Word: electronic
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...betatron, a close relative of the ordinary transformer which raises or lowers the voltage of an alternating current, is an electron accelerator. A whopping electromagnet (130 tons) is energized by a heavy current flowing through two coils made of one-inch copper rods...
...sensational-not only because the heaviest of all elements had been cracked wide open, but because of the tremendous energy profit. Up to then, scientists had always had to put more energy into their projectiles than was released in the breakup. Now, an explosion of about 200,000,000 electron-volts was touched off by idling neutrons of less than one electron-volt. Matter equal to about one-fifth of a neutron's mass was converted into energy according to the Einstein formula...
...succeeded because he chose the right target, an atom of an extremely rare form of uranium (U 235), which he bombarded with a stream of neutrons. The explosion which occurred when the uranium atom finally split was, proportionately, the greatest man-made blast in history; it released 200 million electron-volts. But because the source and volume were so small, the shock was not enough to knock a fly off the wall. As war overtook the world, the problem of releasing atomic energy in quantity, as for a bomb, still remained unsolved...
...greatest geniuses." O'Neill credits him not only with inventing the polyphase alternating current generator and Tesla induction motor, which scientists generally have hailed as the basis of "our electrical power era" (TIME, July 20, 1931), but also with discovering the basic principles of the radio, radar, electronic tube, X ray, fluorescent light, electron microscope, rocket bomb, etc. All these and the discovery of cosmic rays besides, says O'Neill, were inspired by basic Tesla findings. Less ardent admirers do not go so far: they classify many of Tesla's "discoveries" as mere hunches, lacking in scientific...
...Electron microscopes do not let a man "look" at bacteria, nor do they take photographs. They spray electrons through a bacteria sample, making a silhouette picture on a fluorescent screen or photographic plate...