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JAIN PHILOSOPHY & MODERN SCIENCE ed together to create those of Helium and during the process of fusion, tremendous amount of internal energy is liberated. We know that Hydrogen and Helium are the first and second elements in the atomic itable respectively and an atom of the latter is four times heavier than that of the former. Most careful measurements have, however, shown that there is a -slight loss of matter (mass) during the process of fusion of 4 hydrogen nuclei into one Helium nucleus, and this matter is actually transformed into energy. If this lberated energy could be collected m the form of heat, each nuclear fusion will liberate heat equivalent to the combustion of 2700 maunds of coal. Hydrogen bomb is the device for concentrating this tremendous heat-energy in a small area and liberating it instantaneously.
This liberation of energy during fusion was known even earlier than the nuclear fission But it was also known that temperatures of the order of tens of thousand-million degrees were necessary to bring about the fusion of 4 hydrogen nuclei into one of Helium, while the cleverest scientist succeeded to obtain less than even a hundred-thousand degrees The nuclear fission of U-235, however, was accompanied with very high temperatures which made the fusion of the Hydrogen nuclei possible. The result tes that the fission bomb acted as a match-stick for the successful explosion of the Hydrogen bomb Alas! how true it is that one vice gives birth to another
