Sep 26, 2017

Of course you are joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard Phillips Feynman

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Title: Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman!
Author: Richard Phillips Feynman
Year: 1985
Genre: Biographies and Memoirs, Foreign educational literature, Foreign journalism, Other educational literature

About "Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" Richard Phillips Feynman

Richard Feynman is one of the most famous American physicists of the 20th century. Nobel Prize winner, one of the founders of quantum electrodynamics, participant in the development atomic bomb, a reformer of the teaching of physics in higher educational institutions - in a word, a very serious person. Is it possible to believe that this outstanding scientist loved jokes and practical jokes, casually opened the safes of his colleagues to leave playful notes there, played exotic musical instruments, and during a business meeting could tell his superiors that they were doing complete nonsense?

Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman is a collection of autobiographical stories about unique person, which, by its existence, destroyed the stereotype that a real talented scientist is a buttoned up cracker without a sense of humor, completely devoid of simple human weaknesses, and devoting all his time exclusively to scientific research in the laboratory.

Among other things, Richard Feynman was known as an excellent speaker. His lectures, exciting like a detective novel, were attended not only by students and colleagues, but also by people who were passionate about physics. With the same artistry, the physicist told his circle of friends about his own life. Feynman's friend Ralph Leighton recorded these stories for seven years on a tape recorder, later transcribed them and translated them into text form, and in 1985 they formed the basis of the book You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, which we highly recommend you read.

In fact, this collection is the very tales that bosom friends share with each other. They cover all major periods of Feynman's life - student years, work in the so-called "Manhattan Project", in which leading scientists from the United States, Great Britain, Germany and Canada developed nuclear weapons, participation in psychological experiments, cooperation with the commission investigating the Challenger shuttle disaster.

Who just needs to read the book "Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman"? First of all, those who are used to taking life too seriously. Richard Feynman is an illustration of the fact that only a person who is seriously interested in his business, but not obsessed with it, can achieve real success. Moreover, only a comprehensively developed personality, open to everything new and ready to constantly comprehend the unknown, is able to appreciate the beauty of life.

In addition, the book "Of course you're kidding, Mr. Feynman" is a great motivator for those who have lost interest in the activities they have to do. She returns faith in her own strength, awakens curiosity and desire, following the example of her protagonist, also try her hand at the most unexpected areas.

On our site about books, you can download the site for free without registration or read the online book “Of course you are joking, Mr. Feynman!” Richard Phillips Feynman in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and a real pleasure to read. You can buy the full version from our partner. Also, here you will find last news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For novice writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and recommendations, interesting articles, thanks to which you yourself can try your hand at writing.

Quotes from the book "Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" Richard Phillips Feynman

What matters is not the property we have, but the ability to create this property.

Of course, you only live once, you make all the mistakes you have to make, you learn what not to do, and that's the best thing you can learn.

The main principle is not to fool yourself. And it's the easiest thing to fool yourself. Here you have to be very careful.

I have a poor idea of ​​what happens to people: they do not learn by understanding. They learn in some other way - by rote memorization or otherwise. Their knowledge is so fragile!

You keep telling yourself, "I can do it, but I won't," but that's just another way of saying you can't.

To add one second to your life, you have to fly around the earth 400 million times, but all these airplane breakfasts will shorten your life much more significantly.

How much do you value life?
- Sixty four.
- Why did you say sixty-four?
How do you think the value of life can be measured?
- Not! I mean, why did you say "sixty-four" and not "seventy-three" for example?
- If I said "seventy-three". You would ask me the same question!

Richard Feynman
Translation by Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences M. SHIFTMAN

When we started at Los Alamos, we had terribly important secrets—we were developing all sorts of things about the bomb, uranium, how it all worked, and so on. All these things were in the documents, which were stored in wooden cabinets with drawers with the most ordinary small, padlocks on them. Of course, there were also some other devices made in the workshop - for example, a stick that went down, which was locked with a padlock, but it was just a padlock. Moreover, it was possible to get papers without even opening the lock. You just tilted the closet back wall to the floor. The bottom drawer had a small slat, supposedly to keep papers from falling apart, and under it was a long, wide slit. The papers could be pulled straight out of there.

And so I usually opened all sorts of locks and demonstrated to everyone that it was very easy to do. And every time we had a general meeting, I would stand up and say that since we have such important secrets, we cannot keep them in such things. One day Teller stood up in a meeting and said:

I don't keep the most important secret papers in the closet, I keep them in my desk drawer. It's better, isn't it?

I replied:

- I do not know. I didn't see your table.

He sat at the front of the meeting, and I was at the very back. The meeting continued, and I slipped out and went downstairs to look at his desk. I didn't even have to open the lock on the center drawer. It turned out that if you put your hand under the back of the table, you could pull out all the papers - each sheet drags the next one, just like in a drawer with toilet paper. You pull one piece of paper, she pulls another, she pulls a third... I emptied the whole damn drawer, put everything in another place and got back up.

The meeting was just ending, everyone was leaving, and I joined the crowd, caught Teller and said:

- By the way, show me your desk.

“Well, of course,” he replied, and showed me his table.

I looked at this table and said:

- He seems very good to me. Let's see what you have there.

“I will be very glad to show you everything,” he said, inserting the key and opening the drawer. Unless, of course, you've already seen it all yourself.

Playing a smart man like Mr. Teller is a waste of time. The fact is that the time it took him to understand everything - from the moment when he saw that something was wrong here, and until the moment when he understood absolutely everything that happened - this time is damn short to deliver some fun for you!

Some of the special tasks I had to do at Los Alamos were quite interesting. One of them had to do with security issues in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In Los Alamos, they were going to make a bomb, and in Oak Ridge they tried to separate the isotopes of uranium - uranium-238 and uranium-235, it was the second that served as an "explosive". The Oak Ridge specialists had just learned how to make infinitesimal amounts of uranium-235 in a pilot plant while also practicing chemistry, and now they had to build a large plant with whole tanks of this substance. The Oak Ridge people intended to take the purified substance and refine it again, preparing it for the next stage. (The mixture had to be purified in several stages.) This is how they, on the one hand, practiced, and on the other hand, they gradually received uranium-235 experimentally, using only one part of the installation. At the same time, physicists tried to learn how to analyze, how to determine how much uranium-235 was obtained. At the same time, although we sent them instructions, they never carried them out correctly.

Diagram of the atomic bomb "Kid" dropped on Hiroshima.
The nuclear explosive in the bomb was uranium-235, divided into two parts, the mass of which was less than critical. The critical mass of uranium-235 necessary for the explosion was created by connecting both parts by the “cannon method” using conventional explosives.

In the end, Emilio Segre said that the only way for him to guarantee the correctness of the process was to go and see on the spot how everything was done. However, the Army people said, "No, our policy is to keep all information about Los Alamos in one place, Los Alamos."

The Oak Ridge people didn't know anything about where the uranium was to be used - they just knew to do this and that, I mean, only the top officials there knew why Oak Ridge was separating uranium, but they had no idea either how powerful the bomb would be, or how it worked - in general, about nothing. The people below didn't know what they were doing at all. The Army has always wanted things to go that way. There was no exchange of information between different groups at all, and this was done on purpose. However, Segre insisted that the people from Oak Ridge would never be able to properly test, and the whole idea would fly out of the pipe. Therefore, in the end, he went to see their work and, when walking through the territory, he suddenly saw that they were carrying a huge container of water - green water - that is, with a solution of uranium nitrate. He said:

- Blimey! And what, are you going to treat this water in the same manner when the uranium is purified? Is that what you are going to do?

They stopped:

“Of course, why not?

"Won't everything explode?"

- What? Explode?

Then the army people said:

- You see! We were not to allow any information to leak into Oak Ridge. After all, now everyone is demoralized there.

It turned out that the army knew how much material was needed to make a bomb - 20 kilograms or something like that - and they understood that this amount of purified material would never be stored at the plant, so there seemed to be no danger. But what they didn't know at all was that neutrons, when slowed down in water, become monstrously effective. In water, a tenth, no, a hundredth of uranium-235 is enough to start a reaction that gives radioactive radiation. It kills people around and in general... It was very, very dangerous, and in Oak Ridge, in general, they did not pay attention to security measures.

Therefore, a telegram is soon sent from Oppenheimer to Segra: “Survey the entire plant. Notice where the material is supposed to be concentrated, in the case when the whole process goes according to their project. In the meantime, we will calculate how much material can be collected in one place before an explosion occurs.

Two groups started working on this: Christy's group was working on aqueous solutions, and my group was counting dry powders in boxes. We figured out how much material could be accumulated without danger, and Christy was to go to Oak Ridge and outline the situation to them. In the meantime, work at Oak Ridge had been suspended, and it was now absolutely necessary to go there and tell everything. I gladly gave all my calculations to Christy and said: all the data is in your hands, go. But Christy caught pneumonia, and I had to go.

Before that, I had never flown in an airplane. Secret papers in a small bag stuck on my back! The plane in those days was like a bus, only the stops were further apart. From time to time - parking, where you had to wait.

There was a guy dangling next to me who was twirling the chain and grumbling something like: “In our time, it must be terribly difficult to fly somewhere without documents giving the right to extraordinary service.”

Then I could not resist and said:

– Well, I don’t know, I have such documents.

A little later, he started his own again:

- Now the generals will come, they will certainly put one of us, people of the third category.

“It's all right,” I said. - I am the second category.

Perhaps he later wrote to his congressman, unless he was a congressman himself: “What is this doing, they are sending snotty boys everywhere with documents entitling them to extraordinary service under the second category, in the very middle of the war.”

Anyway, I arrived at Oak Ridge and the first thing I did was get me taken to the factory. I didn't say anything, I just looked at everything. It turned out that the situation was even worse than Segre had reported, because in one of the rooms he noticed some boxes in large numbers, but he did not notice a lot of boxes in another room, on the other hand, against the same wall - and others are the same things. But put too much of this substance in one place - and everything will fly into the air.

So I went through the whole factory. Actually, my memory is very bad, but with intensive work I get a good short-term memory, and therefore I remember all sorts of stupid things like the building number is 90 - 207, the tank number is such and such nonsense.

In the evening I went to my room and mentally went through the whole process again, trying to understand where the dangers were hidden and what needs to be done to eliminate them. It's pretty simple. Neutrons in water are absorbed by cadmium solutions, and the boxes should be moved far apart, according to certain rules, so that they are not too tightly packed. The next day there was a big meeting. I forgot to say that before I left Los Alamos, Oppenheimer told me:

“There, at Oak Ridge, Mr. Julian Webb, Mr. So-and-so, and Mr. So-and-so can understand our technique well. I want you to make sure that all these people come to the meeting, and tell them exactly how to make the process safe, but only so that they really understand.

I asked:

What if they don't come to the meeting? What should I do then? He shrugged.

"Then you should say, 'Los Alamos can't take responsibility for the safety of the Oak Ridge plant unless...'

“You mean that I, little Richard, will go there and say...?” I interrupted him.

He replied:

“Yes, little Richard, you will go and do it.

I really grew up fast!

When I arrived - you can be sure! - the corporate bigwigs and technicians that I wanted to see were there, along with the generals and everyone else with an interest in a very serious security issue. This was good, because the plant would definitely explode if no one paid attention to this problem.

There was also Lieutenant Zumwalt, who accompanied me. He told me that the Colonel said that I shouldn't say how neutrons work and all the other details, because different secrets should be kept in different places. “So just tell them exactly what they need to do for their safety.”

I said:

“In my opinion, it is impossible to obey a set of rules without completely understanding their operation. The rules will only work if I tell them how things work, that's my opinion. Los Alamos can't take responsibility for the safety of the Oak Ridge plant unless the people here are fully informed about how it all works!

It was great! The lieutenant takes me to the colonel and repeats my statement word for word. Colonel says:

“Give me five minutes,” he goes to the window and thinks. That's what they're really good at - making decisions! It seems to me remarkable that the problem of giving or not giving information about the construction of the atomic bomb to the Oak Ridge plant should have been solved and could be solved in five minutes. That is why I still have a lot of respect for these military guys - I myself can never make any important decision in any period of time.

Five minutes later he said:

“All right, Mr. Feynman, go ahead.

Fissile material is the main component of nuclear weapons, any nuclear weapon contains at least a few kilograms of such material. The fission of about 10 kg of uranium-235 led to the complete destruction of Hiroshima, and another Japanese city, Nagasaki, was incinerated by the fission of 7 kg of plutonium-239. Uranium-235, although found in nature, but its concentration in natural uranium is too low (about 0.7 percent) to immediately produce nuclear weapons from raw materials mined in uranium mines. The remaining 99.3 percent is uranium-238, in which the fission chain reaction does not occur. Therefore, for the manufacture of nuclear weapons, natural uranium must be enriched with fissile uranium-235. It is generally believed that the concentration of this explosive isotope in enriched uranium suitable for military use should be at least 20 percent. The uranium used to make nuclear weapons in the US contains more than 90 percent uranium-235.
Another fissile isotope, plutonium-239, is also used in nuclear weapons. It is formed in nuclear reactors during the chain reaction of fission of uranium-235. When a neutron hits a uranium-235 nucleus, it splits into two fragment nuclei with a relatively small mass, and two or three new neutrons are emitted. The born neutrons bombard other uranium-235 nuclei, causing another fission, and are also captured by uranium-238 nuclei, turning it into plutonium-239 as a result of a chain of nuclear transitions. When fissioning 1 kg of uranium-235, approximately 900 grams of plutonium is obtained. Approximately six tons of plutonium is enough to produce a thousand warheads.

I sat down and told them all about neutrons, what effect they have, te-te-te, there are too many neutrons here, you should keep materials far apart, cadmium absorbs, slow neutrons are more efficient than fast ones, and la-la- la... - all this was elementary and well-known in Los Alamos, but they had never heard anything like it, so it suddenly turned out that I was a great genius for them.

I was told to come back to them in a few months, and I actually came when the engineers finished the design of the plant. Now I had to look at it.

But how to look at the plant when it has not yet been built? I dont know. And then one day Lieutenant Zumwalt, who went everywhere with me because I always had to have an escort, leads me into a room with two engineers and a long table littered with a pile of blueprints representing the various floors of the proposed plant.

I was a draftsman at school, but I'm not very good at reading blueprints. And now they unfold all this pile of blueprints in front of me and begin to explain to me, thinking that I am a genius. Well, okay, one of the things that had to be avoided in the plant was the accumulation of material. They had this type of problem: let's say the evaporator is running, collecting purified uranium, the valve is stuck or something like that, too much material is being collected, and then everything explodes. They explained to me that the plant was designed so that if any of the valves stuck, nothing would happen. An accident will occur only if at least two valves are jammed everywhere.

They then explained how the process was going. Carbon tetrachloride comes in here, uranium nitrate goes there from here, goes up and goes down, through the floor, goes through the pipes, going up from the second floor, ta-ta-ta - we go through a bunch of blues, up-down, up-down, fast- Words and explanations are pouring in quickly on a very, very complex chemical plant.

I am completely stunned. Even worse, I don't know what the symbols on the blue mean! There was something there that at first I took for windows. It's squares with a little X in the middle scattered all over the damn sheet. I thought they were windows, but no, they can't be windows, because they are not always on the outermost lines that mark the walls of the building, and I want to ask them what they are.

Perhaps you, too, have been in a similar situation where you do not dare to immediately ask a question. Immediately, that would be fine. But now they have said, perhaps, too much. You hesitated too long. If you ask them now, they will say, "Why are we wasting time here?"

What should I do? Here an idea comes to my mind. Maybe it's a valve. I point my finger at one of the mysterious little crosses on one of the blueprints on page three and ask:

What happens if this valve gets stuck? – waiting for them to respond:

“It's not a valve, sir, it's a window. But one of the guys looks at the other and says:

“Well, if this valve gets stuck,” then he runs his finger along the blue up and down, up and down, the other guy leads back and forth, back and forth; they look at each other, turn to me, open their mouths like amazed fish, and say: “You are absolutely right, sir.

Then they rolled up the blues and left, and we followed them. Mr. Zumwalt, who followed me everywhere, said:

- You are a genius. I suspected you were a genius when you walked around the plant one day and were able to tell them the next morning about the C-21 evaporator in building 90...207, but what you just did is so fantastic that I would like to know , how did you do that?

I told him: try to find out for yourself whether this is a valve or not.

Another problem I worked on was this one. We had to do a lot of calculations, and we did them on Marchand calculating machines. It's interesting, by the way - just to give you an idea of ​​what Los Alamos was like. We had Marchand's "computers" - manual arithmometers, calculators with numbers. You click on them and they multiply, divide, add, etc., but not as easy as it is now. They were mechanical devices, often broken, and had to be sent back to the factory for repairs. Pretty soon everyone was left without cars. Then some of us began to remove the covers. (They weren't supposed to do that - the rule was: "if the casing is removed, we are not responsible ...".) Still, we removed the casings and were well trained in how to fix these machines. Gradually, we became more and more successful in this craft, as the repairs became more and more sophisticated. When something too complicated was discovered, we sent the machines to the factory, but we eliminated small malfunctions ourselves, keeping the adding machines in working order. I ended up fixing all these "computers" and one guy from the machine shop took care of the typewriters.

Well, in general, we all decided that the most important task - to understand exactly what happens during the explosion of a bomb, so that we can accurately indicate how much energy is released, etc. - required a lot more calculations than we could do . But one smart man named Stanley Frenkel figured out that the calculations could probably be done on IBM machines. IBM produced machines for business - addition devices called tabulators, and multiplication machines - multipliers in which you could put cards: the machine read two numbers from the card and multiplied them. There were also devices that compared numbers, sorted them, and so on.

And so Frenkel came up with a wonderful program. If we had quite a few of these machines in one room, then we could take the cards and run them in a cycle. Anyone who does numerical calculations now knows exactly what I'm talking about, but then it was something new - a production line of calculating machines. We did similar things on addition machines. Usually you advance step by step, carrying out all the calculations yourself. But here everything is not so - first you turn to the “adder”, then to the “multiplier”, again to the “adder”, etc. In a word, Frenkel designed such a system and ordered calculators from the IBM company, since we realized that this good way solutions to our problems.

At the same time, we needed a person who would fix cars, keep them in order and all that. The military was always going to send us such a person from their ranks, but the matter was constantly delayed. Now we were always in a hurry. Everything we did, we tried to do as quickly as possible. In this particular case, we designed all the numerical operations - they were supposed to be done by machines - multiply it, then do it, then subtract it. We have developed a program, but we have not yet had machines for real testing. So we put the girls in a room and provided each with a Marchand calculator: one was the "multiplier", the other the "adder". This one cubed: all she did was raise the number on the card to the third power and send it to the next girl.

So we went through the whole cycle until we “licked” it, got rid of all the hidden errors. It turned out that the speed with which we were now able to calculate became damn fast - much more than in the other way, when each person did all the steps himself. With this system, we got a computation speed that matches the predicted speed for the IBM machine. The only difference was that the IBM machines did not get tired and could work in three shifts. But the girls got tired after a while.

In general, during this rehearsal, we debugged everything, and finally the cars arrived, but without a master repairman. These were perhaps the most complex machines in the technology of that time - huge (they came partially disassembled) with many wires and drawings that showed how and what to do. We went downstairs and started collecting cars, Stan Frankel, me and another guy, but we had some troubles, and the most serious of them was that the big shots came all the time and said: “You will break something !"

We assembled the machines, and sometimes they worked, and sometimes they were assembled incorrectly and did not work. Finally, I started working on one of the multipliers and saw some bent part inside, but I was afraid to straighten it, because it might break off - and we were told all the time that we would lock something so that it would not fix it. When the master repairman finally arrived, he assembled the still unfinished cars, and everything went like clockwork. However, he also had difficulties with the machine, which I could not cope with. After three days of work, he was still fiddling with that last machine.

I went downstairs and said, “I noticed what is bent here.

He was delighted: - Ah, well, of course, all because of this bend.

And as for Mr. Frenkel, who started all this activity, he began to suffer from a computer disease - everyone who worked with computers knows about it today. This is a very serious disease, and it is impossible to work with it. The trouble with computers is that you play with them. They are so beautiful, so many possibilities - if even number, you do this, if it's odd, you do that, and very soon you can do more and more sophisticated things on a single machine, if only you're smart enough.

After a while, the whole system collapsed. Frenkel did not pay any attention to her, he no longer led anyone. The system was very, very slow, while he was sitting in the room, trying to figure out how to get one of the tabulators to automatically print the arc tangent of X. made the whole table in one operation.

Absolutely useless. After all, we already had tables of arc tangents. But if you've ever worked with computers, you understand what kind of disease it is - the delight of being able to see how much you can do. Frenkel caught this disease for the first time, poor guy, poor guy who invented this whole thing.

I was asked to stop the work that I was doing in my group, go downstairs and receive a group working on IBM machines. I tried to avoid getting sick. And although the calculators did only three tasks in nine months, I had a very good group.

The real trouble was that no one ever told these guys anything. The military selected them from all over the country for a team they called the "Special Engineering Unit" - it was made up of smart guys who had graduated from high school and had engineering abilities. Then they were sent to Los Alamos and placed in the barracks. And they didn't say anything.

Then the guys came to work, and the only thing they had to do was work on IBM machines - punch holes in cards, manipulate numbers they didn't understand. No one explained to them what all this was for. Things moved very slowly. I said that the first thing to do is to let people know what they are doing. Then Oppenheimer talked to the security department and got special permission, and as a result I was able to give the technical staff a good lecture about what exactly we are doing. They all became terribly excited: “We are also fighting in the war, we understand what it is!” Now they knew what the numbers meant. If it turned out that the pressure was getting higher, then more energy was released, and so on. etc. They knew what they were doing.

Complete transformation! They began to invent ways to make the process better. They improved the scheme. They worked at night. At night they did not need to be led, they did not need anything. They understood everything, they invented several programs that we then used.

Yes, my guys really broke through, and all it took was telling them what we all do. As a result, if earlier it took nine months for three tasks, now we missed nine tasks in three months, which is almost ten times faster.

One of the secret tricks in solving problems was this. The tasks were contained in a deck of cards that had to go through the cycle. First add, then multiply, and so it went through the cycle of machines in the room, slowly moving around in a circle. We came up with the idea in parallel, but in a different phase, to run a set of cards of a different color in a cycle. We would be doing two or three tasks at the same time!

However, this got us into another problem. At the end of the war, for example, right before the tests in Albuquerque, the question arose: how much energy would be released? We calculated the energy release for various projects, but not for the specific project that ended up being used. Then Bob Christie came down to us and said: "We would like to have the results of this thing in a month," or after another, also very a short time like three weeks.

I said, “That's impossible.

He said, “Look, you give out almost two tasks a month. Each takes only two or three weeks.

I replied, “I know. In fact, each task takes much more, but we do them in parallel. While they are moving through the cycle, it takes a lot of time, and there is no way to make them move faster.”

He left, and I began to think. Is there a way to make the task move faster?

What if we didn't do anything else on the machines, so we wouldn't get in the way? I challenged our fellows by writing on the blackboard, "Can we do this?" They started yelling, "Yes, we'll be working double shifts, we'll be working overtime!" - and all that nonsense. We'll try, we'll try!

So, it was decided: all other tasks - out! Only one task, and full concentration on it. They started to work.

My wife, Arlene, had tuberculosis—very, very seriously indeed. It seemed that anything could happen at any moment, so I made arrangements with my hostel friend in advance that in an emergency I would borrow his car to quickly get to Albuquerque. His name was Klaus Fuchs. He was a spy and used his car to relay atomic secrets from Los Alamos to Santa Fe. But then no one knew.

One day an emergency came up. I borrowed a car from Fuchs and picked up a couple of fellow travelers in case something happened to the car on the way to Albuquerque. And, of course, right at the entrance to Santa Fe, a flat tire. Two fellow travelers helped me change it, but right at the exit from Santa Fe, another tire went flat. We dragged the car to the nearest gas station.

About thirty miles short of Albuquerque, a third tire blew, so I left the car on the road and hitchhiked the rest of the way. I called the garage and asked for a car while I was in the hospital visiting my wife.

Arlene died a few hours after I got there. The nurse came in to fill out the death certificate and left again. I spent some more time with my wife. Then I looked at the watch I had given her seven years ago when she first came down with tuberculosis. The little thing in those days was very good; digital clock - the numbers changed due to mechanical rotation. The device was very delicate and the watch often stopped for one reason or another. I had to repair them from time to time, and all these years I kept them on track. Now they stopped again - at 9:22, the time listed on the death certificate!

I thought back to the time I was in the MIT dorms when all of a sudden the thought popped into my head, out of nowhere, that my grandmother had died. Immediately after that, the phone rang. They asked for Pete Bernays on the phone - nothing happened to my grandmother. I kept that in mind in case someone told me a story with a different ending. I understood that such things can sometimes happen by accident - after all, my grandmother was very old, although people might think that such cases happen for some supernatural reasons.

Arlene had kept this watch by her bed the whole time she was ill, and now it stopped just as she died. I can understand how a person who half believes in the possibility of such things and does not have a critical mind - especially in a situation like mine - does not immediately try to figure out what happened, but instead tells himself that no one has touched the watch, and there is no way to explain their sudden stop by natural causes. The clock just stopped. And this would be a dramatic illustration of some fantastic phenomena.

I saw that the light in the room had become dim, then I remembered that my sister had taken the watch and turned it to face the light so that she could see the dial better. Because of this, the clock could easily stop.

I didn't know how I would face my friends at Los Alamos. I didn't want people to talk to me about this with long faces. When I arrived back (I had another flat tire on the way), they asked me what had happened.

- She died. How is the program going?

They immediately realized that I did not want to reminisce. (Obviously, something happened to me psychologically. Reality was so important to me - I had to understand what really, physiologically happened to Arlene - that I did not cry until the day when, a few months later, I was in Oak Ridge. Passing by a large store with dresses in their window, I thought Arlene would like one of them. I couldn't take it anymore.)

When I returned to my computational work, I found a complete mess. There were white cards, blue cards, yellow cards, and I started to get indignant: - After all, we agreed - no more than one task, only one task! - They told me: - Go away, get out of here. Wait, we'll explain everything to you.

I had to wait, and this is what happened. When cards were skipped, the machine sometimes made a mistake, or the wrong number was stuffed on the card. Usually in such cases we had to go back and start all over again. But my collaborators noticed that an error at some point in this cycle affects only neighboring numbers, in the next cycle - again on nearby numbers, and so on. So it goes throughout the deck of cards. If you have 50 cards and an error is made on card #39, it affects cards #37, 38, and 39. In the next cycle, it affects cards #36, 37, 38, 39, and 40. And then it spreads like a disease. .

My staff discovered an error in what had already been done before, and they had the idea to re-calculate for a small deck of ten cards around the error. And since ten cards will go through the machine faster than a deck of fifty cards, they will skip a small deck while continuing to operate with fifty cards in which error spreads like a plague. But since ten cards will be ready faster, they will isolate the error and fix it. Very smart.

Here's how these guys worked to increase speed. There was no other way. If they had to stop to correct a mistake, we would have lost time, and we had nowhere to take it from. That's how they worked.

Of course, you have already guessed what happened while they acted like that. They found a bug in the blue deck. And then they added a yellow deck with a slightly smaller number of cards - it could be scrolled faster than the blue deck. And just at the moment when they were on the verge of insanity, because after fixing the blue deck, they still have to edit the white deck, the boss comes.

"Don't interfere," they say. I leave them alone and everything works out. We solved the problem on time. That's how it was.

In the beginning, I was a small fry. Then I became the leader of the group. And I met some very great people. Meetings with remarkable physicists made a strong impression on me.

There was, of course, Enrico Fermi. He came one day from Chicago to give us some advice, to help us if we had any difficulties. I had a meeting with him, and before that I did some calculations and got some results. The calculations were so time-consuming that it was very difficult to come up with results. True, I was considered an expert in this: I could always tell how the answer would look roughly, or, when the answer was received, explain why it was that way. But this time the task was so difficult that I couldn't explain why the result was the way it was.

And so I told Fermi that I was solving a problem, and began to describe the results. He said, “Wait before you tell the result, let me think. Something like this will come out (he was right) and it will come out like this because so-and-so, and so-and-so. And there is a very obvious explanation...

He did what they thought I was good at, ten times better. This was a good lesson for me.

There was also John von Neumann, great mathematician. We used to go for walks on Sundays. We walked the canyons, often with Bethe and Bob Bacher. This gave us great pleasure. And von Neumann gave me an interesting idea: it is not at all necessary to be responsible for the world in which you live. As a result of von Neumann's advice, I developed a very powerful sense of social irresponsibility. It made me happy man since. It was von Neumann who sowed the seeds that grew into my active position of irresponsibility!

I also met Niels Bohr. In those days his name was Nicholas Baker, and he came to Los Alamos with Jim Baker, his son, whose real name was Auge Bor. They came from Denmark and were, as you know, very famous physicists. Even for the big shots, Bor was a great god.

One day we had a meeting - that was when he first came - and everyone wanted to see the great Bor. Therefore, there were a lot of people there, and we discussed the problems of the bomb. I was pushed back somewhere, into a corner. Bohr came in and walked past, and all I saw was a tiny bit between people's heads.

On the morning of the day he was supposed to come next, my phone rang.

Hello, is this Feynman?

I'm Jim Baker. - This is his son. “My father and I would like to speak with you.

- With me? I'm Feynman, I just...

- Yes, yes, at eight o'clock, okay?

So, at eight in the morning, no one has woken up yet, I'm going to the appointed place! We move to an office in the technical area, and he says: “We were thinking about how to make the bomb more effective, and this idea came to mind ...

I say, “No, it won't work, it's inefficient, and so on and so forth.

And he argues: - And what if so-and-so?

I said, “That sounds a little better, but it's all based on the same damn stupid idea.

This went on for about two hours, we sorted through a lot of ideas, moving forward and back in disputes. The great Niels lit his pipe all the time, and it constantly went out. And he spoke in such a way that it is impossible to understand - he muttered, muttered - it is very difficult to understand. I understood his son better.

“Well,” he said, finally lighting the receiver, “now I think you can call big shots. “Then they called everyone else and had a discussion with them.

Then the son of Niels Bohr told me what had happened. The last time Bohr was here, he said to his son: “Remember the name of this little guy back there. He is the only one who is not afraid of me and will honestly tell you when I have a crazy idea. And the next time we want to discuss new ideas, these people who say “Yes, yes, Dr. Bohr” to everything are not worth dealing with. Let's call this guy and talk to him first of all.

It so happened that I was always naive. I never knew who I was talking to. I have always been concerned only with physics. If an idea seemed fake, I said it looked fake. If she looked good, I said so: good. Simple business.

I have always lived like this. It's good and nice if you can do that. I was lucky in life - I could do it.

After the calculations were completed, the next thing that happened was, of course, testing. It so happened that I was at home at the time, on a short vacation after the death of my wife, and it was there that I received a message that said: "We are expecting a baby on such and such a date."

I flew back and arrived right at the moment when the buses were leaving, so I was right at the test site, and we were waiting there, at a distance of twenty miles. We had a radio: we were supposed to be told when this thing was going to explode, but the radio didn't work and we didn't know what was going on. Suddenly, a few minutes before the supposed moment of the explosion, the radio started talking and we were informed that there were 20 seconds left - for people who were far away, like us. Others were closer, six miles away.

We were given dark glasses through which we supposedly could observe everything. Sunglasses! Twenty miles away with dark glasses you can't see, damn it, anything at all. I decided that the only thing that can damage the eyes is ultraviolet (bright light can never damage the eyes). I positioned myself behind the truck's windshield, figuring that since UV didn't pass through the glass, it was safe to see the damn thing.

The time has come, and the sudden monstrous burst of flame there is so bright that I instantly bend my head and see a purple stain on the floor of the car. I said, "It's not that, it's a vision." I look up again and see the white light change to yellow and then orange. Clouds form and disappear - all this from the compression and expansion of the shock wave.

Finally, a huge ball orange color- its center is incredibly bright - it begins to rise, gradually becoming slightly wavy, blackness appears near its edges, and then you see that it is a huge smoke ball, with flames escaping from the inside out, the heat is so hot!

All this went on for about a minute. It was a chain of transitions from bright to dark, and I saw everything. I was almost the only one who actually looked at this damn thing, the first test called Trinity. Everyone else was wearing dark glasses, and the people at mile six couldn't see anything because they were all ordered to lie on the floor. I may be the only person who has seen this with the naked eye.

Finally, after about a minute and a half, a terrible noise - bang! - then a roar, like a roll of thunder, and that is what convinced me. For the whole time no one said a word. We just watched quietly. But this sound set everyone free, and me in particular, because the strength of the sound at such a distance meant that the device actually worked.

The man next to me asked, “What is this?”

I said, “That was the bomb.

That man was William Lawrence. He came there to write an article describing the whole situation. I was one of those assigned to bring him up to date. Then it turned out that it was too difficult for him, "technically", so Smith came later, and I showed him everything. We did one thing: we went into a room where a small silver ball lay on the edge of a narrow stand. You could put your hand on it. The ball was warm. He was radioactive. It was plutonium. And we stood at the door of the room and talked about it. It was a new element obtained by man, a substance that had never existed on earth before, except perhaps for a very short period at the very beginning. And here he is, isolated and radioactive, with all amazing properties. And we got it. And so it was amazingly valuable.

In the meantime - you know what people do when they talk - pushing back and forth - my interlocutor kicked the stopper that holds back the movement of the door: and I said: - Yes, the stopper, of course, fits this door. “It was a ten-inch hemisphere of yellowish metal—gold, in fact, solid gold!

Here's why it happened: we had to do an experiment to see how many neutrons are reflected by different materials. This was necessary so that we could save neutrons and not use too much fissile material. We tested a lot of carved materials: we tested platinum, we tested zinc, brass, gold. And when testing gold, we ended up with whole chunks of it, and someone came up with the clever idea of ​​using a big ball of gold as a door stop in a room that had plutonium in it.

When it was over, there was a terrible excitement in Los Alamos. Everyone was having parties and we were running around. I huddled in the corner of the jeep and beat the drum and everything. But one man, I remember, Bob Wilson, was sitting down and expressionless.

- Why are you moping? I asked him.

He said, “What we have done is terrible.

I was surprised: - But you yourself started it. You are the one who got us all into this.

Do you understand what happened to me, what happened to all of us? We started with good intentions, then worked hard to complete something important. It's fun, it's very exciting. And you stop thinking, you know, you just stop. Bob Wilson was the only one who was still thinking about it at that moment.

Soon I returned to civilization and went to Cornell to teach, and my first impression was very strange. I cannot fully understand him, but my feeling was very strong. For example, I was sitting in a restaurant in New York, looking at the buildings and, you know, starting to think about what was the destruction radius from the bomb in Hiroshima and things like that ... How far is 34th street from here ... All these buildings - destroyed, razed to the ground and all that. And when I passed by and saw people building a bridge or building new road I thought they were crazy, they just don't understand, they don't understand. Why do they make new things? It's so useless.

But, fortunately, this uselessness has been going on for almost forty years, hasn't it? I was wrong in thinking it was useless to build bridges, and I'm glad those other people were smart enough to move forward.

Science and life. 1988. No. 8.

See also:

1. Ginzburg V.L. In memory of Richard Feynman - a remarkable physicist and an amazing person. , 2003.
2. Richard Feynman (biography Nobel laureate). , 1999.

A lot is being said and written about global warming. Almost every day new hypotheses appear, old ones are refuted. We are constantly frightened by what awaits us in the future (I well remember the comment of one of the readers of the www.priroda.su magazine “We have been frightened for so long and terribly that it is no longer scary”). Many statements and articles frankly contradict each other, misleading us. Global warming has already become a “global confusion” for many, and some have completely lost all interest in the problem of climate change. Let's try to systematize the available information by creating a kind of mini encyclopedia of global warming.

1. What is global warming?

5. Man and the greenhouse effect

1. Global warming is the process of a gradual increase in the average annual temperature of the surface layer of the Earth's atmosphere and the World Ocean, due to various reasons (an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, changes in solar or volcanic activity, etc.). Very often, the phrase "greenhouse effect" is used as a synonym for global warming, but there is a slight difference between these concepts. The greenhouse effect is an increase in the average annual temperature of the surface layer of the Earth's atmosphere and the World Ocean due to an increase in the concentrations of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, etc.) in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases play the role of a film or glass of a greenhouse (greenhouse), they freely pass the sun's rays to the Earth's surface and retain heat leaving the planet's atmosphere. We will discuss this process in more detail below.

For the first time, global warming and the greenhouse effect were discussed in the 60s of the XX century, and at the UN level the problem of global climate change was first voiced in 1980. Since then, many scientists have puzzled over this problem, often mutually refuting each other's theories and assumptions.

2. Ways to obtain information on climate change

Existing technologies make it possible to reliably judge the climate changes that are taking place. Scientists use the following “tools” to substantiate their theories of climate change:

Historical annals and chronicles;

Meteorological observations;

Satellite measurements of ice area, vegetation, climatic zones and atmospheric processes;

Analysis of paleontological (remains of ancient animals and plants) and archaeological data;

Analysis of sedimentary oceanic rocks and river sediments;

Analysis of ancient ice in the Arctic and Antarctica (ratio of O16 and O18 isotopes);

Measuring the rate of melting of glaciers and permafrost, the intensity of iceberg formation;

Observation of the sea currents of the Earth;

Observation of the chemical composition of the atmosphere and ocean;

Observation of changes in the areas (habitats) of living organisms;

Analysis of the annual rings of trees and the chemical composition of tissues of plant organisms.

3. Facts about global warming

Paleontological evidence suggests that Earth's climate has not been constant. Warm periods were replaced by cold glacial ones. During warm periods, the average annual temperature of the Arctic latitudes rose to 7-13°C, and the temperature of the coldest month of January was 4-6 degrees, i.e. climatic conditions in our Arctic differed little from the climate of modern Crimea. The warm periods were sooner or later replaced by cooling periods, during which the ice reached modern tropical latitudes.

Man has also witnessed a number of climatic changes. At the beginning of the second millennium (11-13 centuries), historical chronicles indicate that big square Greenland was not covered with ice (which is why the Norwegian navigators dubbed it the "green land"). Then the climate of the Earth became harsher, and Greenland was almost completely covered with ice. In the 15th-17th centuries, severe winters reached their peak. The severity of the winters of that time is evidenced by many historical chronicles, as well as works of art. Thus, the well-known painting by the Dutch artist Jan Van Goyen “Skaters” (1641) depicts mass skating along the canals of Amsterdam; at present, the canals of Holland have not been frozen for a long time. In medieval winters, even the River Thames in England froze over. In the 18th century, a slight warming was noted, which reached its maximum in 1770. The 19th century was again marked by another cold snap, which continued until 1900, and from the beginning of the 20th century, a rather rapid warming had already begun. Already by 1940, the amount of ice in the Greenland Sea had halved, in the Barents Sea - by almost a third, and in the Soviet sector of the Arctic, the total ice area had decreased by almost half (1 million km2). During this period of time, even ordinary ships (not icebreakers) calmly sailed along the northern sea route from the western to eastern outskirts of the country. It was then that a significant increase in the temperature of the Arctic seas was recorded, a significant retreat of glaciers in the Alps and the Caucasus was noted. The total ice area of ​​the Caucasus has decreased by 10%, and the thickness of the ice has decreased in places by as much as 100 meters. The temperature increase in Greenland was 5°C, while in Svalbard it was 9°C.

In 1940, warming was replaced by a short-term cooling, which was soon replaced by another warming, and since 1979, a rapid increase in the temperature of the surface layer of the Earth's atmosphere began, which caused another acceleration in the melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctic and an increase in winter temperatures in temperate latitudes. So, over the past 50 years, the thickness arctic ice decreased by 40%, and residents of a number of Siberian cities began to note for themselves that severe frosts have long been a thing of the past. The average winter temperature in Siberia has risen by almost ten degrees over the past fifty years. In some regions of Russia, the frost-free period has increased by two to three weeks. The habitat of many living organisms has shifted north following the growing average winter temperatures, we will discuss these and other consequences of global warming below. Old photographs of glaciers (all photos were taken in the same month) are especially clear about global climate change.

Photographs of the melting Pasterze glacier in Austria in 1875 (left) and 2004 (right). Photographer Gary Braasch

Photos of Agassiz's glacier national park glaciers (Canada) in 1913 and 2005. Photographer W.C. Alden

Photographs of the Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park (Canada) in 1938 and 2005. Photographer: Mt. gould.

The same Grinnell Glacier from a different angle, photographs from 1940 and 2004. Photographer: K. Holzer.

In general, over the past hundred years, the average temperature of the surface layer of the atmosphere has increased by 0.3-0.8 ° C, the area of ​​snow cover in the northern hemisphere has decreased by 8%, and the level of the World Ocean has risen by an average of 10-20 centimeters. These facts are of some concern. Whether global warming will stop or the further increase in the average annual temperature on Earth will continue, the answer to this question will appear only when the causes of the ongoing climate changes are precisely established.

4. Causes of global warming

Hypothesis 1- The cause of global warming is a change in solar activity

All ongoing climatic processes on the planet depend on the activity of our luminary - the Sun. Therefore, even the smallest changes in the activity of the Sun will certainly affect the weather and climate of the Earth. There are 11-year, 22-year, and 80-90-year (Gleisberg) cycles of solar activity.

It is likely that the observed global warming is due to the next increase in solar activity, which may decline again in the future.

Hypothesis 2 - The cause of global warming is a change in the angle of the Earth's axis of rotation and its orbit

The Yugoslav astronomer Milanković suggested that cyclical climate changes are largely associated with a change in the orbit of the Earth's rotation around the Sun, as well as a change in the angle of inclination of the Earth's axis of rotation with respect to the Sun. Such orbital changes in the position and movement of the planet cause a change in the radiation balance of the Earth, and hence its climate. Milankovitch, guided by his theory, quite accurately calculated the times and extent ice ages in the past of our planet. Climatic changes caused by changes in the Earth's orbit usually occur over tens or even hundreds of thousands of years. The relatively rapid climate change observed at the present time, apparently, occurs as a result of the action of some other factors.

Hypothesis 3 - The culprit of global climate change is the ocean

The World Ocean is a huge inertial accumulator of solar energy. It largely determines the direction and speed of movement of warm oceanic and air masses on Earth, which greatly affect the climate of the planet. At present, the nature of heat circulation in the water column of the ocean has been little studied. So it is known that the average temperature of the ocean waters is 3.5 ° C, and the land surface is 15 ° C, so the intensity of heat exchange between the ocean and the surface layer of the atmosphere can lead to significant climatic changes. In addition, a large amount of CO2 (about 140 trillion tons, which is 60 times more than in the atmosphere) and a number of other greenhouse gases are dissolved in the ocean waters; as a result of certain natural processes, these gases can enter the atmosphere, significantly affecting Earth's climate.

Hypothesis 4 - Volcanic activity

Volcanic activity is a source of aerosols of sulfuric acid and a large number carbon dioxide, which can also significantly affect the Earth's climate. Large eruptions are initially accompanied by cooling due to the entry of sulfuric acid aerosols and soot particles into the Earth's atmosphere. Subsequently, the CO2 released during the eruption causes an increase in the average annual temperature on Earth. The subsequent long-term decrease in volcanic activity contributes to an increase in the transparency of the atmosphere, and hence to an increase in temperature on the planet.

Hypothesis 5 - Unknown interactions between the Sun and the planets of the solar system

In the phrase "Solar system" the word "system" is not in vain mentioned, and in any system, as you know, there are connections between its components. Therefore, it is possible that the relative position of the planets and the Sun can affect the distribution and strength of gravitational fields, solar energy, and other types of energy. All connections and interactions between the Sun, planets and the Earth have not yet been studied and it is possible that they have a significant impact on the processes occurring in the Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere.

Hypothesis 6 - Climate change can occur on its own without any external influences and human activities

Planet Earth is such a large and complex system with a huge number of structural elements that its global climatic characteristics can change significantly without any changes in solar activity and the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Various mathematical models show that over the course of a century, fluctuations in the temperature of the surface air layer (fluctuations) can reach 0.4°C. As a comparison, we can cite the body temperature of a healthy person, which varies during the day and even hours.

Hypothesis 7 - Man is to blame

The most popular hypothesis to date. The high rate of climate change that has taken place in recent decades can indeed be explained by the ever-increasing intensification of anthropogenic activity, which has a significant impact on chemical composition atmosphere of our planet in the direction of increasing the content of greenhouse gases in it. Indeed, an increase in the average air temperature of the lower layers of the Earth's atmosphere by 0.8 ° C over the past 100 years is too high a rate for natural processes; earlier in the history of the Earth, such changes occurred over millennia. Recent decades added even more weight to this argument, since changes in the average air temperature occurred at an even greater pace - 0.3-0.4 ° C over the past 15 years!

It is likely that the current global warming is the result of many factors. You can find the rest of the hypotheses of ongoing global warming here.

5.Man and the Greenhouse Effect

Adherents of the latter hypothesis assign a key role in global warming to man, who radically changes the composition of the atmosphere, contributing to the growth of the greenhouse effect of the Earth's atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect in the atmosphere of our planet is caused by the fact that the flow of energy in the infrared range of the spectrum, rising from the surface of the Earth, is absorbed by atmospheric gas molecules, and radiated back into different sides, as a result, half of the energy absorbed by greenhouse gas molecules returns back to the Earth's surface, causing it to warm up. It should be noted that the greenhouse effect is a natural atmospheric phenomenon. If there were no greenhouse effect on Earth at all, then the average temperature on our planet would be about -21 ° C, and so, thanks to greenhouse gases, it is + 14 ° C. Therefore, purely theoretically, human activity, associated with the release of greenhouse gases into the Earth's atmosphere, should lead to further heating of the planet.

Let's take a closer look at greenhouse gases that can potentially cause global warming. The number one greenhouse gas is water vapor, contributing 20.6°C to the existing atmospheric greenhouse effect. In second place is CO2, its contribution is about 7.2°C. The increase in the content of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is now of the greatest concern, since the growing active use of hydrocarbons by mankind will continue in the near future. Over the past two and a half centuries (since the beginning of the industrial era), the content of CO2 in the atmosphere has already increased by about 30%.

In third place on our "greenhouse rating" is ozone, its contribution to total global warming is 2.4 °C. Unlike other greenhouse gases, human activity, on the contrary, causes a decrease in the ozone content in the Earth's atmosphere. Next comes nitrous oxide, its contribution to the greenhouse effect is estimated at 1.4°C. The content of nitrous oxide in the planet's atmosphere tends to increase; over the past two and a half centuries, the concentration of this greenhouse gas in the atmosphere has increased by 17%. A large amount of nitrous oxide enters the Earth's atmosphere as a result of burning various wastes. Methane completes the list of major greenhouse gases; its contribution to the total greenhouse effect is 0.8°C. The content of methane in the atmosphere is growing very rapidly, over two and a half centuries, this growth amounted to 150%. The main sources of methane in the Earth's atmosphere are decaying waste, cattle, and the decay of natural compounds containing methane. Of particular concern is the fact that the ability to absorb infrared radiation per unit mass of methane is 21 times higher than that of carbon dioxide.

The greatest role in the global warming taking place is assigned to water vapor and carbon dioxide. They account for more than 95% of the total greenhouse effect. It is thanks to these two gaseous substances that the Earth's atmosphere is heated by 33 ° C. Anthropogenic activity provides greatest influence on the growth of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere, and the content of water vapor in the atmosphere grows following the temperature on the planet, due to an increase in evaporation. The total technogenic emission of CO2 into the Earth's atmosphere is 1.8 billion tons / year, the total amount of carbon dioxide that binds the Earth's vegetation as a result of photosynthesis is 43 billion tons / year, but almost all of this amount of carbon is the result of plant respiration, fires, decomposition processes again finds itself in the atmosphere of the planet and only 45 million tons / year of carbon is deposited in plant tissues, swamps on land and in the depths of the ocean. These figures show that human activity has the potential to be a tangible force influencing the Earth's climate.

6. Factors accelerating and slowing down global warming

Planet Earth is such a complex system that there are many factors that directly or indirectly affect the climate of the planet, accelerating or slowing down global warming.

Factors accelerating global warming:

Emissions of CO2, methane, nitrous oxide as a result of man-made activities;

Decomposition, due to temperature increase, of geochemical sources of carbonates with the release of CO2. The earth's crust contains 50,000 times more carbon dioxide in a bound state than in the atmosphere;

An increase in the content of water vapor in the Earth's atmosphere, due to an increase in temperature, and hence the evaporation of ocean water;

Release of CO2 by the World Ocean due to its heating (the solubility of gases decreases with increasing water temperature). For each degree increase in water temperature, the solubility of CO2 in it decreases by 3%. The oceans contain 60 times more CO2 than the Earth's atmosphere (140 trillion tons);

Decrease in the Earth's albedo (the reflectivity of the planet's surface) due to the melting of glaciers, changes in climatic zones and vegetation. The sea surface reflects much less sun rays, than the polar glaciers and snows of the planet, mountains devoid of glaciers also have a lower albedo, northward moving woody vegetation has a lower albedo than tundra plants. Over the past five years, the Earth's albedo has already decreased by 2.5%;

Emission of methane during thawing of permafrost;

Decomposition of methane hydrates - crystalline icy compounds of water and methane contained in the subpolar regions of the Earth.

Factors slowing down global warming:

Global warming causes ocean currents to slow down, slowing of the warm Gulf Stream will cause a decrease in temperature in the Arctic;

With an increase in temperature on Earth, evaporation increases, and hence cloudiness, which is a certain kind of barrier to the path of sunlight. Cloud area increases by approximately 0.4% for every degree of warming;

With increasing evaporation, the amount of precipitation increases, which contributes to the waterlogging of the land, and swamps are known to be one of the main depots of CO2;

An increase in temperature will contribute to the expansion of the area of ​​warm seas, and hence the expansion of the range of mollusks and coral reefs, these organisms are actively involved in the deposition of CO2, which goes to the construction of shells;

An increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere stimulates the growth and development of plants, which are active acceptors (consumers) of this greenhouse gas.

7. Possible Scenarios global climate change

Global climate change is very complex, so modern science cannot give an unambiguous answer about what awaits us in the near future. There are many scenarios for the development of the situation.

Scenario 1 - global warming will occur gradually

The Earth is a very large and complex system, consisting of a large number of interconnected structural components. The planet has a mobile atmosphere, the movement of air masses of which distributes thermal energy over the latitudes of the planet, the Earth has a huge accumulator of heat and gases - the World Ocean (the ocean accumulates 1000 times more heat than the atmosphere) Changes in such a complex system cannot occur quickly. Centuries and millennia will pass before any tangible climate change can be judged.

Scenario 2 - global warming will occur relatively quickly

The most "popular" scenario at present. According to various estimates, over the past hundred years, the average temperature on our planet has increased by 0.5-1 ° C, the concentration of CO2 has increased by 20-24%, and methane by 100%. In the future, these processes will continue and by the end of the 21st century, the average temperature of the Earth's surface may increase from 1.1 to 6.4°C compared to 1990 (according to IPCC forecasts, from 1.4 to 5.8°C). Further melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice can accelerate the processes of global warming due to changes in the planet's albedo. According to some scientists, only the planet's ice caps, due to the reflection of solar radiation, cool our Earth by 2 ° C, and the ice covering the surface of the ocean significantly slows down the heat exchange processes between relatively warm ocean waters and the colder surface layer of the atmosphere. In addition, there is practically no main greenhouse gas above the ice caps - water vapor, since it is frozen out.

Global warming will be accompanied by rising sea levels. From 1995 to 2005, the level of the World Ocean has already risen by 4 cm, instead of the predicted 2 cm. If the level of the World Ocean continues to rise at the same rate, then by the end of the 21st century, the total rise in its level will be 30 - 50 cm, which will cause partial flooding of many coastal areas, especially the densely populated coast of Asia. It should be remembered that about 100 million people on Earth live at an altitude of less than 88 centimeters above sea level.

In addition to rising sea levels, global warming affects the strength of the winds and the distribution of precipitation on the planet. As a result, the frequency and scale of various natural disasters (storms, hurricanes, droughts, floods) will increase on the planet.

Currently, 2% of all land suffers from drought, according to some scientists, by 2050, up to 10% of all continents will be covered by drought. In addition, the seasonal distribution of precipitation will change.

Rainfall and storm frequency will increase in northern Europe and the western United States, and hurricanes will rage twice as often as in the 20th century. The climate of Central Europe will become changeable, in the heart of Europe winters will become warmer and summers rainier. Eastern and Southern Europe, including the Mediterranean, will face drought and heat.

Scenario 3 - Global warming in some parts of the Earth will be replaced by a short-term cooling

It is known that one of the factors in the occurrence of ocean currents is the temperature gradient (difference) between arctic and tropical waters. The melting of polar ice contributes to an increase in the temperature of the Arctic waters, which means that it causes a decrease in the temperature difference between tropical and Arctic waters, which will inevitably lead to a slowdown in the future.

One of the most famous warm currents is the Gulf Stream, thanks to which in many countries of Northern Europe the average annual temperature is 10 degrees higher than in other similar climatic zones of the Earth. It is clear that the shutdown of this ocean heat conveyor will greatly affect the Earth's climate. Already, the current of the Gulf Stream has become weaker by 30% compared to 1957. Mathematical modeling has shown that in order to completely stop the Gulf Stream, it will be enough to increase the temperature by 2-2.5 degrees. At present, the temperature of the North Atlantic has already warmed up by 0.2 degrees compared to the 70s. If the Gulf Stream stops, the average annual temperature in Europe will decrease by 1 degree by 2010, and after 2010 the further increase in the average annual temperature will continue. Other mathematical models "promise" a more severe cooling in Europe.

According to these mathematical calculations, the complete stop of the Gulf Stream will occur in 20 years, as a result of which the climate of Northern Europe, Ireland, Iceland and the UK may become colder by 4-6 degrees than the present, rains will intensify and storms will become more frequent. The cooling will also affect the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia and the north of the European part of Russia. After 2020-2030, warming in Europe will resume according to scenario No. 2.

Scenario 4 - Global warming will be replaced by global cooling

Stopping the Gulf Stream and other oceanic will cause global cooling on Earth and the onset of the next ice age.

Scenario 5 - Greenhouse catastrophe

A greenhouse catastrophe is the most “unpleasant” scenario for the development of global warming processes. The author of the theory is our scientist Karnaukhov, its essence is as follows. An increase in the average annual temperature on Earth, due to an increase in the content of anthropogenic CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere, will cause the transition of CO2 dissolved in the ocean into the atmosphere, and will also provoke the decomposition of sedimentary carbonate rocks with additional release of carbon dioxide, which, in turn, will raise the temperature on Earth even higher, which will entail further decomposition of carbonates lying in the deeper layers of the earth's crust (the ocean contains 60 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere, and almost 50,000 times more in the earth's crust). Glaciers will melt intensively, reducing the Earth's albedo. Such a rapid increase in temperature will contribute to the intensive flow of methane from the melting permafrost, and an increase in temperature to 1.4-5.8 ° C by the end of the century will contribute to the decomposition of methane hydrates (icy compounds of water and methane), concentrated mainly in cold places on the Earth. Given that methane is 21 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2, the temperature increase on Earth would be catastrophic. To better imagine what will happen to the Earth, it is best to pay attention to our neighbor in the solar system - the planet Venus. With the same atmospheric parameters as on Earth, the temperature on Venus should be only 60 ° C higher than the Earth's (Venus is closer to the Earth than the Sun), i.e. be in the region of 75 ° C, in reality, the temperature on Venus is almost 500 ° C. Most of the carbonate and methane-containing compounds on Venus were destroyed a long time ago with the release of carbon dioxide and methane. Venus's atmosphere is currently 98% CO2, causing the planet's temperature to rise by nearly 400°C.

If global warming follows the same scenario as on Venus, then the temperature of the surface layers of the atmosphere on Earth can reach 150 degrees. An increase in the temperature of the Earth even by 50 ° C will put an end to human civilization, and an increase in temperature by 150 ° C will cause the death of almost all living organisms on the planet.

According to Karnaukhov's optimistic scenario, if the amount of CO2 entering the atmosphere remains at the same level, then the temperature of 50°C on Earth will be established in 300 years, and 150°C in 6000 years. Unfortunately, progress cannot be stopped; every year, CO2 emissions are only growing. In a realistic scenario whereby CO2 emissions would increase at the same rate, doubling every 50 years, the Earth would have reached a temperature of 502 in 100 years and 150°C in 300 years.

8. Consequences of global warming

An increase in the average annual temperature of the surface layer of the atmosphere will be more strongly felt over the continents than over the oceans, which in the future will cause a radical restructuring of the natural zones of the continents. The shift of a number of zones to the Arctic and Antarctic latitudes is already being noted.

The permafrost zone has already shifted hundreds of kilometers to the north. Some scientists argue that due to the rapid melting of permafrost and rising sea levels, in last years The Arctic Ocean is advancing on land average speed 3-6 meters over the summer, and on the Arctic islands and capes, ice-rich rocks are destroyed and absorbed by the sea during the warm season at a speed of up to 20-30 meters. Entire Arctic islands disappear completely; so already in the 21st century, the island of Muostakh near the mouth of the Lena River will disappear.

With a further increase in the average annual temperature of the surface layer of the atmosphere, the tundra may almost completely disappear in the European part of Russia and remain only on the Arctic coast of Siberia.

The taiga zone will shift to the north by 500-600 kilometers and will be reduced in area by almost a third, the area deciduous forests will increase by 3-5 times, and if moisture permits, the belt of deciduous forests will stretch in a continuous strip from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean.

The forest steppes and steppes will also move north and cover Smolensk, Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan region, coming close to the southern borders of the Moscow and Vladimir regions.

Global warming will also affect animal habitats. A change in the habitats of living organisms is already noted in many parts of the globe. The gray-headed thrush has already begun to nest in Greenland, starlings and swallows have appeared in subarctic Iceland, and the white heron has appeared in Britain. The warming of the Arctic ocean waters is especially noticeable. Now many commercial fish are found where they were not before. Cod and herring appeared in the waters of Greenland in sufficient quantities for their commercial fishing, in the waters of Great Britain - the inhabitants of the southern latitudes: red trout, big-headed turtle, in the Far Eastern Gulf of Peter the Great - the Pacific sardine, and in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk mackerel and saury appeared. The brown bear's range in North America has already moved north to the extent that hybrids of polar and brown bears have begun to appear, and in the southern part of its range brown bears and completely stopped hibernating.

An increase in temperature creates favorable conditions for the development of diseases, which is facilitated not only by high temperature and humidity, but also by the expansion of the habitat of a number of animal carriers of diseases. By the middle of the 21st century, the incidence of malaria is expected to increase by 60%. The increased development of microflora and the lack of clean drinking water will contribute to the growth of infectious intestinal diseases. The rapid multiplication of microorganisms in the air can increase the incidence of asthma, allergies and various respiratory diseases.

Due to global climate change, the next half century may be the last in the life of many species of living organisms. Already, polar bears, walruses and seals are being deprived of an important component of their habitat - Arctic ice.

Global warming for our country entails both pluses and minuses. Winters will become less severe, lands with a climate suitable for agriculture will move further north (in the European part of Russia to the White and Kara Seas, in Siberia to the Arctic Circle), in many parts of the country it will be possible to grow more southern crops and early ripening of the former. It is expected that by 2060 the average temperature in Russia will reach 0 degrees Celsius, now it is -5.3 degrees Celsius.

Unpredictable consequences will entail the thawing of permafrost, as you know, permafrost covers 2/3 of the area of ​​Russia and 1/4 of the area of ​​the entire Northern Hemisphere. On permafrost Russian Federation there are many cities, thousands of kilometers of pipelines, as well as roads and railways have been laid (80% of BAM passes through permafrost). Melting permafrost can be accompanied by significant damage. Large areas may become unsuitable for human life. Some scientists express concern that Siberia may even be cut off from the European part of Russia and become the object of claims of other countries.

Other countries of the world are also waiting for drastic changes. In general, according to most models, winter precipitation is expected to increase in high latitudes (above 50°N and South), as well as in temperate latitudes. In southern latitudes, on the contrary, a decrease in the amount of precipitation is expected (up to 20%), especially in summer. The countries of Southern Europe, which are engaged in tourism, expect big economic losses. Summer dry heat and winter rain showers will reduce the “ardor” of those who want to relax in Italy, Greece, Spain and France. For many other countries living off tourists, far from the best of times will also come. Fans of skiing in the Alps will be disappointed, there will be “tension” with snow in the mountains. In many countries of the world, living conditions are deteriorating significantly. According to UN estimates, by the middle of the 21st century there will be up to 200 million climate refugees in the world.

9. Ways to prevent global warming

It is believed that man in the future will try to take the Earth's climate under his control, how successful this will be, time will tell. If humanity does not succeed, and it does not change its way of life, then the fate of dinosaurs awaits the species Homo sapiens.

Even now, advanced minds are thinking about how to level the processes of global warming. Such original ways prevent global warming, such as breeding new varieties of plants and tree species whose leaves have a higher albedo, painting roofs in White color, installation of mirrors in near-Earth orbit, shelter from the sun's rays of glaciers, etc. A lot of effort goes into replacing traditional types energy based on the combustion of carbon raw materials to non-traditional ones, such as the production of solar panels, windmills, the construction of PES (tidal power plants), hydroelectric power stations, nuclear power plants. Original non-traditional ways of generating energy are proposed, such as using the heat of human bodies to heat rooms, using sunlight to prevent ice on roads, and a number of others. Energy hunger and fear of threatening global warming does wonders for the human brain. New and original ideas are born almost every day.

Not much attention is paid rational use energy resources.

To reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, the efficiency of engines improves, hybrid cars are produced.

In the future, it is planned to pay great attention to capturing greenhouse gases in the production of electricity, as well as directly from the atmosphere through the burial of plant organisms, the use of ingenious artificial trees, the injection of carbon dioxide many kilometers deep into the ocean, where it will be dissolved in the water column. Most of these methods of "neutralizing" CO2 are very expensive. Currently, the cost of capturing one ton of CO2 is approximately 100-300 dollars, which exceeds the market value of a ton of oil, and given that the combustion of one ton produces approximately three tons of CO2, then many methods of capturing carbon dioxide are not yet relevant. Previously proposed methods of sequestering carbon by planting trees are recognized as untenable due to the fact that most of the carbon as a result of forest fires and decomposition of organic matter goes back into the atmosphere.

Particular attention is paid to the development of legislative regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At present, many countries of the world have adopted the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1999). The latter has not been ratified by a number of countries that account for the lion's share of CO2 emissions. Thus, the United States accounts for about 40% of all emissions (in recent times It has been reported that China has overtaken the United States in terms of CO2 emissions). Unfortunately, as long as a person puts his own well-being at the forefront, no progress is expected in addressing global warming issues.

At the end of the last century, a group of scientists went to the Arctic. It is here that the history of our planet is perfectly preserved in the thickness of the ice. Ice is a time machine that takes us back in time, revealing a picture of climate change. Everything was preserved in the layers of ice - sand and volcanic dust, the concentration of isotopes and carbon dioxide. Therefore, it is easy to understand what happened to the atmosphere. If you plot the change in temperature environment and the level of carbon dioxide obtained in ice cores, the cause of the crisis in the modern world will become obvious. The level of carbon dioxide is directly dependent on the temperature level. In the twenty-first century, the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere began to grow at a gigantic pace. Carbon dioxide is one of the known greenhouse gases. The thing is that greenhouse gases trap the heat radiated from the surface of our planet. Instead of leaving the atmosphere, heat remains in it. And the greenhouse effect causes global warming. What global warming can lead to and its consequences, you will learn in this article.

Causes of global warming

If the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to rise further, an unenviable future awaits humanity. Warming is inevitable, and scientists provide several evidence for this fact. If we look at the situation with the Arctic, we can find that it was the Arctic that received quite a lot of sunlight during the cold period. At first glance, it is a little strange why the abundance of the sun gives little heat, but the reason for everything is carbon dioxide. In Antarctica, during cold times, the level of carbon dioxide was low, and when it was warm in this area, the concentration of carbon dioxide was increased. The relationship between these two indicators was discovered long ago, but in the twenty-first century the situation has changed. So, after all, what will global warming and its consequences lead to? Today, the jump in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is due not only to natural processes. The human factor played a big role.

Global warming is an irreversible process and is projected to reach an all-time high by the end of this century.

A century and a half ago, the industrial revolution began, the rapid development of production led to the fact that the level of carbon dioxide began to rise sharply. People burn fuel, fossils, cut down trees. That is why carbon dioxide accumulates in the atmosphere. If a person does not change anything, then the level of carbon dioxide will continue to grow, increasing by thirty percent every half century. At this rate, the temperature on the planet will reach a record high by the end of this century. But maybe not everything is so scary, and humanity will live well in the new conditions: exotic fruits will be grown on the territory of Russia, and winter holiday will they look like summer? Let's turn to the opinion of the great minds of mankind.

Consequences of global warming

Just a few decades ago, no one suspected that global warming and its consequences could become one of the most important problems for humanity, which would have to be solved as soon as possible. New evidence from studies of organisms that died millennia ago suggests that global warming could hit people much sooner than they think. According to scientists, in thirty years, three-quarters of the world's population will live in the coastal zone. But in a hundred years, the territory of many coastal states will be buried under a layer of the deep sea. And the reason for this will be the melting of ice in mountain glaciers, icebergs, massive ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland. When all the ice grows, the coastline will go deep into the mainland, and London, Paris, New York will become reefs. Recent studies on global warming have proven that coral aggregations have been found above sea level, indicating that sea levels once rose by six meters. Calculating the average temperature of the water during the melting of glaciers, scientists have received unexpected results. As it turned out, Arctic summer temperatures were only three degrees warmer than today's. The tipping point is projected to be reached before the end of this century.

The mechanisms that caused the melting of glaciers millions of years ago are still working today. Humanity is worried that our planet is approaching global melting several times faster than it was before. Once past the tipping point, climate change will be irreversible. An increase in average temperature by only 5-7 degrees can have a detrimental effect on the ecosystem and humans. Earth is on the verge of a planetary cataclysm. If effective and urgent action is not taken, perhaps our generation will already witness a sea level rise of six meters.

Today it is not known exactly when the process of melting ice will become irreversible. Some scientists believe that even now the destruction of the ice cover has passed the critical point. True, according to the most optimistic forecasts, if you start taking measures, the situation can be saved. Of course, humanity can move cities deep into the continents, start building walls, but in case of failure, the world will change completely - social, economic disasters, chaos, the struggle for survival - that's what awaits us. Tomorrow may not be like today, but it all depends on us.