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30 THE JAINA PHILOSOPHY in the form of energy, as compared with only one gram in three billion grams liberated in the burning of coal In other words the amount of nuclear energy liberated in the transmutation of atomic nuclei is from 3,000,000 to 24,000,000 times as great as the chemical energy released by the burning of an equal amount of coal, whereas most chemical reactions would take place easily at temperatures of a few hundred degrees, corresponding nuclear transformation would not even start before the temperature reached many million degrees
Nuclear energy can be liberated by two diametrically opposite methods One is fission-the splitting of the nuclei of the heaviest chemical elements into two uneven fragments consisting of nuclei of two lighter elements The other is fusion-combining or fusing two nuclei of the lightest elements into one nucleus of a heavier element In both methods the resulting elements are lighter than the original nuclei The loss of mass in each case manifests itself in the release of enormous amounts of nuclear energy
75 years ago Bacquere's discovery of radio activity indicated that a break up process of nucleus can really take place Atoms of heaviest element uranium (and thonum) spontaneously emitted highly penetrating radiations (similar to X-rays) This process of slow spontaneous decay of the atoms of the so called radio active elements consists in emituing a small segment of its nucleus known as alpha particles and internal elecinc adjustment followed by emission of Iwo electrons A series of emission continue unul we come finally to the nucleus of the lead atom
Theoretically speaking all elements heavier than silver are radio active and subject to the process of
