Page 70 - Astounding Pulp V2

70 ·--rnI~ G SCIENCE-FICTION
ASTO U ·" • TRA'.': S~l vT:\ T IO~. 1'>39
sc.m, and the group al Cambri<lge did cently, even lo the "fundamentals," and, The neutrino is even more of an ~k:-ignatiun ,,f the :-;tufi at hand: . 1 1.i• 1-..
ino re than m ake the first "neon" signs ; in fact, the date is some weeks ago- enigma. Unobserved at the date ( the thl.! oth1:r natural i--011,pe ,ii li1h111m. " 111,
th more recent foreign journals have not
ey clea rly dc11101istrat~d that the atom table, it is only an extra term in theo- lll;t:- -; 7.
was co 111 posed of two entities-a large reached the \Vest yet. retical calculations*; the 111a ·s i:,; noted .'\ 11d it 111igh1 lw wt•II 1, 1 indicate• lie rt
as plus or minus becau ·c you can take c'xac1h· \\'hat the :1111111 i-.. ,,1 iar a, ".._
Fun damen tal. Par ti cles , June 2 , 1 939 Your choice dcJ)~11di11...,. on who· · doing loll)\\' ·11,)w. It cun:-i ,1:-, 11i :i ht•a \: . p11,i-
b
'
Date the calculating- negative 111as , 0 f t in:h· i.:harg-cd m11:ku:-. :-111-r,ll11Hlt·d h: .\
Par t i cl e Symbol Charge Relative Mass Mass Energy m1111.bc1· of lig-hl nt·~at i\ t' ck'-·1 n,11,. a-.
(e.s.u.) (millions or course, would be stuff that came at you
electron volts) l~arder the 111ore you pu ·heel it away, u1a11,· :t: tht'rt' :l l't' p,1sii i\ t' d1:11·g c,. ·r1i1•
like high-pressure sale ·111e11. The _ma -s nud~'u: is i.:ornp,):-t'cl :-nlely ni pro1111i-,,
:t895 10-.1°
ele.ctron e - 4 .774 X .0005 5 o. 551 energy column in this table is a s11nple and neutrons-when lat<.'1· \\ 1• :-ha ll ,peak
-1.
1932 10-10 result of Einstein's work ; this is the f clci.:tr ns :111<1 p,bit r ,)11:; heing, 1.•millt'd
Positron e+ ,f-4.774 X .00055 0.551
i amount of_energy that appe_ars if the by nui.:ki, it 1m1:-t he hnn1e i11 1_ni11d that_
Proton l. 10-l.O 1.0081 these are born. de 110-:•o . a t th<..· m :-t:uit , 11 I
,.H 4 . 774 X 94 0.000 mass of the particle in question ·hould
~ emi ·sion. It can he cak11la1ed I h:n t lw
l.932 disappear. Thus ii a positron and an
neutron 1 0 1.00 9 g41 • ooo
- ~lectron should collide-nncl th? ~~~ in the nuck 11s i:-; extremely short: t,i the
on . 1 life of an ekct ron w p,1s it n rn c..':-,.,ist i11g
it !-enero-y lo the extent of some l . .
,a rad1a-
m.e satron ? -4. 774· X 10-10 0.1 ? ? 11_1.e.v. would appear as ga111n c other oi billionths of billio111 hs 1li a
i,,
1lon. Atomic energy? Sure-but- second.
neutrino ? 0 :::.0.0000+ ? ? The last two items in the table are
deuterium and helium nuclei, r_espec- Now \\'e pick up the story f tr:ltl.~-
mulation again. l 11 spite o f m an ·s s low
tively and we mio-ht here explain the
93 progre s in this direction. it was ft_u11tl
,
1. 2 deuteron 10 n t .' · bl ases Vv e can
+9.554. X 10- 2.0147 1876.000 o atton used Ill t 1ese c · with the discovery of n;it ural 1·ad 1'- ac-
J s by the
•
alpha represent any ato1111c nuc eu f tivity by Becquerel in 1896 that 11a1 nrc
-,.9.554 X lQ-JO 4.004 symbol xw where z is the number ?
3761.000 2 had been doing it all along . \ \ c Ct) tiltl
.,
'
J
.
p ositively h electrons that surround the nuc cu S Ill write one of ~he reactions thus :
· ·
" c arged, heavy part called the the neutral atom or the positive e Jectron
nuc 1 eus '' . · Tim FIRST four and· the last two are Ra:"?::!ti = :'l\iR n:'!::!:! + ::!l-Tc..,
·
'
·
·
,
t· 1 ' and hghter, smaller, nega- the important particles in 11uclear phe- charge of the nucleus itselt, smce they 88
tve Y charged particles the "electrons." and it simply m eans· that an at om o f
B ut th -· . ' nomena ; we don't know much about the must be equal. radium b1·eaks up, giYing o ff t '"o en-
. eir atom splitting was only the
tl ·a ns1ent r other two-yet. . The electron, known X . 1 bol of the element, and tirely different nuclei, both o f gasc u s
1s t 1e sym
tl ". . emoval of the outer electrons, since Rutherford's time, and the posi- corresponds, of course, to the number z,
le ton1zat. 1 " f . 1 atoms; one is the iamilia1· helium, :111 <1
.
a va1labl l 1 011. o gases · the potent1a s tro~, discovered by Anderson, are fa- since the properties of tl~e element con- the other radon , the 1·ad~rnn em an at it)n
·
'
th . e t en were far too low, for one miliar quantities and need no further in- cerned are mainly a fonct1on of the 1_ 1 ~~ 111 -
ing. And when the applied potential ber of outer electrons; no othei= dttf'~r- or niton so commonly used in 1·adiun1
was r emoved, they had 1· ust what they troduction, for the proton is simply a therapy. There are. of course, a vast
started · 1 hydrogen atom without its electron~ ences result in appreciable di ffere~1t1a- number' of othc1· reaction s concerned in
wit 1, no more, and no less. The tion, except, perhaps, in the case ot the
Bohr theory indicated that the riddle of in other words, the nucleus. The neu- · very light elements like hy_drogen an? natural radioactivity, but th ey a re of n o
the constitution ·of matter was to be tron, discovered by Chadwick, is some- importance here; the essential iact that
!hing different again; with no charge, deuterium, where the physical propei -
s ought in the heavy nucleus; the chemi~ came from the discovery was the gen eral
it has a mass slightly greater than the ties such as density are altered to s01_11e
cal_ b: havior ·was apparently a charac- extent. -:But note that chemical behav10r size of the process.
t en stic of the outer electrons. .· _proton, and we shall discover some ex- Rutherford found, for example . that
citing things about its properties later. is solely a function of z. .·
But l~efore we proceed we had b~st !he mesatron is a heavy electron, weigh- . •imate i ewht the energies liberated in these tra n smu-
b
s ummarize what is known of the struc- mg about two hundred and fifty times w represents l t 1e appi ox th tations was of the order of million s of
tural building block s of matter and de- of the nucleus in whole numbers; us electron volts,* and he properly thoug ht
3
as much as an electron, but w1th the 3Lill represent lithium, atot11ic nut11ber •
fine_ a -few particles ; things move too that it would require energ ies o f th is
same charge. We haven't been able to
rapidly now for any simple historical produce these, yet, and their 'sole right atomic weight 6, and we have a complete magnitude to effect artificial disintegra-
a pproach. In the table above are the --;;-- beta particles
to inclusion in the table lies in their I he energy sp~ctrum of . th e n t inuous a nd ~one electi·on ,·olt is the <'n c r g y a.ssociat~d
fundamenta l particles as we know them of a. beta-active substance is c1 1 ted to pre- ·ti n e lec tro n f ·1.llin"' t hrough ~ poten t 1::il
. 1 . -~~
observation on Wilson cloud chamber not discrete; the neutrino is_ pos f an.,.ular mo- w 1 1 a . • "' . 10 • _ <.:a ;;.1 ~ ;
20
of one volt, and 1t e (J ua ls 3.Sl :x
1
today; the table is dated, because things photographs of cosmic-ray tracks by An- serve the laws of con~er vat 1 ? 11 0 _as ., Thus it A mol of s u <.:11 e lect r ons would give - 3 ,0v;:,
have been happening pretty fast re., mentum ancl en erg y 111 l lles~ ~;1;!ii'.icr it has ('n,lories; about e noug h e nergy to ru n a h u n -
derson and others. 1 lll · dred-watt lig h t for liftee n m in u tes.
has angular momentum,
masu is another problem.