At 8:15 in the morning, on August 6, 1945, people in the Japanese city of Hiroshima were getting out of bed, eating breakfast, beginning the day's work. Japan was at war. Nazi Germany's terrible clanking armies had been beaten, and and the Madman Hitler who had murdered whole countries was dead. The dictator Mussolini was dead, too and Italy had gone over to the other side. The Japanese empire, which had started out the conquer the whole world with those partners, was now left to face the United States and her allies alone, General Mac Arthur's Armies were already shooting and slashing their way into the islands that guarded Japan. For weeks American planes had rained fire bombs on Japanese cities. Thus far, Hiroshima had been spared. Then a lone American plane streaked over the city. It Dropped one bomb. The Atomic Age Begun.
Death of A City
There was a vast flash of fire, brighter than the sun, and hotter. There was a great shuddering of the earth and a great roar and a scorching wind. There was a cloud shaped like huge mushroom, silently standing above the ruins. There was nothing left of the center of Hiroshima except charred , dusty rubbish from which deadly invisible rays were streaming. There were 78,150 people known to be dead and 13,983 people missing. From on bomb.
The President of United States, Henry S. Truman, broadcast a warning to Japan. This, He said, was a new kind of bomb, a bomb which used the forces that made the sun hot, and America had more of these bombs. The President was slightly wrong in his science. But that did not matter. The Japanese knew that there was a new force in the world, and soon they sorrounded.
On that August day, in laboratories all over the United States, scientist shivered and looked grim. That was not the way they had wanter the Atomic Age to begin.
Inside the Atom
What is matter made of? The ancient Greek philosophers wondered what would happen if we took some solid matter- like stone or metal- and kept grinding it up into finer and finer powder. Some said that no matter how tiny the particles became, it would always be possible to break them up into still smaller particles by grinding harder. they believed that matter was made of a stuff called hype (which is Greek for "stuff") , and that this was smooth right through and could be divided up endlessly.
Other said no matter how hard or long we ground, we could not get the particles smaller than a certain size. They believed matter was made of seperate hard lumps called atoms, and these were the smallest thing or particles there were.
The second group was nearer to the truth, of course. Matter usually does consist of atoms. But they were wrong in thinking there was nothing smaller than an atom. And they certainly picked the wrong name for their fundamental particle. The atom can be cut.
Are atoms solid?
An atom-even an atom of iron in the steel armor-plate of a warship, or an atom of carbon in diamond-is mostly empty space/ The big old solid world around us is not solid at all. It is made of tiny spots of matter hanging or whirling quite far apart in open space.
Then why, if you pound of your fist on table, doesn't your hand go into table-top? Because you hand, too, is empty space, and between the whirling spots hold them away form each other. Those forces, jostling the atoms in your flesh, are what you feel as the bang of your hand the table.
Inside the Atom
What is matter made of? The ancient Greek philosophers wondered what would happen if we took some solid matter- like stone or metal- and kept grinding it up into finer and finer powder. Some said that no matter how tiny the particles became, it would always be possible to break them up into still smaller particles by grinding harder. they believed that matter was made of a stuff called hype (which is Greek for "stuff") , and that this was smooth right through and could be divided up endlessly.
Other said no matter how hard or long we ground, we could not get the particles smaller than a certain size. They believed matter was made of seperate hard lumps called atoms, and these were the smallest thing or particles there were.
The second group was nearer to the truth, of course. Matter usually does consist of atoms. But they were wrong in thinking there was nothing smaller than an atom. And they certainly picked the wrong name for their fundamental particle. The atom can be cut.
Are atoms solid?
An atom-even an atom of iron in the steel armor-plate of a warship, or an atom of carbon in diamond-is mostly empty space/ The big old solid world around us is not solid at all. It is made of tiny spots of matter hanging or whirling quite far apart in open space.
Then why, if you pound of your fist on table, doesn't your hand go into table-top? Because you hand, too, is empty space, and between the whirling spots hold them away form each other. Those forces, jostling the atoms in your flesh, are what you feel as the bang of your hand the table.
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