Eigenvalues wrt Crystal Oscillations

[Mike Brehm]

Bonnie,
>Apparently, written reports on the splitting of that atom include mention 
>of the sight of it within the chamber--blue and green lights, dazzling.

That blue glow (Cerenkov radiation) is indeed dazzling. It's caused by
a high speed particle which passes through a transparent, non-conducting,
solid material at a speed greater than the speed of light in the material.
Light, which travels in a vacuum at 186,000 miles/second (roughly, but let's
not quibble here) doesn't travel that fast in other material, unsurprisingly.
So, in a nuclear reactor, when water surrounds the active fuel elements, high
speed particles from the fuel elements zip through the water at a speed
faster than light usually does, producing an intense blue glow. I've only
seen it once at Los Alamos, when we stood on top of a reactor (I wonder if
it's been decommisioned?) and were able to look down into the reactor at the
glow. Very pretty, but kinda spooky, too, being next to all that energy.

Additionally, "Cerenkov radiation is analogous to the emission of a shock
wave by a projectile moving faster than sound, since in both cases the
velocity of the object passing through the medium exceeds the velocity of
the resulting wave disturbance in the medium." (McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of
Science and Technology, 1987). A nice correlation to GR's A-4 I would say.

>One more thing, as you read, consider the nickname for the bomb--"fat 
>boy" ( I don't know if it was one word.)
>
Just picking nits here, but the nicknames were "Little Boy" for the uranium
gun-type bomb, and "Fat Man" for the plutonium implosion bomb. And, the
first H-bomb was code-named "Mike" which ties me into nuclear technology
more than I like. And an excellent book which discusses the development of
the bomb (or bombs, since there were 2 technologies involved) is "The Making
of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. And, if you're into net surfing, do a
Lycos search on atomic bomb and you'll find a bunch of info and descriptions
on the net (can't remember where just now-if I get a chance, I search and
post the address for those interested).

Mike Brehm