Word: trillionth
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...seemed that the atom-already split, measured, analyzed, and prodded by great machines-had few secrets left. Scientists were almost agreed that the atomic nucleus (one-trillionth the size of an atom) is a solid sphere. Now Stanford University Physicist Robert Hofstadter and his assistants have examined the nucleus and found more space in the atom's heart than anyone had guessed...
...woman could not talk and did not recognize her family. Into her bloodstream the doctors injected a solution containing boron, a common, stable element with an atomic weight of 10. But under neutron bombardment, boron-10 changes to an excited boron-11, which lives about one-hundredth of a trillionth of a second. In that infinitesimal fraction of time before it decays to stable lithium, it shoots out alpha particles...
...probably be an "elementary length" which will divide space into "smallest" units, just as Planck's Constant divided the flow of energy into "smallest" bursts (the "quantum" of the quantum theory). Gamow suspects that this missing length may turn out to be about 10 -13 centimeter (one ten-trillionth of a centimeter). A length close to this shows up as the radius of an electron, and as the effective range of forces in the atomic nuclei. "All kinds of physical considerations," says Gamow, "become senseless when we try to apply them to distances smaller than 10 -13 centimeter...
Neutrons have about the same mass as the heart of a hydrogen atom, but they are much smaller. Dr. George Braxton Pegram and his associates at Columbia have set the neutron diameter at one ten-trillionth of an inch. Unlike electrons, positrons, protons and deuterons, neutrons have no electric charge. Hence they make splendid projectiles for bombardment since they are not repelled by the positive charges on the atomic nuclei. Alpha particles knock neutrons in quantity out of beryllium and other light elements at speeds up to 30,000 miles per second. When the neutron hits a nucleus it either...
...atoms, are not deflected until they collide squarely with a nucleus. Nevertheless their mass (about 1,800 times that of an electron) has been established within fairly precise limits. And last week three Columbia physicists announced the size of the neutron as slightly less than .0000000000001 (one ten-trillionth) of an inch...