Football and rugby


Some nations like Italians, like football, other like Australians, prefer rugby. The main difference (1) is in the shape of the ball: symmetrical, fullerene-like for football and elongated, ellipsoidal for rugby.

This difference is important also in nuclear Physics.

In Australia capital city, Canberra, at the ANU National University, a long-lived (3) rugby-like nuclei of Pb192 was studied (4).

 

This nucleus turns out to be a low shot: only 2 MeV above the ground level!

(1) Another difference is that rugby players are much heavier than football ones, say majority of them are well above Z=100 (kg). It explains again, why rugby-like nuclei are studied in Australia,

(2) and studies on light nuclei were done by Enrico Fermi and his colleagues from via Panisperna in Rome. 

(3) “long-lived” for such an excited nuclear state means 10-13s.

(4) in collaboration with USA groups and at Gammasphere array at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

[1] Science Communication and the "via Panisperna boys": the Role of Ettore Majorana, Angelo Mastroianni, Journal of Science Communication (JCOM) 1 (3), September 2002

See ANU poster , and read more on the missing link.

Read here more on Enrico Fermi and Ettore Majorana (original italian version)