Subject: Fwd: Hahn, Soddy and Ramsay.
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 10:07:29 EDT
Dear Myron, Please find below the latest page of Crystal Spheres. In politics it easy to come up with opposing ideas which when well presented leaves the electorate confused and unable to see the best way forward. It was like this with the theoretical arguments between Einstein and the theoretical physicists (mathematicians) who created the Copenhagen Convention at the 1927 Solvay Conference in Belgium! Heisenberg was able to use his great mathematical ability to blind the delegates to the power of the Schrödinger equation and its grounding in deterministic atomic physics and replace it with his unscientific matrix mechanics which did the same thing but without taking into account the progress made through the Baconian science of the last three centuries. For years Einstein expended his energies trying to convince the nondeterministic Copenhagen school that atoms could be visualized and it was wrong to believe quantum theory could be developed only through the use of probabilistic terms. Sadly Heisenberg and his uncertainty principle prevailed and this ludicrous theory still dominates today in theoretical physics. Heisenberg went on to gain with Einstein’s support the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physics for his treatment of quantum mechanics and his mathematical prowess is without question, but with his uncertainty principle he has led generation after generation of theoretical physicists on a wild goose chase and it is only in the opening years of the twenty-first century that this folly has started to be recognized. In 2005 one hundred years after Einstein’s miraculous year, history still recorded that Einstein’s belief that physics is geometry and that a ‘theory of everything’ could be built on deterministic physics was wrong. History still recorded that Einstein wasted the second half of his life trying to develop his flawed theory and that the true ‘gospel’ was that of Heisenberg and the Copenhagen Convention. History records that the Copenhagen protagonists had won on points the many dialogues between the two approaches to physics. However the real way to prove theories correct is to show they can be used to predict correctly and more importantly can lead to new insights into nature and ultimately to new technologies. In this respect the true folly of the Copenhagen school was shown in the race between the allies and the Nazis to build the first atomic weapons; a race that would ultimately put the two great proponents of the Copenhagen school, Heisenberg and Bohr on opposite sides of the divide. Heisenberg’s inability to visualize atoms was to lead to the incorrect assumption that a uranium bomb would require two tons of uranium, which was simply not the case as was demonstrated by the dropping of the atomic bomb which devastated Hiroshima in the closing days of World War 2.      The awesome power of the atom became clear by the work of the Curies, Rutherford and Frederick Soddy at the turn of the twentieth century who realized that the power of the atom could explain why the Sun was able to radiate such vast amounts of energy for such an immense period of time. In 1905 Einstein’s famous equation E=MC squared quantified the vast energy changes taking place when mass is converted into energy and showed that there was the potential with the advent of suitable technology of using the power of the atom for the production of energy for civilian use or for military purposes.  Soddy soon coined the term isotope to describe different forms of elements differing only in their atomic masses..  Rutherford in Manchester in 1909 discovered that the atomic nucleus was very small and came up with his Solar System model of the atom with the small nucleus being found at the middle of a vast empty space in which electrons orbited like planets around the Sun. At the Cavendish Laboratory in 1920 Soddy’s belief that the same element could have nuclei of different masses was confirmed using mass spectrometry and the nucleus was considered to be made of positively charged protons closely packed with neutral neutrons having the same mass as protons.  Soddy asserted that because the alpha particle contained two protons its emission from a nucleus caused the remaining atom to move two steps to the left in the periodic table as its atomic number reduced by two.  Soddy also asserted that when a beta particle was ejected from a nucleus a neutron was converted to a proton and so the atom took a step to the right in the periodic table by virtue of now possessing an extra proton. Workers at the Cavendish Laboratory went on to earn many Nobel Prizes for their discoveries concerning the atom and the Cavendish Laboratory until World War 2 was the most productive centre for nuclear research in the World. In 1938 the German Otto Hahn made the discovery that uranium could be split by bombardment with neutrons and his report was published. Soon physicists around the world realized that Otto’s discovery had opened up a way to harness the atom for energy production and the building of an atomic bomb.      Otto Hahn (1879-1968) was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for discovering nuclear fission.  After completing his doctorate in Marburg, Hahn had continued his studies in England at University College London in 1904 under Sir William Ramsay who had then been working with Soddy on the noble gases. Soddy left University College London in 1904 to become a lecturer at Glasgow University until 1914 where he showed uranium decays to form radium. In 1903 while at the University College of London Soddy had shown that radium decays by emitting alpha particles that contain positively charged particles of helium. In 1905 at the University College of London Hahn discovered thorium 228 which he had believed was a new element but was shown later to be an isotope of thorium as was shown in 1913 when Soddy coined the term. In 1905 Hahn went to McGill University in Canada to take Soddy’s place working with Ernest Rutherford to further develop his practical skills and insights into nuclear chemistry before returning to Germany in the summer of 1906. Kerry
Many thanks again to Kerry Pendergast, whose book goes from strength to strength!
