Word: electronic
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...fundamental constants of physics, such as c the velocity of light, h Planck's constant, e the charge and m the mass of the electron, and so on, provide for us a set of absolute units for measurement of distance, time, mass, etc. There are, however, more of these constants than are necessary for this purpose, with the result that certain dimensionless numbers can be constructed from them...
...leftovers. He had noticed that another scientist of imagination, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, had arrived at theoretical values for certain constants, such as the quantity of matter in the universe (using the proton as a unit) and the ratio of the electric to the gravitational force between proton and electron. These two Eddington values worked out at 10 78 (10 multiplied by itself 77 times) and 10 39 . Although, as Dirac says, "Eddington's arguments are not always rigorous," they nevertheless gave him "the feeling that they are probably substantially correct in the case of the smaller numbers...
...square of the universe's age would therefore be equal to Eddington's other figure, 10 78 . Armed with these two fine coincidences, Dirac next proposed to dispense with the giant numbers and simply say that the ratio of electrical to gravitational force between proton and electron equals t, the age of the universe, and the amount of universal matter equals t². But the universe is not getting any younger. Thus the values dependent on t and t² are not constants at all, but get bigger with the passage of time. The quantity of universal matter...
...stated that American science has increased a great deal in recent years, while most of the eminent German scientists had left that country. Among the greatest recent discoveries in this country are the laboratory production of heavy hydrogen and the positive electron...
...leading article last week, Technology Review (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) sets forth a tentative explanation of why superconductivity, the condition of no resistance, occurs before the atomic dance has entirely stopped. At ordinary temperatures the electrons are dispersed and disorganized by the vibration and must make their way alone. But, in the view of Professor John Clarke Slater, head of M. I. T.'s physics department, in the neighborhood of Absolute Zero the atomic interference is so feeble that electrons may combine in large swarms and travel along together like mountain climbers tied together by a rope. By virtue...