410 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1964 



Typical Dis+ribu+ion-in-Energy (Energy Spectrum) found for beta 

 particles from decays of a given kind of nucleus. 



ENERGY, DIVIDED INTO EQUAL INTERVALS 

 Figure 1 



few firings are sufficient to convince him that something has gone 

 wrong, for none of his bullets travels the expected distance. Instead, 

 they all fall short at different distances (one even rolled out of the 

 barrel and dropped at his feet). Puzzled, the bidletmaker takes his 

 gun apart, but finds it to be in perfect shape. He opens a number of 

 his shells to inspect the powder. It is diy. He fires a few more, but 

 with the same result. 



Returning to his laboratory, the bulletmaker looks into the jars and 

 boxes of sulfur and lampblack and nitrates. He tests each — only to 

 find them normal. He prepares more of the new mixture, fills more 

 shells and plugs them with new bullets. He has been overly careful to 

 weigh the same amount of powder into each shell, and as he knows the 



The Builetmoker's Dilemma 



« ' \]'A '■ ^i^. 





^Wui. 



Figure 2 



