Friday, March 28, 2014

Mr. Cong's Age of Anxiety Poem

The Atom by Justin Cong


1919 was where it all began:
This is the road to 1945, Japan.
Rutherford split the atom, releasing
Enormous amounts of energy, creating
Destruction. 5 years later, Broglie of France
Said that electrons behaved as waves (not by chance!).
Scrödinger soon after created the quantum model; then another twist:
Chadwick in 1932 proved that the neutron really did exist.


Now atoms were finally being understood: 1935 brought more hope,
When Arthur Dempster discovered the Uranium-235 isotope.
His discovery was soon researched by Peierls and Frisch,
Who calculated that one kilo of 235 would explode without a hitch.
The US Government in 1942 approved the Manhattan project
Originally against Germany, but it soon had to redirect;
The target was now Japan, and on July 16, 1945 the first
Atom bomb was detonated in New Mexico: a success, yet a curse.


Japan wasn't willing to give in, so the US decided to use their new powers,
Unfortunately, it was a power that called for innocent blood and flowers.
August 6, 1945—in Hiroshima, over 80,000 were killed immediately.
Three days later, Nagasaki saw 75,000 perish instantaneously.
Japan soon surrendered unconditionally,

Ending the road for a weapon that killed maliciously.

No comments:

Post a Comment