Fermi Problem

On a Monday morningin July,the world's first atom bomb exploded in New Mexico desert.Forty seconds later,theshock waves reached the base camp where the Italian-

American physicistEnrico Fermi and his team stood.After a mental calculation,Fermi announced tohis team that the bomb's energy had equated 10,000 tons of TNT.The

bomb team wasimpressed,but not sur-prised.Fermi's genius was known throughout the scientificworld.In 1938 he had won a Nobel Prize.Four years later he produced the

first nuclear chainreaction,leading us into the nuclear age .Since Fermi's death in 1954,nophysicist has been at once a master experimentalist（实验室）and a leading

theoretician（理论学家）.

Like all virtuosos（大师）,Fermi had a distinctive style.Hepreferred the most direct route to an answer.He was very good at dividingdifficult problems into

small,manageablebits talent we all can use in our daily lives.

To develop thistalent in his students,Fermi would suggest a type of question now known as aFermi problem.Upon first hearing one of these,you haven't the remotest notion

of the answer, andyou feel certain that too little information had been given to solve it.Yetwhen the problem is broken into sub-problems,each answerable without the help

of experts orbooks,you can come close to the exact solution.

Suppose you want todetermine earth's circumference without looking it up.Everyone knows that New York and Los Angeles are about 3,000 miles apart and that the time

difference betweenthem is three hours.Three hours is one-eighth of a day,and a day is the time ittakes the planet to complete one rotation（旋转）,so its circumference must

be eight times 3,000 or 24,000 mi-les .This answer differs from the true value,24,902 .45miles,by less than four percent.

Ultimately the valueof dealing with everyday problems the way Fermi did lies in the rewards ofmaking independent discoveries and inventions.It doesn't matter whether the

discovery is asimportant as determining the power of an atom or as small as measuring thedistance between New Yorkand Los Angeles.Looking up the answer,or letting

someone else findit,deprives you of the pleasure and pride that accompany creativity,anddeprives you of an experience that builds up self-confidence.Thus,approaching

personal dilemmas asFermi problems can become a habit that enriches your life.Fermi,anexperimentalist as well as a theoretician,won a Nobel Prize for producing thefirst nuclear chain reaction in the world.

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Not mentioned