Cosmology Old and New

Author(s): G R Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 41

SŪTRA 1 (Ajivakāya)
When a gas is heated, the molecules within it rush about more vigorously and if the temperature is sufficiently raised, the molecules begin to fall to pieces, i.e., the atoms composing them get separated out just as a cluster of balls glued together would break up under hard impact.
The older view with regard to the atom was that it is like a 'billiard-ball' as hard, unbreakable, and of the same nature all through, like a jelly but this conception of atom was revised by Sir Rutherford. According to him the interior of the atom is a solar system, i.e., an atom is not solid like a billiard-ball but highly porous like the solar system. From a series of difficult experiments Rutherford came to the conclusion that an atom contains within its centre a massive charge of positive electricity28, with a number of negative electricity particles, called electrons, going round the former with very great velocities in fixed orbits like the planets round the sun. The specifications for the hydrogen atom are given below. The positive charge in the centre is called the proton. See Fig. 2 on page 11.
HYDROGEN ATOM
Diameter
Weight
ELECTRON :
Diameter
Speed
Weight
1
200,000,000
inch.
164 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0
1
500,000,000,000,0
1,300 miles per second.
1
2,000
inch.
gram.
of the weight of the hydrogen atom.
9
PROTON :
Diameter
about ten times that of the electron. that of the hydrogen atom.
Weight
The central positive charge of electricity, the nucleus, has a
28. See foot-note No. 6 of the Prologue.
When a dry vulcanite fountain-pen is rubbed with a silken handkerchief, it is observed that rubbed bodies acquire the property of attracting light bodies such as scraps of paper or small feathers. They are said to be charged with electricity. It should be noted that the vulcanite becomes charged with one kind of electricity and silk with the other kind. These two kinds are called arbitrarily as positive and negative.