Download THE GREATEST KNIGHT (atomic physics for kids)

 THE GREATEST KNIGHT
(atomic physics for kids)
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Allaann JJaayy W
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THE GREATEST KNIGHT
(atomic physics for kids)
© 2013 by Alan Jay Wescoat.
All rights reserved.*
a ☮T publication
Michigan Hillbilly Press, Earth
*Digital copies of this book are provided on a pay-by-donation basis. Donations can be
made at http://altracts.org. Rich people, please donate generously. If you are living near
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THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Once upon a time, in the magical land
of Avalon, so far back that nobody living
can remember, there lived a magnificent
knight, the most famous knight of all.
You might think that such a knight
became famous for being a great warrior,
for leading soldiers into battle, or for
rescuing damsels in distress.
That is what you might think.
But this knight was famous for none
of those things.
Instead,
he
discoveries.
Saint George and the Dragon by Raphael, 1506, National Gallery of Art;, Washington, D.C. image source: Wikimedia Commons
1
He slew no dragons.
was
famous
for
his
atomic physics for kids
His name was Sir Isaac Newton. He was a
great scientist. He discovered important facts
about natural philosophy. These days, what Sir
Isaac Newton discovered is called physics.
He discovered something about energy.
Any kind of energy can be changed into any
other kind of energy. Heat can become motion.
Electricity can become light. Energy is energy.
It is all basically the same.
Sir Newton discovered a lot of other neat
things, too, but this one special discovery
about energy is very important for the things
that we will discover together in this book.
Portrait of Isaac Newton by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1689. image source: Wikimedia Commons
2
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Many years later, in the magical land of
Denmark, there lived a great doctor. He was not
a medical doctor.
He was a doctor of natural
philosophy, a physicist. His name was Niels Bohr
(“kneels bore”). He is most famous for inventing a
model. It was not a model car or airplane or train
or battleship. It was not even a model of a giant
robot. It was a model of very tiny things that
make up most of the matter in our universe,
atoms.
Doctor Bohr designed a model of atoms that
was easy to understand.
Because of the great
Doctor Bohr, something very difficult became a
lot easier to understand. In fact, doctor Bohr’s
Niels Bohr image source: Wikimedia Commons model of atoms is so simple that even little kids
can understand the basics.
3
atomic physics for kids
From the magical land of Germany came
another great scientist named Max. He was not
known for wearing a wolf suit like another Max
you might know, but like that Max, Doctor Max
Planck discovered something wonderful!
He
discovered that there is a smallest amount of
energy, the quanta. He also discovered that all
energy is an exact multiple of the quanta.
Because of Doctor Planck’s discoveries, a
whole new branch of physics grew from the tree
of philosophy, quantum physics.
Max Planck in 1918, the year he won the Nobel Prize in Physics image source: Wikimedia Commons 4
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
There also came a giant, a German
Jewish giant named Albert Einstein. Einstein
figured out that matter can become energy
and energy can become matter. Matter just
is a form of energy.
smart.
Albert Einstein, 1921 image source: Wikimedia Commons 5
He was really super
atomic physics for kids
If we put together the ideas of these four geniuses, we can discover something
important about matter.
Newton: All energy is the same.
Bohr:
A good model helps with understanding.
Planck:
There is a basic unit of energy.
Einstein: Matter is energy.
We should be able to design a good model of matter using only basic units of energy
that are all the same.
6
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
We will take a quick look at a very simple version of Doctor Bohr’s model to see
what was good about it.
Most of the matter in the universe is made up of very tiny
things called atoms. Atoms are made of particles. There are
three basic particles: neutrons, protons, and electrons.
neutron (green), proton (blue), electron (red) The
inside of an atom is its nucleus. The protons and neutrons hang
out in the nucleus. The electrons circle around the nucleus.
Neutrons and protons each have about the same amount of
matter in them, so they are shown as balls of the same size.
Electrons have a whole lot less matter in them than neutrons
and protons, so they are shown as much smaller balls.
Protons and electrons always come in pairs. An atom with
three protons has three electrons. An atom with ten protons
a simple hydrogen atom made of one proton and one electron has ten electrons.
7
atomic physics for kids
There are different kinds of atoms called element s. The number of protons in an
atom’s nucleus is its atomic number. The atomic number tells us which element the atom
is. Hydrogen is the first element. It has an atomic number of 1. The second element is
helium. It has an atomic number of 2. A periodic table of the elements shows elements
by atomic number.
helium‐3 and helium‐4 hydrogen‐2 and hydrogen‐3 8
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Harrison Spiral Periodic Table of the Elements image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: Harrison_Spiral_Periodic_Table.svg 9
atomic physics for kids
Atoms of an element are not all the same. Most hydrogen is just one proton and one
electron, but some hydrogen also has one neutron in its nucleus. An even more rare kind
of hydrogen has two neutrons in its nucleus. These three different kinds of hydrogen
are isotope s of hydrogen.
three isotopes of hydrogen: hydrogen‐1 (protium), hydrogen‐2 (deuterium), and hydrogen‐3 (tritium)
Naming these isotopes is easy. Just add the number of protons to the number of
neutrons.
Then add the number to the name.
All hydrogen has just one proton.
Hydrogen with no neutrons is hydrogen-1 (1H). Hydrogen with one neutron is hydrogen-2
(2H). Hydrogen with two neutrons is hydrogen-3 (3H). These used to be called “protium”,
“deuterium”, and “tritium”, but the numbering system is easier to work with.
10
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
The next element is helium.
There is no helium-2 because two protons and two
electrons just make two atoms of hydrogen-1.
With a neutron to hold the nucleus
together, helium-3 is stable. So is helium-4.
With no neutron to hold the protons together, what would be an atom of helium‐2 is just two atoms of hydrogen‐1. two stable isotopes of helium: helium‐3 and helium‐4 That is just a quick look at a very basic version of the Bohr model. There is a whole
lot more to it.
11
atomic physics for kids
For as good as Doctor Bohr’s model of atoms is, it has some problems. Scientists use
models to predict what will happen. There are things that happen in the real world that
the Bohr model cannot predict. The Bohr model also predicts things that do not happen.
Also, the Bohr model does not explain how energy forms into three completely
different particles.
Basic science classes still use a very simple version of the Bohr model because it is
easy to teach and easy to understand, but advanced science needs a better model. We
will look at a new model of atoms.
Our new model describes protons, electrons, and
neutrons using only one particle. We will start with a basic unit of energy.
12
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
In this model, the basic unit of energy is a maxwell. Maxwells move up and down like
ocean waves. Maxwells can link together intochain s.
Zero (0) maxwells
One (1) maxwell
Two (2) maxwells
Three (3) maxwells
Four (4) maxwells
Five (5) maxwells
Six (6) maxwells
Seven (7) maxwells
Eight (8) maxwells
Nine (9) maxwells
Ten (10) maxwells
13
atomic physics for kids
Have you ever looked closely at
a baseball? The cover is made of two
pieces of white material. The edges
of the white material are sewn
together with red thread.
If you
follow the line of stitches, you will go
around and around the ball.
The
shape of the ball is held together by
just one line of stitches.
If we have enough maxwells in a
chain, we can curve them into a ball,
just like the stitching on a baseball.
There is a magic number of maxwells
that can make a chain that will bend
just right to form matter. The magic
A regulation baseball has 216 stitches. The magic number is 216 x 8000. number is one million seven hundred
twenty-eight thousand (1,728,000).
14
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
The
magic
number may seem
like
a
very
big
number, but a lot
of new cars cost
more pennies than
that.
1,728,000 is
the
number
of
seconds in twenty
days.
If you have
just ten different
cards, the number
of different orders
they could be in is
more than twice as
Ten different cards could be in as many as 3,628,800 different orders. This is calculated with a factorial. Ten factorial is written as 10! (10! = 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3,628,800). 15
big as the magic
number.
atomic physics for kids
Lines show length. A rolled-up sheet of paper is like a line. If you unroll it, it covers
an area. This is a lot like multiplying. The area is the length times how far you unroll the
paper. Unrolling the paper multiplies its line.
16
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
If we multiply a length by another length, we get
an area. If you make a rectangle that is two meters
on one side and three meters on another side, the
area is six square meters because 2 meters x 3
meters = 6 square meters (6 meters2).
10 cm 10 cm An area multiplied by a length gives us
volume.
If you make a cube that is ten
centimeters on each side, the volume is one liter.
10 cm Lines show us length.
Squares and rectangles
show us area. Cubes and boxes show us volume.
17
atomic physics for kids
When a number is multiplied times itself, we say that the number is squared. Two
times two is two squared. We have a special way of showing this with numbers. Two
squared is shown as 22. Three times three is three squared. Three squared is shown as
32. The small raised number is an exponent. The exponent tells us how many times to
multiply a number with itself.
12 = 1 x 1 = 1 22 = 2 x 2 = 4 32 = 3 x 3 = 9 42 = 4 x 4 = 16 If the exponent is 3, then the number is cubed. Two cubed is 2 x 2 x 2. We can
show two cubed as 23. Three cubed is 3 x 3 x 3. We can show three cubed as 33.
Another way to show the magic number is as 1203 (“one hundred twenty cubed”).
1203 = 120 x 120 x 120 = 1,728,000.
18
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Here is another way to understand
the magic number.
If you have a small
cube that is just twelve centimeters on
each side, its volume is exactly 1,728,000
cubic millimeters (1,728,000 mm3).
Interesting facts:
There are fifty-four (54) cards in a
standard deck of playing cards (including
the jokers).
Two times fifty-four is one hundred
eight (2 x 54 = 108), the same number of
beads in a full rosary and worries in
Buddhism. Two times one hundred eight is
two hundred sixteen (2 x 108 = 216), the
number of different combinations on three
six-sided dice and also the number of
proper standard playing cards designed with consideration for everyone rather than only for right‐handed people stitches on a regulation baseball.
19
atomic physics for kids
216 x 8,000 is the magic number (216 x 8,000 = 1,728,000). It is exactly eight
thousand times as big as the number of stitches on a regulation baseball. You can just
imagine that the stitches on a baseball are a chain of maxwells where each stitch is eight
thousand maxwells.
Another fun thing you can do is imagine that you need to roll dice to get any number
from 1 to 1,728,000. You can do it with just six dice, three six-sided dice and three
twenty-sided dice. You can also do it with three twelve-sided dice and three ten-sided
dice.
20
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Here is something really interesting about the magic number:
120 = 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5, so
1203 = (1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5)3, and
1203 = 13 x 23 x 33 x 43 x 53.
With so many ways to understand the magic number, it should be really easy to
remember.
1203 = 13 x 23 x 33 x 43 x 53 21
atomic physics for kids
Matter is structured energy.
The magic number is exactly enough maxwells to
wrap into a perfectly balanced ball. The first Maxwell
of the chain links to the last Maxwell of the chain.
Presto! We have matter.
This is an einstein, the only particle in our model.
We will use einsteins to build up neutrons and protons
and to make electrons. Neutrons and protons are not
particles in this model.
They are structure s of
einsteins. Electrons are not even structures. They are
just groups of einsteins that hang out with protons.
22
an einstein THE GREATEST KNIGHT
Einsteins can snap together at eight points with bond s. Einsteins bond by sharing a
maxwell.
One einstein is made of 1,728,000 maxwells.
3,456,000 maxwells.
Two einsteins are made of
If they bond, they lose one Maxwell.
Two einsteins bonded
together are made of 3,455,999 maxwells. This very simple kind of bond is a snap bond.
The energy of a snap bond is -1 maxwell.
Two einsteins sharing a snap bond Einsteins bond at up to eight points 23
atomic physics for kids
The really cool thing about this model is that from here on out, we can build it up
using Legos. A whole lot of magic comes
out of the land of Denmark!
All we need are the ones that look
like cubes with four posts on top and
four slots on the bottom. Each of these
Legos bonds at eight points just like an
einstein does. We will make believe that
these Legos are einsteins.
We are going to build lattices out of
Legos. Lattice 0 is just one layer made
of one einstein.
Just one of these Legos by itself shows layer 0 and lattice 0.
One einstein alone is
layer 0 and lattice 0.
24
THE GREATEST KNIGHT
If you snap four einsteins onto the top and four onto the bottom of lattice 0, you
will complete layer 1. This makes lattice 1. You will need twenty-six more einsteins to do
layer 2 and complete lattice 2.
lattice 1 lattice 2 lattice 3 lattice 4
Special thanks to Alexis Justine Wescoat for the use of her Legos to build these models. The formula for finding the number of einsteins in a lattice is easy. i is the lattice
number. The number of einsteins in a lattice is i 3 + (i + 1)3. Lattice 0 has one einstein in
it because 03 + (0 + 1)3 = 03 + 13 = 0 + 1 = 1. Lattice 1 has nine einsteins because 13 + (1 +
1)3 = 13 + 23 = 1 + 8 = 9.
The formula for finding the number of snap bonds in a lattice is
(2 x i )3.
25
atomic physics for kids
The first big goal is lattice 8.
Before you get too excited, you need
to
know
that
you
will
thousand
two
hundred
need
one
forty-one
(1,241) einsteins to build lattice 8.
Are you ready? Get set. Go!
Was that fun? With lattice 8, we
can
make
neutrons.
lattice 8 26
the
building
block
for