The Story of the Buckyball

Our story starts off with stars in space

The Sun is a Star – Our Star

Our Earth goes round the Sun

many millions of years into the future One day many millions of years into the future

the Sun will blow up

aaaaghhh!!!

Ouch! it’s

HOT

of stars like our Sun in space There are lots and lots and lots of stars like our Sun in space

In fact there are about ten thousand million stars in Space

We can write this in numbers as 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 1 followed by 22 noughts (or zeros)

We can write 10 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 as 1022

1022

is a very

BIG number

There are 10 dots here ………,

………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, 100 ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,

………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, 1000 ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………, ………,

This is only 1000 so…

1022

is really

really

BIG

On this screen there are only 1024 x 768 = pixels Less than 1 million < 106

On this screen there are only 1024 x 768 = 786432 pixels Less than 1 million < 106

Now lets think about something that is very small a molecule

We are all made out of very tiny molecules

Molecules are bundles of very tiny atoms Carbon atoms C Nitrogen atoms N Oxygen atoms O Hydrogen atoms H …mainly

The water molecule, H2O, has two Hydrogen atoms and one Oxygen atom O H H

and it is very small

a million million million million In a glass of water there are about a million million million million water molecules

1000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 =1024

Where did our atoms come from?

were made a very long time ago All your atoms were made a very long time ago inside a star a bit like our Sun

That star exploded millions of years ago

and blew your atoms into space

They floated around in space for millions of years

and ended up here TODAY

So we all came from outer space We are all aliens

We tried to create a bit of a very very hot star in our laboratory

you can burn a hole in a piece of wood lens Sun’s Rays With a magnifying glass and Sunlight you can burn a hole in a piece of wood

We used a laser instead of the Sun and Graphite like the lead in a pencil

clusters of 60 atoms formed

with the same pattern as a soccer ball We decided that the 60 carbon atoms were stuck together to form a cage with the same pattern as a soccer ball

o

o

o

o

o

o

C60: Buckminsterfullerene

The Earth is 100,000,000 times larger than a soccerball and a soccerball is 100,000,000 x larger than a Buckyball 107m 10-1m 10-9m 108 108

o

12 Pentagons on a Soccer Ball 12 x 5 = 60 corners