The Naked Atom

There were many questions in this section that Lederman made apparent that i was very eager to find the answer to:

1. If the radius is zero, what spins?

2. How can it have mass?

3. Where is the charge?

4. How do we know the radius is zero in the first place?

Lederman uses another analogy to make this theory more understandable. Imagine a cheshire cat that slowly disappears until there is only its smile left. Now picture the radius of "a spinning glob" sloly shrinking until all thats left is the charge, spin, and mass. This was tough to grasp at first, but it ultimately makes a lot of sense. A number has been calculated for zero (the best that physics can supply so far) 10^-18.

There is a lot to do with quantum theory in this section of the book. There is discussion of how spectral lines gave way to the discovery of many new elements, such as helium. The discovery of the different levels of electrons released from light the more violet (the shorter the wavelength) the light is.

It is interesting the way that Rutherford is portrayed in this book. A tall New Zealander who is always swearing and even has his own "isms":

-Don't let me catch anyone talking about the universe in my department.

-Oh that stuff [relativity]. We never bother with that in our work.

You can imagine that such a professor would not get along with a young theoretical physicist by the name of Niels Bohr who spent his free time finding mistakes in J.J. Thomson's book. They didn't get along (which is ironic since we use Bohr-Rutherford diagrams in chemistry when drawing atoms).

Another section that is quite interesting is the "resolution" of Einstein and Bohr's argument about quantum theory. Although the debate still rages on John Bell's experiments showed that Bohr was correct with his "complete-as-can-be" interpretation, rather than Einstein's notion that there were hidden variables.