From: nospam@de-ster.demon.nl
Paul.B.Andersen wrote:
> Den 04.01.2026 20:20, skrev J. J. Lodder:
> > Paul.B.Andersen wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> My claim is:
> >> There would have been no atomic bomb in 1945 if
> >> the nuclear fission of uranium had not been discovered
> >> in 1938.
> >
> > Or without the discovery of the U235 isotope,
> > in 1935, by Arthur Jeffrey Dempster.
> >
> >> The fission was not discovered because someone thought
> >> that since E = mc?, it must be possible to release energy
> >> by splitting atoms.
> >
> > Accurate values of nuclear masses had been known
> > from mass spectroscopy since sice the 1920s.
> > Through this it was already known that there were vast stores of energy
> > trapped in all atomic nuclei. (and not just radioactive ones)
> > People started speculating about liberating nuclear energy since then.
> > (without yet having a clue as to how this might be practically achieved)
>
> Exactly!
> My point was that the equation E = mc^2 was no help
> to how to liberate the nuclear energy in matter.
As a matter of historical interest,
the first SF story which features large amount of 'atomic energy'
being released seems to be by H.G. Wells. (1914)
Eddington (1920) already proposed that the energy release of stars
might be from nuclear reactions at high temperatures inside.
As the 1920-ies progressed the curve of binding energy/nucleon
became available through precision mass spectrometry,
showing that Iron and Nickel were the most tightly bound elements,
and that there huge amounts of bound nuclear energy
in every bit of ordinary matter, [1]
Jan
[1] In other words, E=mc^2 was already 'unproblematic background
knowlwdge' among scientists, more than a hundred years ago.
--- SoupGate-DOS v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
