It will be best to quote him at some length from his book on
The Evolution of Forces.
``It does not seem at first sight,'' says Doctor Le Bon,
very comprehensible that worlds which appear more and more stable
as they cool could become so unstable as to afterward dissociate
entirely. To explain this phenomenon, we will inquire whether
astronomical observations do not allow us to witness this
dissociation.
We know that the stability of a body in motion, such as a top or a
bicycle, ceases to be possible when its velocity of rotation
descends below a certain limit. Once this limit is reached it loses
its stability and falls to the ground. Prof. J. J. Thomson even
interprets radio-activity in this manner, and points out that when
the speed of the elements composing the atoms descends below a
certain limit they become unstable and tend to lose their
equilibria. There would result from this a commencement of
dissociation, with diminution of their potential energy and a
corresponding increase of their kinetic energy sufficient to launch
into space the products of intra-atomic disintegration.
It must not be forgotten that the atom being an enormous reservoir
of energy is by this very fact comparable with explosive bodies.
These last remain inert so long as their internal equilibria are
undisturbed.
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