become unstable when the velocity falls below this value. Four electrons in motion, for example, are stable in one plane, but when the velocity falls below a certain critical value, the system is unstable, and the electrons tend to arrange themselves at the corners of a regular tetrahedron. J. J. Thomson (loc. cit.) applies this property to explain why an atom of radio-active matter breaks up, as follows:—
"Consider now the properties of an atom containing a system of corpuscles (electrons) of this kind. Suppose the corpuscles were originally moving with velocities far exceeding the critical velocity; in consequence of the radiation from the moving corpuscles, their velocity will slowly—very slowly—diminish; when, after a long interval, the velocity reaches the critical velocity, there will be what is equivalent to an explosion of the corpuscles, the corpuscles will move far away from their original position, their potential energy will decrease, while their kinetic energy will increase. The kinetic energy gained in this way might be sufficient to carry the system out of the atom, and we should have, as in the case of radium, a part of the atom shot off. In consequence of the very slow dissipation of energy by radiation the life of the atom would be very long. We have taken the case of the four corpuscles as the type of a system which, like a top, requires for its stability a certain amount of rotation. Any system possessing this property would, in consequence of the gradual dissipation of energy by radiation, give to the atom containing it radio-active properties similar to those conferred by the four corpuscles."
271. Heat of the sun and earth. It was pointed out by
Rutherford and Soddy[1] that the maintenance of the sun's heat
for long intervals of time did not present any fundamental difficulty
if a process of disintegration, such as occurs in the radio-elements,
were supposed to be taking place in the sun. In a letter
to Nature (July 9, 1903) W. E. Wilson showed that the presence
of 3·6 grams of radium in each cubic metre of the sun's mass
was sufficient to account for the present rate of emission of energy
by the sun. This calculation was based on the estimate of Curie
- ↑ Rutherford and Soddy, Phil. Mag. May, 1903.
