Hydrogen

The simplest element

 

Photo of a hydrogen emission lamp.  Photographer:  AndrewEick (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andreweick/).  Licensed under a Creative Common 2.0 Generic license.  The original picture can be found at flickr.com/photos/19429588@N00/337338585/

 

 

 

Hydrogen

 

This, the atom elemental

Atom simple, from beginning¹

A proton with electron bound

Both with one-half h-bar spinning²

 

And while they both be fermions³

Electron simple, not proton

For in this lightest baryon⁴

There’s two quarks up and one quark down

 

The up quark, lightest of them all

Two thirds charge for force electric

And as it is with quarks, recall

Charged is he with force chromatic! ⁵

And next in weight is the quark down

And while surprise and most absurd

Balancing the charges, see

Electric charge: minus one third

 

All forces play in hydrogen

Color, Flavor⁶, and we’re not done

Electric too, oh, it’s such fun

Describing atom numbered one

 

And gravity, there is that too

But that’s so weak⁷; still give it due

For H, it fills the Universe

Defines its structure and its course

 

And heat up H in core of sun

And H will burn to helium⁸

And through nucleogenesis⁹

All elements find synthesis

 

Recall now e^-, electronic

While so light and so leptonic¹⁰

With chemistry, he’s number one!

Without him, life would be undone

 

Oh, simple, simple hydrogen

To you great songs, they should be sung

Simple and so fundamental

You, the lightest elemental

 

 

©2009 Richard Puetter

All rights reserved

 

 

 

Notes

 

¹Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe.  After the Big Bang, the only elements present in the Universe were hydrogen, helium, and lithium.

 

²Most fundamental particles have intrinsic spin.  The electron and proton have spin s=½ each, the resulting angular momentum is ħ√(s(s+1)), where ħ is Planck's constant divided by 2π.  So excuse the

poetic license because "one-half h-bar spinning" is not exactly right.  The spin is s=½, but the angular momentum is a bit different than ħ/2. It is about 0.866ħ--see the above formula.

 

³There are two types of particles classified according to their spins and which have very different statistics.  Bosons have integer spin (e.g., 0, 1, 2, …).  Fermions have half-integer spin (i.e., ½, 1½ , …).  All matter is composed of fermions and all forces are mediated by bosons.

 

⁴Bayrons are the family of composite particles made of three quarks.

 

⁵The color force (strong nuclear force) is only carried by particles composed of quarks.  This is the force that holds nuclei together and is involved in the hydrogen bomb (nuclear fusion).

 

⁶The flavor force (weak nuclear force) has now been unified with electromagnetism into the electro-weak force.  It is responsible for nuclear fission and atomic bombs.  The flavor force is a prominent effect in deuterium, an isotope of H, when it decays.

 

⁷Gravity is the weakest of the 4 forces and plays essentially no role in nuclear structure or chemistry because it is so weak.  However it is the dominant long-range force that controls the large-scale structure of the Universe.

 

⁸Through the 3-proton process, H burns to He in the sun.  This is what powers the sun and allows life on earth.

 

⁹All elements heavier than lithium are made by nuclear burning (nucleogenesis) in the centers of stars or in supernovae explosions.

 

¹⁰ Leptons are a family of spin-1/2 elementary particles that include the electron.

Author's Note

Now that Marie's contest is over, I can do what I was thinking from the beginning without too much fear of "brown nosing". Marie, this poem is dedicated to you, Marie Anzalone, for your love of all things scientific and Man's pursuit to understand the unknown. You are a kindred spirit and I so greatly appreciate your friendship.

My very best regards, my friend,

Rick

Reviews

[Moonlight]

This is an epitome of knowledge! Wow Rick! I really learned a lot. This is purely beautiful! Hydrogen really does fuel this poem of yours. I loved it! :)

I'm sorry I have been kind of late in giving you your award, but it is better late than never! Right? :)

[Angi]

Rick, very cool poem here! I was surprised and pleased to read this fun and educational poem. The word quarks makes me smile, I don't know why. I have been trying to find a way to include it in one of my poems! Ha! I am so happy I could place you in my contest. Thank you for submitting. Angi~

[Marie Anzalone]

It's taken me far too long to get to your review, Rick, and I do apologize for the intervening time, space, and events. I just love this poem! It takes a command of both the subject and the language to create a work of poetry about particle physics that is understandable, tells a story, and is fun. Bravo on all counts, dear friend. I love the flow of the details, and I am enchanted with the anthorpomorphism in this homage to that most simple base miracle of all life- that all the right forces came together in such a way that the first and simplest element, hydrogen, could exist at all. Your words hint at a miracle but do not require the reader to believe there is anything miraculous about the process. You just tell us what happened, and how it came together, and how it works. I am in awe of your ability, and I am touched to no end by the dedication. Yes, my friend, we do have to talk. I am slowly restructuring my life to have more time soon.

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This was a great write!I wish we could use hydrogen to supply our energy needs instead of oil. The clean burning fuel would not pollute anything or anyone. But the big oil companies and governments are hell bent and set on destroying the planet and they will not listen to reason. I have read of studies in California and Illinois where researchers are extracting hydrogen from specialized algae at incredible rates. If our government would get behind this research with funding and support we could eliminate our "oil wars" in the middle east, improve our national security by negating the terrorist threats of those factions which resent our prescence there, save the trillions of dollars we spend on funding those wars, save the lives of those soldiers who die in them, save our children from asthma and chronic breathing problems, stop global warming, air pollution, acid rain and reduce the threat to the ozone layer protecting us from the sun and put an end to enviromental catastrophes like the Gulf oil spill fiasco which has destroyed so much American livlihood and natural resources. I have been preaching this message for 25 years...long before the present technology made hydrogen a viable reality for our enery needs. Now that there is some progress being made, it does not surprise me at all that the corporate oil giants are doing all they can to keep that progress under thumb and in the meanwhile; killing us all while they get richer. I love the notes!

[Belator Books]

Physics in prose... a hard sell and even harder to pen. You did so; bravo.

[Doctor JKC]

God/Shiva's blood must run with this element along with
nitrogen.
All life is chemistry.

I recently bought a fighting knife that has it's
carbon steel bonded to nitrogen molecules
making it corrosive proof, mostly from salts.
It's called H-1 steel.

More fine words about chemistry!
Dr. Callaghan

[Mollie]

Hi Rick,

Perhaps you should consider publishing this in Physicis Today or in Sky and Telescope. I think it would be fun there. I loved it.

Mollie

[Sheila Kline]

I absolutely love the chemistry lesson and the flow is almost sing song in nature...so much so that I can almost hear myself singing this as a tune of entertainment in learning! You have much in this, yet explained in such an enlightening way that it doesn't even seem like work to learn! I understand much of it....have to read it through a few more times to get it down pat..but good ole' Hydrogen..yes so elemental!!
A wondeful write that I have enjoyed so very much!!

[deeps]

Wow! This is quite the lesson here! I like this alot. So much here to keep in a journal for me to learn. I like it.