CREATION.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 February 1925, Page 1

CREATION.

WHAT ABE WE AIADE OF? Few things in modern theoretical science are more interesting than the idea of the ultimate composition of matter. It is remarkable, also, to note the resemblance between our theories of to-day-anil those of the very earn ost philosophers. Long before Greece had reached her zenith of power Hindu, teaching maintained that all matter was composed of separate articles, which were in continual motion, with nothing but space between them. Tlu: learned of later years, from the days of Gueece onwards, taught very similar ideas, and, in a modified form, we still believe the same tiling. Until comparatively recent times chemists maintained that the atom was the ultimate and indivisible particle of matter, unalterable and eternal. We still believe in the existence of the atom, hut think it noitner indivisible nor unalterable. We do not oven think of it as etonfiil. Thanks largely to the brilliant work of J. J. Thomson, we give the atom a definite structure, a composition of particles smaller than itself. Those particles are particles of electricity, and, to put the matter plainly, we believe that men and women, stars and clouds, mice and elephants- in fact, all forms of mat-ter—-are just so many moving particles of electricity and nothing else. Surely an astonishing idem. IN FINITELY SAfALL.

Of course, wc are dealing with extremely small things. It has been estimated that if a single drop of water were enlarged to the size ol the earth, the atoms in it would he about the size of large shot, while "II we imagine the atom enlarged in turn to the size of a building 610 ft long, •iUl't wide and 20ft- high, the electrical particles Mf which it is composed would be no larger than the full-stop at the em of this sentence. Yet small as those particles are, we have proved their existence. To the last statement someone may naturally say, ‘'How was it donor’’ It would he impossible to answer the question fully in a. short article, hut an analogy Snay suiliec. When a. Title bullet traverses the air we cannot see it, hut we may prove its existence by placing an obstacle in its path. By making it pass through two widelyseparated screens, each electrically connected with a time-recorder, we may even calculate the speed of the bullet. IJv somewhat similar means the existence of these minute particles of electricity and the speed at which they travel have been demonstrated. These electrical particles arc called electrons, or, by Thomson, corpuscles. They arc, wc believe, the bricks of the universe. We believe that an atom of matter is composed simply of a number of separate particles of negative electricity (electrons), revolving around a minute nucleus of positive electricity. Nothing cl.se.

How. then, does a stone, for example, attain its solid form if it is nothing hut moving particles of electricity? lo answer that, let me say definitely that wc now regard elect ricity as a material thing. Admitting that, the answer becomes easy. If a wheel, revolving on its axle, wo struck on the rim with a .stick, the resistance offered is. of course that of a solid disc. But if a ring of small halls were substituted for the wheel, the effect would still he that of a, solid disc when struck with ; .stick provided that the rate of revolution of the halls were sullicieutly rapid. A stranger who did not know the construction of the apparatus would certainly regard it as solid on striking it. In the same way tin apparently .solid stone may he simply composed of small material particles moving so rapidly that ordinary penetration is impossible.

ELECTRONS. The proportos .of an atom are. believed to depend upon the number of electrons which revolve around the positive nucleus, and upon the way in which they are arranged. That they probably do have a definite arrangement was cleverly doinpn.stvatod by Mayer, lie floated a number of small ,ork discs on water, each disc being penetrated by a small vertical magnet, with the negative poie• upwards. As so arranged the magnets repelled each other. But when a strong positive magnetic pole was held slightly above the water the floating magnets arranged themselves around it in lorms according to their number. Three formed the points of an equilateral triangle, four the corners of a square, and five the corners of a regular pentagon. But six would not in any circumstances form a ring at all; they would only gather in a ring of five, with the other one at the centre. As the number of magnets was increased Alayer showed conclusively that it was impossible l«> arrange the magnets in any haphazard fashion; every number had its own definite arrangement.

T„ some such way the properties ol iU , atom, may alter with the number of electrons in it. for an alteration in number means an alteration in the arrangement of the electrons around the nHelens. An atom of lead may have one arrangement, a sulphur atom allot her. and so on.

One cannot hut be struck with the resemblance of the movements in the atom (if our ideas are correct) to those iof the heavenly bodies. Just as the planets revolve round the sun. and the sun in turn moves around another centre, so the electrons revolve around their positive nucleus. May not one give rein to fancy, and imagine the the whole of the universe, as we know it, is simply one of many, each moving in its turn about some nucleus infiiii! ly distant and utterly unknown to us? Such an idea is certainly not beyond the hounds of possibility.