name and nickname of Oppenheimer’s wife?
What were the names of Oppenheimer’s children?
Complete Oppenheimer’s famous quote: “I am become ________________, shatterer of worlds”
People often commented on Oppenheimer’s intense _______ eyes
How many ounces of good gin in Oppenheimer’s famous martini?
There is a star in the pavement of the base of the statues of Groves and Oppenheimer near Fuller Lodge. What does it represent?
What is the name of the street running from Fuller Lodge to the Oppenheimer House?
How many bathtubs are presently in the Bethe House?
Which scientist who came to Los Alamos with the British Mission was a spy?
Who did Klaus Fuchs spy for?
There were at least three others besides Klaus Fuchs at Los Alamos spying for the Soviets. Name at least one.
Which two spies went to prison some years after WWII was over?
The other huge project which Groves headed, just prior to the Manhattan Project, was:
General Groves’ full name was
Name at least two scientists in the Manhattan Project who were, or would be, Nobel laureates
What was Enrico Fermi’s security pseudonym? Niels Bohr’s?
Spell explosives-expert Kisty’s full last name
What was the name of the failed gun-type plutonium bomb?
What plane dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima?
What was the date that Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima?
What plane dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki?
What was the date that Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki?
What was the date of the Trinity Test?
How many days a year, and in what months, is the Trinity Site open to the public?
What is the bridge across Los Alamos Canyon called?
Name the three National Park Service areas in and around Los Alamos
What was the first post office box for all of Los Alamos?
Los Alamos was Site ___
What was the address of the Manhattan Project office in Santa Fe?
Who ran the Manhattan Project office in Santa Fe?
At what railroad station did people coming to the Manhattan Project arrive?
What was the number of the Boy Scout troop at the Boys’ School, which is still active in Los Alamos today?
Intermediate Level Questions
What was Oppenheimer’s birthdate?
What was Oppenheimer’s date of death?
What was Oppenheimer’s cause of death?
What was the name of Robert Oppenheimer’s brother (who also worked in Los Alamos) ?
Name at least two of the universities Oppenheimer attended
Name at least two of the institutions where Oppenheimer was a teacher?
Who presented Oppenheimer with the Fermi Award on December 2, 1963?
For what work was Oppenheimer nominated 3 times for a Nobel Prize in physics?
The hat Oppenheimer was famous for wearing wasn’t a porkpie, it was a modified ….
What future lab director was on the observation plane to Hiroshima?
Who was the head of the Trinity Test? Who was his assistant?
Who took the only successfully exposed color photo of the Trinity Test?
Who developed the calutron and later had a laboratory in California named for him?
Who was the head of the German nuclear program?
Who was the head of the Japanese nuclear program?
What was Niels Bohrs’ physicist son’s name?
What day did Norris Bradbury become director of the Laboratory?
What years was Norris Bradbury the director of the Laboratory?
What award given to Norris Bradbury in 1970 is on display at the Hans Bethe house?
Who was the next director after Norris Bradbury?
When did the security gates open, so passes were no longer needed for town?
When was the Omega Bridge built?
What Manhattan Project scientist received the Nobel Prize for Peace?
In a famous quote, what did Groves call the scientists at Los Alamos?
Where was Groves buried?
What was Groves’ usual way to travel across the country?
What is the title of Groves’ autobiography?
Who was the pilot of the plane that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, as was the head of the 509th Composite Group?
Who was the Enola Gay named for?
Who was the pilot of the plane that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki?
Where in Utah was the 509th Composite Group based for training?
Name at least two scientists who came to Los Alamos with the British Mission
When Feynman had to go to Albuquerque due to his wife’s health, who did he borrow the car from?
Who was Greenglass’ sister?
Seborer was recently discovered to have been a spy. What was his first name?
What instrument did Feynman play, loudly and with great enthusiasm?
What instrument did Otto Frisch play live on the Los Alamos radio station?
What instrument did Teller play, loudly and with enthusiasm, often at 3 AM?
What date and time did the Gadget detonate at the Trinity Test?
The Trinity Test is often spoken of as if it was in Alamogordo. How far away from that city was it actually?
With the roads available at the time (no I-25!) about how long did it take scientists from Los Alamos to get to the Trinity Site?
Name two important scientists in the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos who were Navy officers
How many students were in the last graduating class at the Ranch School?
What building was Kistiakowsky’s quarters?
Hard Level Questions
Who next lived in the Oppenheimer House after the Oppenheimers left?
What was the name of Oppenheimer’s horse at Los Alamos?
What was Groves’ birthdate?
Of what disease did Norris Bradbury die?
What was Richard Feynman’s middle name?
What were Richard Feynman’s years of birth and death?
What were Hans Bethe’s years of birth and death?
What was Norris Bradbury’s middle name?
When was the revocation of Oppenheimer security clearance vacated?
What was Oppenheimer’s security badge ‘number’ at the Manhattan Project?
What was Groves’ date of death?
What were Groves’ years of service in the Army?
What was Groves’ rank when he retired?
For what work did Groves receive the Nicaraguan Presidential Medal of Merit in 1931?
What military academy did Groves attend?
What was EO Lawrence’s middle name?
Who was the head of the British Mission?
When Chadwick moved to Washington DC, who was the head of the British Mission in Los Alamos?
Who was the head of the Japanese nuclear effort during WWII, and had been a good friend of Niels Bohr prior to the war?
Name the one member of the press that Groves allowed to be at Trinity
What paper did he work for?
What was the wingspan of the Enola Gay?
What was the name of Niels Bohr’s son, who was a fine physicist, Niels’ assistant during the war, and became a Nobel laureate for his own work separate from his father?
Deak Parsons was in charge of Project _______
How much did Jumbo weigh?
What was the date of the 100 Ton Test
What was Fermi’s technique to roughly estimate the yield of the Trinity Test?
Many technicians at the Manhattan Project were SEDs. What does that stand for?
Give at least two of Kitty Oppenheimer’s previous married names
Early test flights of the 509th’s B-29s were done at Muroc Army Airfield. What is it called now?
The 509th often made practice drops at a site code-named Sandy Beach. What is its usual name?
Easy, Medium or Hard? You decide!
One scientist was famous for bringing along a grand piano and a Bendix washing machine. Who was he?
Who were the following people working for the Manhattan Project? Henry Farmer, Nicholas Baker, Howard Battle, Ed Tilden, and James Oberhelm
Why was Neils Bohr’s granddaughter put in a shopping case?
When and why were ducks added to Ashley Pond?
What was Tuck’s Table?
Enrico Fermi and Al Peasley did lots of hiking together. What place did Fermi name Peasley’s Crawl?
Who named the bombs “Fat Man” and “Little Boy” and why?
What do these places have in common? Rice, California; San Nicolas Island, Southern California; Padre Island, Texas; lava region south of Grants, NM; an area southwest of Cuba, NM; the Tularosa Basin, NM
Why did Oppenheimer name the test site “Trinity”?
What was the occasion for these words spoken by Oppenheimer? “… for this reason it is right that we should dedicate ourselves to the hope, that his good works will not have ended with his death.”
What was the “chicken switch”?
Why did Oppenheimer send his wife the message “You can change the sheets”?
What is trinitite?
Kyoto was among General Groves’ proposed targets for bombing in Japan. Who took it off the list, and why?
What document about the Manhattan Project remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 3 months?
When General Groves asked new director Norris Bradbury how he could help retain talented staff members, what did Bradbury say was his greatest need?
On what occasion did George Kennan (diplomat, historian, and friend of Oppenheimer) speak these words? “…there was no one who more passionately desired to be useful in averting the catastrophes to which the development of the weapons of mass destruction threatened to lead.”
Around Town...
Where are the life-size statues of Oppenheimer and General Groves?
Where is Main Gate Park and why is it called that?
During the Manhattan Project, skiers didn’t have Pajarito Mountain ski area, they went to: ________ _______
What did Kistiakowsky use to clear trees from that ski area?
Where would you find a bust of Oppenheimer?
Where would you find a bust of Norris Bradbury?
Where would you find a portrait of General Groves?
Where are there full-size replicas of Fat Man and Little Boy?
Where is the Oppenheimer House?
Who owns the Oppenheimer House?
Why isn’t the Oppenheimer House open to the public yet?
The house next to the Oppenheimer House is named for which stellar theoretical scientist who lived there briefly?
Where in town are an actual Nobel Prize and an actual Fermi Award on display?
The Ranch School built Fuller Lodge from more than 700 local __________ __________
Where is the street named for Oppenheimer?
Where is the street named for the Project?
Why is the street Bathtub Row named that?
Where is there a stone memorial to remember a building?
What was the Ice House used for during the Ranch School?
What was the Ice House used for during the Ranch School?
Where is the long hallway lined with portraits and other photos from the Project and the Ranch School?
Who is Ashley Pond named for?
George Kistiakowsky and his daughter Vera lived in the building that had previously been the Power House. What is it used for now?
Near Fuller Lodge there is a homesteader cabin that was moved there from its original location on what is now laboratory land. What is its name?
Who was the laboratory’s Science Museum downtown named for?
Life on "The Hill"
What hotel in Santa Fe had the bar where everyone went when they were in town?
How much did it cost to rent a horse to ride during free hours?
The Ranch School left several canoes. Why were people not allowed to use them?
What was the name of the ski hill?
The Ranch School left behind a small library. Where was it located?
Los Alamos people loved to have dinner at Edith Warner’s little house. What was her famous dessert?
People didn’t have to go inside the hospital to visit patients. What could they do instead?
One baby was so popular that people lined up to see her. Who was it?
What were the large woodstoves in the apartments called?
When the Fermis arrived, they turned down a Bath Tub Row house in favor of what residence?
At the end of the war, the British government gave the members of the British Mission how much money to have a going-away party?
The radio station transmitted through the electrical wiring to keep the programming inside the town. Its call sign was
The radio station usually got music by borrowing records from residents, but famed physicist _____ _____ sometimes played live over the air
Oppenheimer said he hoped sometime to combine his two great loves, physics and __________
The laboratory sent a bus down to the Espanola valley every morning to pick up Pueblo women to come up to the Hill and work as _______
Children weren’t the only ones to sneak out through holes in the fence; physicist _____ ______ did too
For awhile there was a shooting range, until one day it ______ ______
After the war there was a very serious water shortage, and water had to be brought up in _______ _______
When they put on a production of the play “Arsenic and Old Lace,” the first corpse to come out of the basement was _______________
At New Year’s Eve parties, at midnight they rang the bell on the roof of _________ _________
There were no addresses in town; directions were given from the ___________ ___________
Fermi got to his laboratory every morning at the same time, arriving on his ______________
Deak Parsons made sure that the school building was well built, because he had two ___________
On the early morning of July 16, 1945, many people went up to the ski hill to watch for the ______ _______
The name “Los Alamos” means _______ _______
People and Places...
What railroad station did people coming to Los Alamos use when arriving by train?
What was the address in Santa Fe where new arrivals checked in?
What was the name of the hard-working, well-organized lady who ran the office in Santa Fe?
About how long did it take for the scientists to drive from Los Alamos to the Trinity Site?
Who was in charge of the Trinity Test?
What was the name at that time of the area now known as the White Sands Missile Range?
The base commander for Los Alamos from May 1943 – October 1944 had attended the Los Alamos Ranch School. He was:
This distinguished physicist was honored in his home country of Denmark and several other countries with his portrait on a postage stamp, and in Denmark by his portrait on currency. He was:
Before the Manhattan Project, he had been in charge of building the Pentagon:
Oppenheimer recruited her to come to Los Alamos to be in charge of the laboratory’s research library:
Oppenheimer had him give a series of orientation lectures to new scientists arriving on the Hill; it was published as “The Los Alamos Primer.” He was:
A talented artist from San Ildefonso worked in the tech area as a technician and draftsman. He was:
What scientist played accordion for the square dancers?
What physicist played bongo drums?
What Naval officer was willing to arm Little Boy in the air on the way to Hiroshima but wouldn’t go ice skating?
What Naval officer later became the second director of the laboratory?
What experimental physicist had worked on radar before coming to Los Alamos, was on the B-29 at Trinity and the instrument plane at Hiroshima, and after retirement helped his son discover how the dinosaurs became extinct?
One of the dignitaries on the stage at the E Award Ceremony in October of 1945 was Robert Gordon Sproul, president of:
When the Creutz Test made it appear that the Trinity Test would fail, he stayed up all night to re-calculate and be able to reassure everyone that the test would work:
He was Bainbridge’s very capable assistant in setting up the Trinity Test:
He worked to optimize the shape of the Fat Man and Little Boy bombs so they could be dropped accurately:
He was the pilot of the Enola Gay on the flight to drop Little Boy on Hiroshima
The Enola Gay was named for her:
He was the pilot of Bockscar on the flight to drop Fat Man on Nagasaki:
Enrico Fermi’s wife Laura wrote a book about their household: __________ in the Family
Enrico Fermi got his family out of Italy by going to Stockholm to receive:
Which physicist was a popular babysitter?
David Greenglass was a machinist for the Los Alamos laboratory; his sister _____ _____ recruited him to be a spy for the Soviet Union:
The B-29 crews who would take the bombs to Japan trained at Wendover Air Base in _____.
One of the youngest scientists at Los Alamos was a spy; he was:
Characters from the Movie "Oppenheimer"
Answer the question - for extra credit, identify the actor!
Niels Bohr - Was flown to safety from the Nazis in his native _________
Robert Serber – Was a physicist in the Los Alamos Laboratory of the _______ _______
Vannevar Bush - Was on the committee choosing the targets for the ________ ________
Isidor Isaac Rabi - advised Oppenheimer to take off that _________
Hans Bethe - Rechecked the analysis of the explosion test done just before the _____ _____ and found that it would, indeed, probably work (and it did)
George Kistiakowsky - bet a month’s salary that the ______ ______ would work
Henry Stimson - as Secretary of War, decreed that Kyoto would not be a target, in part because he and his wife had ______ there
Klaus Fuchs - was a spy for the ______ ______
Harry Truman - said that Oppenheimer was a ______ ______
General Leslie Groves - liked to travel, and have meetings in, __________
Frank Oppenheimer at one time was a member of the ___________ __________
Jackie Oppenheimer - wife of Frank Oppenheimer; Frank’s brother Robert repeatedly called her _______ Jackie
Lewis Strauss - was unsuccessful at becoming Secretary of _________
Luis Alvarez - proved that _________ was possible, although Oppenheimer believed he had proved on a blackboard that it wasn’t
Dr. David Hill - had been at CP1 and worked at Los Alamos; the movie shows him testifying against _________
Charlotte Serber - although in the movie she appeared to be Oppenheimer’s secretary, Charlotte actually headed the Los Alamos Laboratory technical __________ and was the only female division leader
Edward Teller - slathered on ________ ________ before watching the Trinity Test
Kitty Oppenheimer - received the message to “take in the ___________”
Jean Tatlock - wanted Oppenheimer to join the _________ __________
Albert Einstein - was at Princeton and never went to the Los _________ ___________
Kenneth Bainbridge - was in charge of the ________ _________
E.O. Lawrence did experimental physics at the University of California at _______________
John F. Kennedy - voted against Strauss for Secretary of Commerce. Later as President he planned to give Oppenheimer the Fermi Award in December 1963, but he was _____________ in November
Werner Heisenberg - was the principal scientist of the __________ nuclear program
Richard Feynman - doesn’t really appear in the movie, but his presence is shown by two scenes that include his signature __________ drums