ATOMS AND MOLECULES 47 



the solar system ; supposing it to have been present 

 when the earth was without form and void ; sup- 

 posing it to have borne witness to all the stupendous 

 changes during the full cycles of geologic time, to 

 have seen the first living creature appear and the 

 last man disappear ; supposing it to survive until 

 the fulfilment of the mathematician's prediction that 

 the sun, the source of energy, four million centuries 

 from its formation, will ultimately become a burnt- 

 out cinder — supposing all this, at the rate of filling 

 I have described — one hundred million molecules 

 a second — this little bulb even then would scarcely 

 have admitted its full quadrillion of molecules. 



" And what will you say if I tell you that all 

 these molecules, this quadrillion of molecules, will 

 enter through the microscopic hole before you 

 leave this room. The hole being unaltered in 

 size, the number of molecules undiminished, this 

 apparent paradox can only be explained by again 

 supposing the size of the molecules to be diminished 

 almost infinitely — so that instead of entering at 

 the rate of one hundred million every second, 

 they troop in at the rate of something like three 

 hundred trillions a second." 



Since matter is made up of such millions of minute 

 particles, its atoms, when disparted, are capable of 

 populating comparatively enormous areas. Thus, 

 as Carl Synder {New Conceptions of Science) points 



