1. Scientific Theories and Laws
2. The First Decade (1936-1946)
4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)
6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)
8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)
10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)
12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)
14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)
15. The Theory of More than Everything
16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)
18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)
Appendix A Paintings
Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe
Appendix C Musical Compositions
Chapter 0-Page 0
Now that we're sure atoms exist, we need to go deeper. Does everything contain different kinds of atoms, or do atoms consist of some simpler pieces?
What do the following have in common: a shock from a doorknob, lightning, neon signs, a flashlight, and balloons sticking to the ceiling? The answer is a fuzzy little ball we call an electron. In fact, these tiny critters live in all elements.
If electrons get a chance, they try to get away from each other like the north ends of two bar magnets or two egos at a cocktail party. Let's say a door knob doesn't have as many electrons as it should, and you walk up with some extra electrons in your hand. When you come close to touching the knob, the electrons in your hand see their chance and jump the gap causing a spark; that hurts. The same thing occurs when clouds and the ground aren't matched up in electrons. If you don't know enough to come in out of the rain and aren't charged the same as the clouds, that's really going to hurt.
Rubbing a balloon wipes off some of the electrons making the balloon positively charged. Then it will stick to the ceiling because the ceiling is likely to be more negative than the balloon; objects charged differently attract each other.
The chemicals in a flashlight battery keep stuffing electrons towards one end making that end negative. From there, the electrons take off through the bulb and back through the case to the positive end of the battery. When they squeeze through that skinny filament in the bulb, they heat it up enough by friction to make it light.
To study electrons in the 1800's, people used a glass tube with most of the air pumped out, as in the one below. When they heated the metal filament at the left end, electrons bubbled off and moved towards the opposite end since the battery kept that end of the tube positively charged.
Chapter 0-Page 0