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Name: Sean
Status: student
Age: 7
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2000-2001
Question:
I read the book "Enrico Fermi The Revolutions of Modern Physics" and they compared Alpha particles being shot at a thin sheet of metal and bouncing back to firing a rifle at a piece of tissue paper and it bouncing back at you. Is this comparison legitimate?

Replies:
Everything that Enrico Fermi wrote, spoke or did was extraordinary this comparison is also unique. Alpha particles which were emitted from a nucleus have a considerable energy, any that are recoiled back to the source of the particles display that there is an interation between the nucleus of the metal film and the alpha particles. These experiments were done in the 1930's, I believe, what we might take for granted today was frontier knowledge 70 years ago.

Dr. Myron


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