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26 THE JAINA PHILOSOPH}
Finally there are the clectromagnetic waves which account for the propagation of clcctromagnetic forces through empty space
All these fundamental constituents of the physical world are independent and can combinc in various ways Thus a neutron can become a proton by emitting an ciectron and a neutrino and a proton can revert to be a neutron by enuiting a positron and neutrino Two electrons with opposite charges can be transformed into electromagnetic radiation or can be formed from the radiation Finally the neutrnos can combine with electrons forming the unstable units observed in the cosmic rays and known as mesons
A question which may be asked at this stage is “Is it right to assume that these nucleons etc are really elementary and cannot be sub-divided into still smaller constituent parts? Wasn'ut assumed only less than a century ago that the atoms were indivisible? Yet what a complicated picture they present today?" The answer ys that, although there is of course no way to predict the future development of the science of matter, we have now much sounder reasons for believing that our elementary particles are actually the basic units and cannot be sub-divided further Whereas allegedly indivisible atoms were known to show a great variety of rather complicated chemical and other properties, the properties of elementary particles of modern physics are extremely simple In fact they can be compared in their simplicity to the properties of geometrical points"
11. This can be illustrated by a match suck A large amount of energy is waiting to be set free but the match will not bum unless heated by fnction
