fbpx

KidsKonnect

Edward Teller Facts & Worksheets

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who played a major role in the development of the first atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb.

Search for Worksheets

Worksheets /People /Figures /Edward Teller Facts & Worksheets

Premium
Edward Teller Worksheets
Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version   Download sample

Edward Teller was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who played a major role in the development of the first atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, which is the world’s first thermonuclear weapon. He had made major contributions to nuclear physics, molecular physics, surface physics, and spectroscopy.

See the fact file below for more information on the Edward Teller or alternatively, you can download our 24-page Edward Teller worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

  • Edward Teller was born on January 15, 1908 in Budapest, Hungary.
  • He was the second child of Max Teller, a lawyer, and Ilona Deutsch, a pianist.
  • Edward Teller is of Jewish descent.
  • Later in life, he became an agnostic Jew, stating that religion was “not an issue in his family.”
  • Teller developed the ability to speak later than most children.
  • In 1926, he moved from Hungary to Germany for his higher education.
  • From 1926 to 1928, he studied chemistry and mathematics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, where he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering.
  • Teller once credited Herman Mark, a visiting professor who gave lectures on molecular spectroscopy, for the person who influenced him to be a physicist.
  • After graduating in Karlsruhe, Teller attended the University of Munich where he studied physics under Arnold Sommerfeld.
  • On July 14, 1928, Teller got involved in a streetcar accident which resulted most of his right foot being severed.
  • The accident left him with a permanent limp and required him to wear a prosthetic foot.
  • In 1929, Teller transferred to the University of Leipzig, and conducted his doctoral dissertation where he used quantum mechanical treatments to calculate energy levels of the hydrogen molecular ion.
  • His dissertation helped set the groundwork for a theory of molecular orbitals.
  • In 1930, he received his Ph.D. in physics under Werner Heisenberg.
  • He worked as a research associate at the University of Leipzig from 1929 to 1931, then at the University of Göttingen from 1931 to 1933.

EARLY CAREER

  • When Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Germany became an unsafe country for Jews to live in.
  • Through the help of the Jewish Rescue Committee, Teller was able to leave Germany in 1934.
  • He went briefly to England before staying for a year in Copenhagen, where he worked under Niels Bohr at the Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen.
  • In February 1934, he married Augusta Maria “Mici” Harkanyi.
  • They moved back to England in September 1934.
  • In 1935, Teller received an invitation to become a professor at George Washington University, thanks to his friend, physicist George Gamow.
  • At George Washington University, he worked as a theoretical physicist, with a particular focus in quantum, nuclear, and molecular physics.
  • Teller worked with George Gamow in setting new rules for classifying the ways subatomic particles can escape the nucleus during radioactive decay.
  • One of his most important contributions was his prediction of the Jahn–Teller effect, which distorts molecules geometrically in certain situations, affecting the chemical reactions of metals, particularly the coloration of certain metallic dyes.
  • Teller also collaborated with Stephen Brunauer and Paul Hugh Emmett, in surface physics and chemistry, and together they established the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) method.
  • Teller and his wife became naturalized citizens of the United States on March 6, 1941.
  • Teller shifted his scientific work to focus on the use of nuclear energy following Bohr’s report on the fission of the uranium atom in 1939 and the call of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt for scientists to devote their energies to defend the United States against Nazism.
  • By 1941 Teller joined Enrico Fermi’s team at the University of Chicago in the experiment to create the first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction.

MANHATTAN PROJECT

  • In 1942, Teller was invited to work on theoretical studies on the atomic bomb with J. Robert Oppenheimer at the University of California, Berkeley.
  • In 1943, Teller was recruited to the secret Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory set up by Oppenheimer set in New Mexico.
  • Teller’s line of research was focused on a thermonuclear hydrogen fusion bomb.
  • In 1946, he accepted a position with the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago.
  • He would return to Los Alamos as a consultant for extended periods.
  • Teller was determined for the United States develop a hydrogen bomb but the Atomic Energy Commission’s general advisory committee learned otherwise.
  • In 1942, British atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs confessed to have been spying for the Soviet Union and communicated American data to the Soviets.
  • Consequently, President Harry Truman gave the go signal to develop the hydrogen bomb, which Teller worked on at Los Alamos.
  • Teller’s ideas tied with physicist Stanislaw Marcin Ulam’s ideas provided a basis for a fusion weapon.
  • In 1952, a device using what is now known as Teller-Ulam configuration, was successfully tested and yielded an explosion equivalent to 10 Megatons of TNT.
  • Teller was credited with developing the world’s first thermonuclear weapon.
  • Teller was instrumental in the establishment of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the United States’ second nuclear weapons laboratory.
  • He was the associate director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1954 to 1958 and from 1960 to 1975.
  • Teller advocated for a firm defense policy that put a premium on the development of advanced thermonuclear weapons and nuclear testing.
  • At 95 years old, Teller suffered a stroke and died in Stanford, California on September 9, 2003.

Edward Teller Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about Edward Teller across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Edward Teller worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about Edward Teller who was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who played a major role in the development of the first atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb, which is the world’s first thermonuclear weapon. He had made major contributions to nuclear physics, molecular physics, surface physics, and spectroscopy.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Edward Teller Facts
  • Nuclear Vocabulary
  • Tell Me About Teller
  • Career TIme Capsule
  • Fake News vs. Facts
  • As Told By Teller
  • H-Bomb Collage
  • Teller Word Search
  • Pioneers In Nuclear Science
  • Fission And Fusion
  • A Letter To Teller

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as Edward Teller Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, June 14, 2021

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Related Resources