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Properties of Atom
287
energy is released in the process, which is taken up as the energy of motion of the a-or the 3-particle with surplus appearing as y-rays. The energy released from the nucleus may be quite high of the order of millions of electron-volts."}
As to vega-pratighāta of paramānu conceived in Jaina Philosophy it can be said that the physical sciences contain a parallel view in regard to the collision of atomic particles. “In any elastic collision, say between two billiards balls, the total energy and the total momentum before and after the collision must be the same. If one ball makes a head-on collision with another at rest, the first will come to a stop and the second will carry on in the forward direction with the energy and momentum previously had by the first particles. In off-centre collisions both balls will be set into motion at right angles to each other, and the direction and energy of each of the balls can be simply calculated from the conservation of laws. Similarly, if atomic particle collides with a helium nucleus, both are set in motion at right angles to each other. We can often observe the path of boto particles after collision in a cloud chamber and verify that the laws of conservation of energy and momentum hold for nucleus processes."'2 "Neutrons themselves are last detected by making them collide with protons, i. e. by letting the neutron beam pass through a hydrogeneous medium, say water or paraffin wax. Since the neutron and the proton have approximately the same mass, their collision is analogous to that between two billiards balls. In a head-on collision the neutron is brought to rest and the proton is emitted in the forward direction with the whole energy. In off-centre collisions the proton may be emitted at different angles but from the angle of emission and from the energy of the proton the energy of the neutron can be deduced.”'S
In regard to Bandha-pariņāma-pratighāta of paramāņu a 1. Atomic Physics, p. 65. 2. Atoms and the Universe, p. 84. 3. Ibid., p. 87.
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