Volume 6, Issue 8, page 14

principle number, which deter- ficult problems. The method of
mines the energy, L, m , and S. a Heisenberg to throw out a
The four numbers operate in picture and deal directly with
such a way as to divide elec- the raw facts of existence is
trons into 'shells'. The prop- not satisfying, yet it filled
erties of different atoms are a need. His square matrices
governed ty the number of elec- were the bare skeletons of the
trons in the outer shell. So , real world, yet more durable
the exclusion principle ere- than the gaudy tinsel of the
ates the physical universe as mystics. There is a lesson to
we know it. Yet no explanation be learned from Bohr's use of
of the exclusion principle has the 'correspondence principle'
ever been found. It had to be to advance from the known to
introduced to fit the facts. the unknown. The realization
"Dirac's simplification was that the number h, the quantum
to regard the states as the of action sets an absolute
basic entities. It was found limit to certainty. We have a
that S must' have the values of principle of 'indeterminacy'
plus or minus 14 , yet the mag- which tells us that we cannot
netic effort must be one, or know 'all' about even a single
double what it should be ac- particle. How much more is the
cording to electrical theory. idea of certainty a delusion!
Dirac found the correct value "For further reading I recto be an effect of the action ommend `The Strange Story of
of relativity on the 'spin- the Quantum'-in plain English ,
ning' electron. The electron no math, by Banesh Hoffman,
is half particle and have wave Dover Press, $1.45. For those
as shown by numerous experi- who wish some energy level diments. How such an entity can agrams, and an account of varalso hale a 14 spin defies un- ious atom models -- the shell
understanding, model, the vector model, and
"Now, why do men and women the elements, rover also puts
of iptegrity and high repute out 'Atomic Structures a n d
hold' to strange notions like Atomic Spectra', by Herzberg.
these? The answer is that the Also , I will try to answer any
historical development of the questions put to me. The Nopast hundred years has stead- vember article by Paul Perella,
ily shown that simpler, more 'It's All in the Way You Look
easily held and understood at It', is essentially what I
ideas simply do not describe am getting at by a slightly
the world we inhabit. They different route." -- Richard W.
have had to be abandoned, yet Lundberg, 219 Clayton Av., San
the human race persists in Jose 10, Calif.
trying to understand, We have Jot n our childhood as a nation , "Thank you , John Dobbs . The
in fact if not in dream. Yet perfume of roses has enriched
calculating the area enclosed science reveals a greater, many lives that were bestenched
by an electron 'orbit' in which richer world. There is tragedy by fish odors. I do know what
the area must be an integer -- in that most people do not you mean, and appreciate all
1, 2, 3 times a small number want to learn. We buy a radio, the more the reflection of
determined in 1900 by Planck , push a button or turn a dial, light in your letter in Novemand called the quantum of and if it doesn't work, call a ber ABERREE." -- Infinite 20.
action , designated by the let- repairman. I n politics, we