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 version 2
covers
As you read this book, let your imagination run wild.
c
What will you create with Scratch? ve ov
rs er
– from the foreword by professor mitchel resnick, creator of scratch io s

super

SUPER SCRATCH PROGRAMMING ADVENTURE!

n
2

SC R ATC H
Comics! games! Programming!
VENTURE !
AD
Scratch is the wildly popular ­educational This full-color comic book makes pro-
PROGR AMMING
programming language used by ­millions gramming concepts like variables, flow
of first-time learners in classrooms and control, and subroutines effortless to
homes worldwide. By dragging ­together absorb. Packed with ideas for games
colorful blocks of code, kids can learn that kids will be proud to show off,
computer programming concepts and Super Scratch Programming Adventure!
make cool games and animations. The is the perfect first step for the budding
latest version, Scratch 2, brings the lan­ programmer.
guage right into your web browser, with
About the Author
no need to download software.
The Learning through Engineering,
In Super Scratch Programming Adventure!, Art, and Design (LEAD) Project is an
kids learn programming fundamentals educational initiative established to
as they make their very own playable encourage the development of creative Learn to
video games. They’ll create projects thinking through the use of technology. Program
g
by Makin
inspired by classic arcade games that Created by the Hong Kong Federation of
can be programmed (and played!) in an Youth Groups in collaboration with the
Cool
Games !
afternoon. Patient, step-by-step expla- MIT Media Lab, the LEAD Project pro-
nations of the code and fun program- motes hands-on, design-based activities
ming challenges will have kids creating to foster innovation, problem-solving
their own games in no time. skills, and technical literacy.

For ages 8 and up

PRICE: $24.95 Shelve In: Computers/Programming Languages

T H E F I N E ST I N G E E K E N T E RTA I N M E N T ™
w w w.nostarch.com
The Project
 Praise for
Super Scratch
Programming Adventure!

“Reveals the power of this deceptively simple programming language . . .

A fun way to learn how to program Scratch, even for adults.”
—Mark Frauenfelder, Boing Boing

“A great introduction to game design. Kids will start building games

from the first page.”
—Liz Upton, The Raspberry Pi Project

“If you think you might have a future programmer on your hands,
it’s time to introduce your kid to Scratch. . . . Super Scratch Pro­
gramming Adventure! makes it even easier to get started.”
—Ruth Suehle, GeekMom

“If you have a kid who plays around with a computer and can read
even a little, get this.”
—Greg Laden, National Geographic’s ScienceBlogs

“An enjoyable and highly accessible introduction to this technology

and the power of computing.”
—Patrice Gans, Education Week’s BookMarks

“If you’ve got a child or maybe even a classroom of students who are
wanting to make their own games, Scratch is a great option. . . . For
structured training that is also entertaining, Super Scratch Pro­gram­
ming Adventure! will make a great textbook.”
—James Floyd Kelly, GeekDad

“Walks readers through a series of extremely well-designed game-design

projects, each of which introduces a new concept or two to young pro-
grammers, providing a gentle learning curve for mastering Scratch’s
many powerful features.”
—Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

“If you’re looking for a way to get your kid interested in programming,
and Scratch in particular, I can’t recommend this Scratch book enough.”
—Chris O’Brien, San Jose Mercury News’ SiliconBeat
S u pe r

S c r at
atc h
dv e n tu r e!
i ng A m
Pr o g r a m

Learn to
by
Pr o g r a m
ool
Making C
Gam es!

The Project
Super Scratch Programming Adventure! Copyright © 2014 by the LEAD Project.
This edition has been updated to cover Scratch 2.

Super Scratch Programming Adventure! is a translation of the original Traditional Chinese–

language edition, Easy LEAD 創意程式設計 Scratch 遊俠傳 (Easy LEAD: The Scratch
Musketeers), ISBN 978-988-18408-2-0, published by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth
Groups, © 2010 by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and
the publisher.

Printed in USA
First printing

17 16 15 14 13   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

ISBN-10: 1-59327-531-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-531-0

Publisher: William Pollock

Adviser: Dr. Rosanna Wong Yick-ming, DBE, JP
Editorial Team: Yolanda Chiu, Alice Lui, Edmond Kim Ping Hui
Contributors: Edmond Kim Ping Hui (Book Contents); Man Chun Chow, Chun Hei Tse,
Vincent Wong (Assistance & Photography)
Interior Design: LOL Design Ltd.
Production Editor: Serena Yang
Cover Design: Tina Salameh
Developmental Editor: Tyler Ortman
Technical Reviewer: Michael Smith-Welch
Compositors: Laurel Chun and Riley Hoffman
Proofreader: Alison Law

For information on distribution, translations, or bulk sales,

please contact No Starch Press, Inc. directly:
No Starch Press, Inc.
245 8th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103
phone: 415.863.9900; fax: 415.863.9950; info@nostarch.com; http://www.nostarch.com/

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record of the first edition of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

No Starch Press and the No Starch Press logo are registered trademarks of No Starch
Press, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of
their respective owners. Rather than use a trademark symbol with every occurrence of a
trademarked name, we are using the names only in an editorial fashion and to the benefit of
the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark.

The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis, without warranty. While every
precaution has been taken in the preparation of this work, neither the author nor No Starch
Press, Inc. shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage
caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in it.

All characters in this publication are fictitious, and any resemblance to real persons, living or
dead, is purely coincidental.
Contents

Foreword by Professor Mitchel Resnick 8

A Note of Thanks from

Dr. Rosanna Wong Yick-ming 9

A Note for Parents and Educators 10

Meet the Cast 18

Stage 1: Riding a Flare from the Sun 19

Let’s get to know Scratch! We’ll also learn about sprites
and coordinates.

Stage 2: Entering Space 31

This is where you’ll make your the first game. You’ll also
learn how to create new costumes and program a sprite’s
movements, reactions, and sound effects.

Stage 3: Trapped by Mona Lisa’s Smile 51

While writing this two-part game, you’ll learn how to
control the flow of a Scratch project. You’ll see how to
keep score using variables and control the order of the
game using broadcasts.

Stage 4: Defend Hong Kong’s Technocore 61

You’ll learn to control sprites with the mouse, program
objects to bounce back, and more.

Stage 5: Penalty Kick in Ipanema 71

You’ll program a soccer game with a targeting system,
several related rules, interactive sound effects, and a
vivid, animated background!
Stage 6: Scratchy’s Wild Ride 85
You’ll learn how to create a side-scrolling racing game,
program complex movements for sprites, and make the
game’s background change over time.

Stage 7: The Lost Treasures of Giza 105

In this Egyptian adventure, you’ll create an interactive
maze with a guard, booby traps, and treasure!

Stage 8: Wizard’s Race! 119

When you make this simple button-mashing game, you’ll
also learn how to play music with Scratch and create an
animated background.

Stage 9: The Final Fight...in Dark space 131

You’ll need to use all the knowledge you’ve gained while
making this exciting fighting game. You’ll create two
characters with unique fight moves, custom health
counters, and more.

Stage 10: Epilogue 151

Closing Thoughts from

Edmond Kim Ping Hui 155

Online Resources 156

Foreword
Scratch is more than a piece of software. It
is part of a broader educational mission. We
designed Scratch to help young people prepare
for life in today’s fast-changing society. As young
people create Scratch projects, they are not just
learning how to write computer programs. They
are learning to think creatively, reason system-
atically, and work collaboratively—essential
skills for success and happiness in today’s world.
It has been exciting to see all of the creative ways that young
people are using Scratch. On the Scratch website (http://scratch
.mit.edu/), young people from around the world are sharing a wide
variety of creative projects: animated stories, adventure games,
interactive tutorials, guided tours, science experiments, online
newsletters, and much more. Scratch is a digital sandbox where
young people can express themselves creatively—and, in the process,
develop as creative thinkers.
Super Scratch Programming Adventure! will help introduce
more young people to the creative possibilities of Scratch. The book
grows out of one of the world’s most innovative and productive Scratch
initiatives, organized by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups.
I’m delighted that their ideas and activities are now available to
teachers, parents, and children around the world.
As you read this book, let your imagination run wild. What will
you create with Scratch?
Enjoy the adventure!

Professor Mitchel Resnick

Director, MIT Scratch Team
MIT Media Lab
A Note of Thanks
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
created the Learning through Engineering,
Art and Design (LEAD) Project in 2005 in
collaboration with the MIT Media Lab and the
Chinese University of Hong Kong. The LEAD
Project promotes hands-on, design-based activities
with the creative use of technology and aims to
develop an innovative spirit among the youth of
Hong Kong. Since its founding, it has promoted
technology education on a grand scale, reaching
more than 1,000,000 students, parents, and
educators.
Super Scratch Programming Adventure! is our second of three
books about Scratch and the first to be translated into English.
This book highlights the playful spirit of learning to program with
Scratch, which inspires young people to apply digital technologies in
imaginative and innovative ways.
We are very grateful to the MIT Media Lab, which has been our
partner since LEAD was established in 2005. We are particularly
appreciative of Professor Mitchel Resnick and Mr. Michael Smith-
Welch, who have always been LEAD’s staunchest supporters and
greatest cheerleaders. Because of their unwavering belief in Scratch
and in LEAD, you are now able to read this English edition.
We hope this book inspires you to design your very own games,
projects, and more with Scratch.

Dr. Rosanna Wong Yick-ming, DBE, JP

Executive Director
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
 Pa r ents
fo r ato r s
N ote d u c
A E
and

Scratch opens up an exciting world of computer programming

for kids and other beginning programmers. To follow along with
this book and use Scratch 2.0, you’ll need:
• A computer with a recent Web browser (Chrome 7 or later,
Firefox 4 or later, or Internet Explorer 7 or later) with Adobe
Flash Player version 10.2 or later installed
• A display that’s 1024 × 768 or larger
• A reliable Internet connection
• A microphone and speakers (or headphones) to record and
listen to music
Once you have a browser and Adobe Flash Player installed,
just point your browser at http://scratch.mit.edu/. You can create
a new Scratch project without logging in by clicking the Create
button. You’ll want to eventually Join Scratch to create your
own account and save your projects (see how in “Join the Com-
munity!” on page 15).
You should download the projects used in this book from
http://nostarch.com/scratch/. This online resource includes
complete working projects, custom sprites, and a short Getting
Started with Scratch guide produced by the Scratch team.

10
N ote The Resources file includes two versions of each game
in the book. One version is a completely finished and
playable game, perfect for young learners and anyone
who wants to build on the games in the book. The
second set of projects has no programming added, so
that students can follow along with the programming
instructions in this book. Remember, there’s no wrong
way to play with Scratch!

But What Is Scratch, Anyway?

Scratch is a graphical programming
language that you can use for free.
By simply dragging and dropping
colored blocks, you can create interac-
tive stories, games, animation, music,
art, and presentations. You can even
upload your creations to the Internet
to share them with Scratch program-
mers from around the world. Scratch
is designed for play, self-directed
learning, and design.

Where Did the Name Scratch

Come From?
Scratch is named for the way that hip-hop disc jockeys (DJs)
creatively combine pieces of music, using a technique called
scratching. In the same way, Scratch programmers join different
media (images, photos, sound effects, and so on) in exciting ways
to create something entirely new.

11
Who Created Scratch?
Scratch is a project funded by the US National Science Founda-
tion (NSF). It was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Lifelong Kindergarten Group.

Who Is Scratch For?

Scratch was developed for young people aged 8 and up to help
them develop creative learning skills for the 21st century. When
kids create programs, they learn important mathematical and
computer concepts that improve their creative thinking, logical
reasoning, problem solving, and collaboration skills.

This creative thinking spiral is from Professor Resnick’s article,

“Sowing the Seeds of a More Creative Society,” published in ISTE
(International Society for Technology in Education).

12
 Designing Scratch projects challenges kids to think cre-
atively, and learning how to overcome obstacles and solve
problems builds confidence. This gives learners an advantage
later in life.

Is It Easy to Use Scratch?

Scratch was designed to prevent the common beginner pitfalls
in traditional programming languages, like misspelling and
errors in consistency. Instead of typing commands, programming
in Scratch is performed by dragging and joining programming
blocks. This graphical interface allows users to easily control the
way in which different types of commands react to each other.
Additionally, each block can fit with another only if it makes
computational sense. Colorized categories help organize and
group different sets of related commands based on their particu-
lar functions.
Since programs in Scratch run in real time, they can be
edited and tested at any given moment, even while the program
is running. This allows users to easily experiment with new
ideas or to repeatedly test their improvements!

How Many Languages Does

Scratch Support?
Scratch can be used in 50 different languages. Choose your
language from the pull-down menu at the bottom of the Scratch
website.

Where Can You Use Scratch?

You can use Scratch at schools, libraries, community centers,
and home. Even though Scratch is designed for young people
aged 8 and up, younger children can also learn to design and
create alongside their parents or siblings.

13
 Scratch is used around the world in elementary, middle, and
high schools. Computer science professors also use Scratch as a
means of introducing programming concepts to college students.

How Can Scratch Be Used to

Educate in Schools?
Schools can use Scratch to aid teachers in subjects like math-
ematics, English, music, art, design, and information technology.
Scratch is designed for exploration and experimentation, so it
supports many different learning styles.
No matter what they use Scratch for—creative storytelling,
unique video games, or simple demonstrations of programming
concepts—Scratch will provide a space for students to explore
and imagine. By engaging in design-based activity individually
or in groups, students will be motivated to learn.
Here are just a few of the things that students have used
Scratch to do:
• A school in New York City used Scratch to build simulations
of the spread of infectious diseases.
• A group of teenagers in India used Scratch to make an
animated map of their village, illustrating environmental
concerns where they live.

14
• Students at a university in Istanbul used Scratch to examine
video game culture by rapidly prototyping their own games
and testing the games with the public.
• English students in a middle school in California used
Scratch to build a random story generator.
• Students in an elementary school in Russia used Scratch to
build their own personalized tutorials for learning about the
coordinate system and trigonometry.
• High school students in Michigan used Scratch to build a
physics simulator.
The possibilities are endless. It is our sincere hope that
this book inspires students to create their own games, stories,
and more.

Join the Community!

Because Scratch is online, kids can easily share their own
Scratch projects with their friends, family, and teachers. Once
someone shares their work publicly on the Scratch website, other
Scratch programmers can remix their projects, give them feed-
back, and more.
Follow these steps to join Scratch:
1. Visit the Scratch home page (http://scratch.mit.edu/) and click
Join Scratch to register (you only need to register once).
2. Choose a username (don’t use your real name), and then fill
out the rest of the information. If the person registering is
under 13, Scratch will ask for the email address of a parent
or guardian.

NOTE Once you share a project, everyone in the whole world

can see what you’ve made! Make sure that your kids
or students know to keep their personal information
private.

15
 As long as they have the username and password at hand,
kids can find games to play through the project gallery, remix
them, and share their thoughts with others from around the
world! To see how someone else’s game was built, just click the
See Inside button ( ). To add to the program, click the
big orange Remix button ( ).
To share your own projects with the rest of the world, click
the big Share button ( ) in the Scratch editor. To make a
project private again, click the Unshare button in the My Stuff
­listing.
Just remember that as a member of the Scratch community,
you’ll be sharing projects and ideas with people of all ages, all
levels of experience, and all parts of the world. So be sure to:
• Be respectful of other players
• Be constructive when commenting
• Help keep the site friendly and fun
• Keep personal information private
For more ideas and information about sharing and remixing
projects, visit http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Remix.

16
My Computer Can’t Run
Scratch 2.0!
If your computer doesn’t meet the requirements listed on
page 10, you can still download and install Scratch 1.4. (http://
scratch.mit.edu/scratch_1.4/). Scratch 1.4 projects are compat-
ible with the Web-based Scratch 2.0, and you can still share your
projects on the Scratch website using Scratch 1.4. (Unfortunately,
Scratch 1.4 cannot read programs created in the Scratch 2.0
software.)
You can download free PDF versions of Chapters 1 and 2,
which explain how the older 1.4 interface works, by visiting
http://nostarch.com/scratch/. You can also find versions of the
book’s games that are compatible with 1.4 on that page.

I’m an Educator Using Scratch

Awesome! This book is great place to start for classes and after-
school programs. You’ll want to download the free Educator’s
Guide at http://nostarch.com/scratch/. Visit the official Scratch
educator’s forum at http://scratched.media.mit.edu/ to exchange
resources, share success stories, and ask questions of other edu-
cators already using Scratch as an educational tool.

I Still Have Other Questions…

You can find more information on the Scratch website:
• Visit the Scratch FAQ at http://info.scratch.mit.edu/
Support/Scratch_FAQ/.
• Visit the Scratch Help at http://scratch.mit.edu/help/.
“Online Resources” on page 156 has other helpful links.
For updates to this book, visit http://nostarch.com/scratch/.

17
Meet the Cast

Mitch
A computer science
student who loves to
make cool programs,
he’s passionate about
movies and art, too!
Mitch is an all-around
good guy.

The Cosmic Defenders:

Gobo, Fabu, and Pele
The Cosmic Defenders are trans-
dimensional space aliens who can
travel through space and time.
Formally deputized by the Galactic
Council, the Cosmic Defender’s duty
is to maintain the balance of the
universe.

The Dark Wizard

erful
He is a shapeless yet pow
spi rit, wh ose origins Scratchy
and vengeful
now n. No thin g can stop An energetic cat living in cyber-
are unk
yin g the space, Scratchy is exactly what
his ambition of destro
you’d expect from a cat on the
order of space and time.
Internet. He’s quite curious and
impulsive.
The Dark Minions
mic
These pesky foes are Cos
Defend ers wh o hav e fall en
rk
to the dar k side. They wo
for the Dar k Wiz ard now .
Riding a Flare
from the Sun
 A solar storm A Flare
Rages on the Explodes with
surface of a burst of
the sun.... Energy!

Beoo
Beoo o-
oo
p!

Earthqu
I sure wish ak
Meanwhile, in
programming e!
school on Earth...
were easier...

Whoa!

Chirp Chirp

Wake up.

W-who are
Come on, you? What just
wake up! happened?

20
 My name is That’s right. I Amazing! My
Scratchy. followed that name is Mitch. I’m a
I’m from flash of light, And computer science
Cyberspace. here I am! student!

You’re from a
computer?!

Oh no! I
can’t move
my legs!

Hey Mitch.
um…is your Where is
planet always
so gray?
everybody?
Ahhh!
Me neither!
Something Help!!
terrible is
forming in
the sky!
No way!
Something’s
wrong. Let’s
go check
it out!

take this
Secret Manual
Stay Calm! before the
Thank goodness Black Tornado
I found you! swallows you!
Then follow my
Your body is instructions!
being frozen!

Let’s
do
this!

21
 Breaking the Spell!
Chapter Focus The Game
Let’s get to know Scratch! We need to get Scratchy the cat
We’ll also learn about sprites moving again. We’ll make him
and coordinates. dance across the Stage.

To follow along with the Secret Manual,

you first need to open Scratch. Once you
Create a new project, you’ll see Scratchy
the cat on a white backdrop. The cat doesn’t
do anything yet because he doesn’t have any The command blocks you
programs. Scratch calls Scratchy the cat— can give a sprite are here.
and all the other characters and objects we We’ll stack these commands
add to a project—a sprite. Soon, we’ll start together to break the magic
giving him directions to move by using the spell and get Scratchy back on
blue blocks in the middle of the screen. his feet. The blocks here are
all blue, as they’re from the
Motion palette.

an d D r
ck a
i
Cl

To move a block, just click and

drag it over here. This is called
the Scripts Area. It’s where we
write our programs.

You’ll need to give each sprite its

own instructions. In other games
we play, we’ll have more than one
character to control, so we’ll have
more than one sprite listed here, in
the Sprite List. To give a particular
sprite instructions, click a sprite in
the Sprite List first and then drag Now let’s take a closer look
blocks into the Scripts Area. at the rest of the interface…

22
 A Guided Tour of the Scratch Interface!

Palette
Sprite Toolbar Each of these ten buttons lets you choose
Contains the functions (called blocks) for programming your
Play the Give your Duplicate, Delete, sprites. You can combine these command
game full project a Grow, Shrink, and blocks in stacks to create programs that
screen. new name. Block Help tools control objects on the screen.

Stage
Displays your creation

Scripts Area
Here’s where you build your
programs. Stacking blocks
The green flag starts the together here lets you control
game and the red flag the sprites in your project. Click
stops the game. one of the three tabs at the top
to change to other functions:
Scripts: Allows you to
drag command blocks from
the Palette and put them
together to write a program
Costumes: Allows you to
draw, import, or edit images
Sprite List
for a sprite
Here are the characters
and objects you’ve created, Sounds: Allows you to record
including the Stage itself. or import sound files for a
Click the icons to edit each sprite to use
sprite individually.

New Sprite Buttons

There are four ways to add a sprite:
• Pick one from Scratch’s built-in library
• Draw a new one
• Upload an image you already have
• Take a photo with your computer’s webcam

23
 Sprite Information
You might have noticed a little blue i in the corner of the box around
Scratchy when you select his sprite in the Sprite List. Try clicking the i,
and you’ll get information about that sprite.

This section shows the sprite’s name, position, and direction it is facing
(the little blue line).

This is how you can rename the Scratchy sprite.

Right now it’s Sprite1. Don’t you think that’s a
ick little boring? Try renaming this sprite.
Cl ere
h

Click this arrow when Rotation Settings Try clicking and

you’re done with the You can control how a sprite dragging the little
Sprite Settings pane. rotates in three ways: blue line—see what
We’ll play with these • Can rotate freely happens to Scratchy’s
other settings later. • Can face only left or right orientation.
• No rotating allowed

Now, onto the fun stuff. To use Scratch to program

movements, you first have to understand how
Scratch positions things.

Click the Stage icon in the Sprite List. Switch to

the Backdrops tab in the Scripts Area and choose
Choose backdrop from library.

Note: Sprites have costumes while the Stage has

backdrops.

Choose
the xy-grid
backdrop and
click OK to
use it. It’s in
the “Other”
category.

24
Now you can see exactly how Scratch positions objects.
Everything is on a grid with two axes:
y-axis: A vertical line that marks up and down positions;
ranges from –180 (lowest) to +180 (highest)
x-axis: A horizontal line that marks left and right positions;
ranges from –240 (farthest left) to +240 (farthest right)
Scratchy’s default position is at the point where the x-axis
and y-axis meet. His coordinates are (X: 0, Y: 0).

Now we can program movements for

Scratchy the cat! But first, try dragging
him to the top of the Stage, as shown
on the right.

Note: The bottom-right corner displays

the coordinates of your mouse. This
will be really helpful when we start
setting the positions of sprites!

The current coordinates of a sprite are

shown in the upper-right corner of the
Scripts Area, too.

To make sure we’re giving Scratchy the cat

instructions, click him in the Sprite List (the
box at the bottom left of the screen). Switch to
the Scripts tab in the Scripts Area and then
click the Motion palette button. Click and drag
out the command block go to x:0 y:0 to the
Scripts Area.

25
 Click the number of a coordinate to change it. Set x to 0 and
set y to 125. Now click the block to run it! Scratch goes right
to that position. We’ve just written our first program! It’s really
that simple.

We want Scratchy to move

around, but at the moment, he
moves too fast for us to see! To
make him move more slowly, click Next, select the
the Control palette and drag out Duplicate button on
the command wait 1 secs to the the Sprite Toolbar
Scripts Area. Make sure to drag it and stamp it on the
under your blue command block. commands to make
Wait for a white line to appear and five copies.
then release the mouse.

The two commands are joined

together! Now change the time
to 0.1 secs.

Tip: If you want to separate the

commands, simply drag away
the block. If you want to delete a
block, simply drag it back to the
palette. Give it a try. To move a big
stack of blocks, click and drag the
topmost block in the stack.

26
Type these coordinates in your
own program, so it matches this
picture. When you’re finished,
click the whole command block
to make Scratchy jump around
in a pentagon shape!

To make him move in a loop continuously, drag out the

command block forever from the Control palette and place
it at the top of the code. Click the block, and it will actually
run! Click to stop Scratchy from moving around. You can
test any program in this way—just click it with your mouse.

Tip: Whenever you’re writing scripts, you’ll want to test them

every now and then to see if they work the way you expect.

Now let’s make Scratchy glide around instead of

jumping from point to point. To do this, click the
Motion palette, drag out five glide commands,
and join them together. Follow the picture on
the right, and copy the seconds and coordinates.
Once you’re finished, click the script to see the
results!

Now we can join these two programs together! From

the Events palette, drag out the When clicked
command and put it at the top of your two scripts.

Tip: We’ll often need multiple scripts to start at the

same time, and using the When clicked command
will help us do that.

27
 Because we used the When clicked command, we
can use these buttons above the Stage to start ( )
and stop ( ) the game.

Next, click the Pen palette

and drag out the four green
Pen blocks shown on the
right. Now when Scratchy
moves, he’ll draw a magic
star web!

h! Occasionally, when you run your program,

h -o e ’s
U er ! there is a software bug. This is the most
Th ug exciting part of computer programming:
b
a
discovering an error in something you
have made and then solving the problem.
In this case, sometimes Scratchy will
draw an odd line at the beginning of the
program.

If we drag Scratchy anywhere else on

the Stage and then press , he draws an
extra line because he starts in the wrong
place. Try doing this multiple times to see
if you can spot the bug.

28
This software bug can be fixed by adding
some more code—that is, new blocks—to
your program. In this case, simply place
a new go to block (from the blue Motion
palette) above the green Pen blocks and
below the When clicked block.

With this little correction, Scratchy will

always begin drawing from the correct
position in the grid. The bug is gone!

Let’s add a whole new program to

make a magic star web that changes
colors. Build a second stack of blocks
that uses the change pen color by
command and see what happens.

Isn’t that cool? You can give a single

sprite more than one set of blocks!
Scratchy now has two programs. This
tiny second program sure makes a big
difference in how the game looks.

29
 Remember to save
this file so you can
play with it later!

If you are logged into Scratch, the website stores all of your projects into
My Stuff so you can easily find them. The website saves your progress
every so often, but you can save manually too: File4Save Now. You can
also save different versions of your programs to make sure you don’t lose
older versions of your games and can safely experiment—File4Save Copy
creates a new version of your project in My Stuff. If you want to download
a version for yourself, try File4Download to your computer. Then save
it in a safe spot!

Scratchy’s Challenge!!
Can you edit this program to make Scratchy draw
different kinds of shapes? Give it a try!

30
Entering
Space
 Magic Alright! I can
star web! feel my limbs
sh again!
WhoO

The Dark Who are

Nice work!
Wizard? you again?
You’ve broken
the Dark
Wizard’s spell!

My name is this universe is

Gobo. I’m now controlled by the OH no! We’re the
That solar
a cosmic Dark Wizard and his minions. only ones left!
flare
defender! they froze all the cosmic
destroyed
defenders besides me—
the balance
and all the humans
between the
on earth.
digital world
and the real
world!

32
 Great Idea!
This Secret Yes! If I learn You can design
Manual saved to program, it new equipment and
us. Maybe might help to even control our
it can help defeat the Dark movements!
other people Wizard!
as well!

We need the
energy from seven
Alright! dimensional strings
But why does
to open the stargate
Scratchy need
the space suit?
and reach my
friends...

Oh no!
My fellow ...but inside the
defenders are in vortex, there’s no
trouble! Change oxygen, and lightning
into a space suit can make things
and save them, disappear!
kind feline!

Wow! It’s full

I’m ready! of stars!

by the way,
Gobo, my name
is Scratchy, and
he’s Mitch! The adventure into
space begins…

33
 A Space Odyssey!
Chapter Focus The Game
Learn to design new costumes Avoid the lightning bolts and
and program a sprite’s move­ collect seven dimensional strings.
ments, reactions, and sound Once you’ve got them all, the
effects. Monolith will appear!

To make things really easy, let’s start by opening

a blank project called 02 - A Space Odyssey.sb2.
This project has all the sprites you’ll need, but
none of the programming yet. To open a file, click
File4Upload from your computer.

But let’s try making some sprites of our own, so

you can make changes to this game’s characters
and invent your own games, too! Click Scratchy’s
sprite icon in the Sprite List, and then click the
Costumes tab. You’ll see the Paint Editor—just
be sure to click the costume you want to change.

At the top of the Paint

Editor, you can give your
Costume a name. We
can then reference the
costume names in our
programming.

If your Paint Editor

looks different, it could
be because you haven’t
opened the blank project
file (02 - A Space Odyssey
.sb2) that has Scratchy’s
astronaut costume.

Scratch has two modes

for editing graphics—
on the right is Bitmap
mode. See page 38 to
learn more about editing
in Vector mode.

34
 Here’s where all the tools
are. The Brush and Eraser
tools make it easy to draw.

Use the Fill tool to color big

parts of your drawing at once.
You can choose a single color
from the palette or use a The Eyedropper tool will
gradient effect from the Tool match the current color to any
Options. color you click in your image.

Tool Options Click the Zoom buttons (the magnifying

Whatever tool you are using, the options glasses on the bottom right) to zoom in
for the tool will appear at the bottom of or out on your creations. This will make
the Paint Editor. For example, the size it easier to draw! Clicking the equals sign
of the Brush or Eraser can be adjusted (=) shows you exactly how your sprite
if you want to make a big drawing or will appear on the Stage.
add fine detail. Just click and drag here
to pick the right size. If you’re not sure what a button does,
simply hover your cursor over it, and a
You pick a color for your tool here, too. description will appear!

35
 You also have tools to draw rectangles and ellipses.
Can you give Scratchy a stovepipe hat like Abe
Lincoln using the Rectangle and Ellipse tools?

These shapes can be empty inside

or filled in. Try experimenting with
different colors for the inside and
outside. If you press the shift key
when you start to draw, you’ll
have a perfect circle or square!
(You can also use this shift trick
when using the Line tool to draw
a straight line.) Try rotating your
shapes using the handle on the
top of the box.

The Text tool lets you add

writing to your sprite. We’ll
use this tool when we need
to give the player instructions
for our games. If you want
to move the text, simply click
and drag the black box that
surrounds your text.

36
 To use the Select tool, use your
mouse to create a frame around a
certain area. Then you can do all
sorts of things to the selected part
of your costume:
• Click and drag the selection to
move it to a new location.
• Resize, smush, or stretch the
image using the handles on the
sides of the box
• Rotate the selection by clicking
and dragging the handle at the
top center of the box
• Press and hold the ctrl key and
C key at the same time to copy
the image area (Mac users can
use -C instead). Then press
ctrl-V to paste your selection,
as many times as you like.
• Press the delete key to erase
the selection.

The Set costume center

button marks the center of
your sprite. This helps to
make sure your sprite doesn’t
end up in the wrong place
when it spins or rotates!

By using the Duplicate tool,

you can copy and stamp a
selected area as many times
as you want! Just draw a
frame around the area you
want to copy and then click
wherever you want to paste.

37
Vector Mode
You may have noticed that
when you edit other sprites in
Scratch, you don’t see the same
Paint Editor tools. Some newer
sprites are vector art—that’s just
a fancy way to say they’re made
of shapes, instead of pixels.
Vector art have small filesizes,
but they are great quality—and
they can be resized without
losing quality.

Note: For simplicity’s sake, all

of the graphics in this book use
Bitmap mode. But your custom
projects can use a mix of vector
and bitmap graphics.

You can switch from Scratch’s Bitmap mode (the

one seen earlier) to Vector mode by clicking the
Convert to Vector button at the bottom right of Select object
the Paint Editor. The difference between using Reshape a line or shape
(click on an object, then Pencil
these two tools in Scratch is like the difference
drag its round “handles”) Line
between Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator—or
GIMP and Inkscape. Use whichever Paint Editor Rectangle
Ellipse
mode you like the most!
Text
Fill tool
You can import SVG files into Scratch’s vector
editor. In Vector mode, you can squeeze and Duplicate
shape lines, reshape, and ungroup. Here’s how Forward a layer
the Vector mode works. Back a layer
Ungroup

38
Try opening a vector
graphic from Scratch’s
library, and give editing
one a try.

The Backpack
Here’s a cool new feature. If you’re logged into the
Scratch website, you’ll see something called the
Backpack at the very bottom of the screen. Click it,
and it’ll open up. Yours will be empty until you throw
some sprites in it.

Your Backpack lets you share sprites and

scripts between projects. If you play a really
cool game on the Scratch website and want
to use the character in an entirely new
project, just click and drag the sprite right
into your Backpack.

When you create a new project of your own,

just open the Backpack again and drag the
sprite out. You can write all new programs,
or use the ones that were already with the
sprite. You can even use your Backpack to
store programs you want to reuse!

39
Once you know how to use the Paint Editor’s
tools, Scratchy can put on his space suit!
Go ahead and draw your own, or use the
costume that’s already in the project.

Because we’ve selected the horizontal

rotation style (circled below) Scratchy will
face only left and right.

Now we have the main

character for our game:
Scratchy the astronaut!

40
Next, let’s take a look at the other
sprites in the game. You can use the
art that’s already in the game, or
draw new artwork yourself! Click
to draw a new sprite.

First, take a look at the String and

the Monolith. They are two costumes
for the same sprite, String. If they
were two separate sprites, we’d have
to write two programs. But now we
can make this sprite switch costumes
and write only one program.

Now for our third new sprite, some

scary Lightning! The player will need
to avoid the lighting.

We also need some instructions to

appear at the start of the game. We’ll
call this sprite Banner.

41
Next, let’s look at the Stage.
I used artwork of a black hole
from NASA! You can draw a
new backdrop if you like. Click
the Stage in the Sprite List, and
then click the Backdrops tab.

Now that we have a bunch of sprites for the

game, you can see how everything appears in
the Sprite List. To give a sprite new instructions
or costumes, you’ll first have to click it in the
Sprite List. Let’s start by giving Scratchy the
astronaut his programming.

Let’s write our first program ❶ for Scratchy! Make

sure he’s selected in the Sprite List and you’ve clicked
❶
the Scripts tab. His first program is a short one that
makes him bounce up and down a little. This makes
him look like he’s floating in zero gravity!

42
❷ For program ❷, we’ll make a conditional—if something
is true, then something else will happen. In the Control
palette, drag out an if block. Then for the diamond shape,
drag the Sensing block key ______ pressed?. Right below
the if, put what you want to happen when the statement
is true. Drag out the rest of these commands to form the
complete program. Now you can move Scratchy up, down,
left, and right by using the keyboard!

Now we’ll give Scratchy two more programs. We’ll need to

program them individually, and then use When clicked
to make them all run at the same time.

Let’s write programs ❸ and ❹. Click the Control

and Looks palettes and drag out these commands. ❹

Program ❸ controls which costume Scratchy

wears, and program ❹ makes Scratchy become
invisible like a ghost each time he gets struck by
lightning.

When you’ve finished all of this, Scratchy’s

programming is complete!

Next, let’s click the Banner sprite.

We just need a simple program to
make these instructions appear at
the start of the game. The repeat 2
loop using the show and hide blocks
makes our instructions flash, so the
game is even more exciting.

43
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
particular atom, why does it not at least detach corpuscles from all of
the atoms over which it passes?
Again when ultra-violet light falls on a metal it, too, like X-rays, is
found to eject negative electrons. This phenomenon of the emission
of electrons under the influence of light is called the photo-electric
effect. Lenard[165] first made the astonishing discovery that the
energy of ejection of the electron is altogether independent of the
intensity of the light which causes the ejection, no matter whether
this intensity is varied by varying the distance of the light or by
introducing absorbing screens. I have myself[166] subjected this
relation to a very precise test and found it to hold accurately.
Furthermore, this sort of independence has also been established for
the negative electrons emitted by both X- and -rays.
Facts of this sort are evidently difficult to account for on any sort
of a spreading-wave theory. But it wall be seen that they lend
themselves to easy interpretation in terms of a corpuscular theory,
for if the energy of an escaping electron comes from the absorption
of a light-corpuscle, then the energy of emission of the ejected
electron ought to be independent of the distance of the source, as it
is found to be, and furthermore corpuscular rays would hit but a very
minute fraction of the atoms contained in the space traversed by
them. This would explain, then, both the independence of the energy
of emission upon intensity and the smallness of the number of atoms
ionized.
In view, however, of the four sets of facts mentioned above,
Thomson found it altogether impossible to go back to the old and
exploded form of corpuscular theory for an explanation of the new
facts as to the emission of electrons under the influence of ether
waves. He accordingly attempted to reconcile these troublesome
new facts with the wave theory by assuming a fibrous structure in the
ether and picturing all electromagnetic energy as traveling along
Faraday lines of force conceived of as actual strings extending
through all space. Although this concept, which we shall call the
ether-string theory, is like the corpuscular theory in that the energy,
after it leaves the emitting body, remains localized in space, and,
when absorbed, is absorbed as a whole, yet it is after all essentially
an ether theory. For in it the speed of propagation is determined by
the properties of the medium—or of space, if one prefers a mere
change in name;—and has nothing to do with the nature or condition
of the source. Thus the last three of the fatal objections to a
corpuscular theory are not here encountered. As to the first one, no
one has yet shown that Thomson’s suggestion is reconcilable with
the facts of interference, though so far as I know neither has its
irreconcilability been as yet absolutely demonstrated.
But interference aside, all is not simple and easy for Thomson’s
theory. For one encounters serious difficulties when he attempts to
visualize the universe as an infinite cobweb whose threads never
become tangled or broken however swiftly the electrical charges to
which they are attached may be flying about.

III. EINSTEIN’S QUANTUM THEORY OF RADIATION

Yet the boldness and the difficulties of Thomson’s “ether-string”
theory did not deter Einstein[167] in 1905 from making it even more
radical. In order to connect it up with some results to which Planck of
Berlin had been led in studying the facts of black-body radiation,
Einstein assumed that the energy emitted by any radiator not only
kept together in bunches or quanta as it traveled through space, as
Thomson had assumed it to do, but that a given source could emit
and absorb radiant energy only in units which are all exactly equal to
, being the natural frequency of the emitter and a constant
which is the same for all emitters.
I shall not attempt to present the basis for such an assumption,
for, as a matter of fact, it had almost none at the time. But whatever
its basis, it enabled Einstein to predict at once that the energy of
emission of electrons under the influence of light would be governed
by the equation
in which is tine energy absorbed by the electron from the light
wave or light quantum, for, according to the assumption it was the
whole energy contained in that quantum, is the work necessary to
get the electron out of the metal, and is the energy with
which it leaves the surface—an energy evidently measured by the
product of its charge by the potential difference against which it
is just able to drive itself before being brought to rest.
At the time at which it was made this prediction was as bold as
the hypothesis which suggested it, for at that time there were
available no experiments whatever for determining anything about
how the positive potential necessary to apply to the illuminated
electrode to stop the discharge of negative electrons from it under
the influence of monochromatic light varied with the frequency of
the light, or whether the quantity to which Planck had already
assigned a numerical value appeared at all in connection with photo-
electric discharge. We are confronted, however, by the astonishing
situation that after ten years of work at the Ryerson Laboratory
(1904-15) and elsewhere upon the discharge of electrons by light
this equation of Einstein’s was found to predict accurately all of the
facts which had been observed.

IV. THE TESTING OF EINSTEIN’S EQUATION

The method which was adopted in the Ryerson Laboratory for
testing the correctness of Einstein’s equation involved the
performance of so many operations upon the highly inflammable
alkali metals in a vessel which was freed from the presence of all
gases that it is not inappropriate to describe the experimental
arrangement as a machine-shop in vacuo. Fig. 32 shows a
photograph of the apparatus, and Fig. 33 is a drawing of a section
which should make the necessary operations intelligible.
One of the most vital assertions made in Einstein’s theory is that
the kinetic energy with which monochromatic light ejects electrons
from any metal is proportional to the frequency of the light, i.e., if
violet light is of half the wave-length of red light, then the violet light
should throw out the electron with twice the energy imparted to it by
the red light. In order to test whether any such linear relation exists
between the energy of the escaping electron and the light which
throws it out it was necessary to use as wide a range of frequencies
as possible. This made it necessary to use the alkali metals, sodium,
potassium, and lithium, for electrons are thrown from the ordinary
metals only by ultra-violet light, while the alkali metals respond in this
way to any waves shorter than those of the red, that is, they respond
throughout practically the whole visible spectrum as well as the ultra-
violet spectrum. Cast cylinders of these metals were therefore
placed on the wheel (Fig. 33) and fresh clean surfaces were
obtained by cutting shavings from each metal in an excellent vacuum
with the aid of the knife , which was operated by an electromagnet
outside the tube.

Fig. 32
 After this the freshly cut surface was turned around by another
electromagnet until it was opposite the point of Fig. 33 and a
beam of monochromatic light from a spectrometer was let in through
and allowed to fall on the new surface. The energy of the
electrons ejected by it was measured by applying to the surface a
positive potential just strong enough to prevent any of the discharged
electrons from reaching the gauze cylinder opposite (shown in dotted
lines) and thus communicating an observable negative charge to the
quadrant electrometer which was attached to this gauze cylinder.

Fig. 33

For a complete test of the equation it was necessary also to

measure the contact-electromotive force between the new surface
and a test plate . This was done by another electromagnetic device
shown in Fig. 32, but for further details the original paper may be
consulted.[168] Suffice it here to say that Einstein’s equation
demands a linear relation between the applied positive volts and the
frequency of the light, and it also demands that the slope of this line
should be exactly equal to . Hence from this slope, since is
known, it should be possible to obtain . How perfect a linear
relation is found may be seen from Fig. 34, which also shows that
from the slope of this line is found to be , which is as
close to the value obtained by Planck from the radiation laws as is to
be expected from the accuracy with which the experiments in
radiation can be made. The most reliable value of obtained from a
consideration of the whole of this work is

In the original paper will be found other tests of the Einstein

equation, but the net result of all this work is to confirm in a very
complete way the equation which Einstein first set up on the basis of
his semi-corpuscular theory of radiant energy. And if this equation is
of general validity it must certainly be regarded as one of the most
fundamental and far-reaching of the equations of physics, and one
which is destined to play in the future a scarcely less important rôle
than Maxwell’s equations have played in the past, for it must govern
the transformation of all short-wave-length electromagnetic energy
into heat energy.
 Fig. 34

V. HISTORY OF EINSTEIN’S EQUATION

The whole of this chapter up to this point has been left practically
as it was written for the first edition of this book in 1916. Now the
altogether overwhelming proof that Einstein’s equation is an exact
equation of very general validity is perhaps the most conspicuous
achievement of experimental physics during the past decade. Its
history is briefly as follows.
As early as 1900 Planck[169] had been led from theoretical
considerations to the conclusion that atoms radiated energy
discontinuously in units which were equal to, or multiples of, , in
which is the natural frequency of the radiator, and a universal
constant which is now called Planck’s . He adopted the view that
the seat of the discontinuity was in the radiator, not in the radiation
after it had left the radiator, and in the second edition of his book
modified the formulation of his theory so as to make this appear
without any ambiguity.
 It was in 1905, as stated above, that Einstein definitely put the
discontinuity into the radiation itself, assuming that light itself
consisted of darts of localized energy, “light-quantas,” of amount .
He further assumed that one of these light-quantas could transfer its
energy undiminished to an electron, so that, in the photo-electric
effect, the electron shot out from the metal with the energy ,
where represents the work necessary to get it out of the metal.
In 1913 Bohr, in the development of his theory of spectra, without
accepting Einstein’s view as to the seat of the discontinuity, assumed
an equation which was precisely the inverse of Einstein’s, i.e., he
assumed that the energy lost when an electron jumps from one
stationary state to another is wholly transformed into monochromatic
radiation whose frequency is determined by equating the loss in
energy to . In other words, Einstein and Bohr together
have set up a reciprocal and reversible relation between electronic
and radiant energy.
Up to 1914 no direct experimental proof had appeared for the
correctness of this relation. In the photo-electric field discussion was
active as to whether any definite maximum velocity of emission of
electrons under the influence of monochromatic light existed, and
although linear relations between energy and frequency had been
reported by Ladenburg, Richardson and Compton, and Hughes, the
range of frequencies available had been so small as to leave
uncertainties in the minds of reviewers[170] and Planck’s had
definitely as yet failed to appear.
The unambiguous experimental proofs of the correctness of the
foregoing theoretical relation began with the publication of the
accompanying photo-electric results[171] which were reported briefly
in 1914, and submitted in extenso in September, 1915. These were
in a form to prove the correctness of the Einstein equation; for
monochromatic light of known frequency fell upon a metal and the
maximum energy of electronic ejection was found to be exactly
determined by as Einstein’s equation required.
 A year or two later Duane1[172] and his associates had found
unambiguous proof of the inverse effect. A target had been
bombarded by electrons of known and constant energy
and the maximum frequency of the emitted ether

waves (general radiation) was found to be precisely given by

.

D. L. Webster then proved that the characteristic X-ray

frequencies of atoms begin to be excited at exactly the potential at
which the energy of the stream of electrons which is bombarding the
atoms has reached the value given by in which is
now the frequency of an absorption edge.[173] This checks Bohr’s
formulation of frequency-energy relations, since it shows that when
an electron within an atom receives just enough energy by
bombardment to be entirely removed from the atom, the total energy
values of the frequencies emitted during its return are equal to the
electronic energy of the original bombardment.
De Broglie[174] and Ellis,[175] on the other hand, have measured
with great accuracy, by means of the deviability in a magnetic field,
the velocities of electrons ejected from different sorts of atoms by
monochromatic X-rays, and have completely confirmed by such
photo-electric work in the X-ray field my previous results obtained
with ultra-violet light. They here verify in great detail and with much
elaboration the Einstein formulation where now
represents the work necessary to lift the electron out of any
particular level in the atom.
Parallel to this very complete establishment of the validity in the
X-ray field of the Einstein photo-electric equation, and of its inverse
the Bohr equation, has come the rapid working out in the domain of
optics of the very large field of ionizing and radiating potentials which
has also involved the utilization and verification of the same
reciprocal relation. This will be seen at once from the definition of the
ionizing potential of an atom as the electronic energy which must be
thrown into it by bombardment to just remove from it one of its outer
electrons. Through the return of such removed electrons there is in
general a whole spectral series emitted. Similarly the radiating
potential of an atom is defined as the bombarding energy which must
be supplied to it to just lift one of its outer electrons from its normal
orbit to the first virtual orbit outside that normal orbit. When this
electron drops back there is in general the emission of a single-line
spectrum. All this work took its origin in the fundamental experiments
of Franck and Hertz[176] on mercury vapor in 1914. From 1916-22
the field was worked out in great detail, especially in America by
Foote and Mohler, Wood, McLennan. Davis and Goucher, and
others.
Suffice it to say that whether the energy comes in the form of
ether waves which through absorption in an atom lift an electron out
of a normal orbit, so that the atom passes over to an excited or to an
ionized state, or whether the energy enters in the form of a
bombarding electron and reappears as a radiated frequency, the
reciprocal relation represented in the Einstein-Bohr equation
has been found fulfilled in the most complete
manner.
In view of all these methods and experiments the general validity
of the Einstein equation, first proved photo-electrically about ten
years ago, is now universally conceded.

VI. OBJECTIONS TO AN ETHER-STRING THEORY

In spite of the credentials which have just been presented for
Einstein’s equation, the essentially corpuscular theory out of which
he got it has not yet met with general acceptance even by physicists
of Bohr’s type. There seems to be no possibility, at present, of
bringing it into harmony with a whole group of well-established facts
of physics.
The recent practically complete bridging of the gap between X-
rays and light,[177] as well as that between heat waves and wireless
waves,[178] with the perfectly continuous passage of the latter over
into static electrical fields, appears to demand that, if we attempt to
interpret high frequency electromagnetic waves—X-rays and light—
in terms of undulatory “darts of light,” we also interpret wireless
waves in the same way, and this in turn requires us to use a similar
mechanism in the interpretation of static electrical fields. This brings
us back to Thomson’s ether-string theory, which seems to be a
necessary part of Einstein’s conception, if it is to have any physical
basis whatever.
Two very potent objections, however, may be urged against all
forms of ether-string theory. The first is that no one has ever yet
been able to show that such a theory can predict any one of the facts
of interference. The second is that there is direct positive evidence
against the view that the ether possesses a fibrous structure. For if a
static electrical field has a fibrous structure, as postulated by any
form of ether-string theory, “each unit of positive electricity being the
origin and each unit of negative electricity the termination of a
Faraday tube,”[179] then the force acting on one single electron
between the plates of an air condenser cannot possibly vary
continuously with the potential difference between the plates. Now in
the oil-drop experiments[180] we actually study the behavior in such
an electric field of one single, isolated electron and we find, over the
widest limits, exact proportionality between the field strength and the
force acting on the electron as measured by the velocity with which
the oil drop to which it is attached is dragged through the air.
When we maintain the field constant and vary the charge on the
drop, the granular structure of electricity is proved by the
discontinuous changes in the velocity, but when we maintain the
charge constant and vary the field the lack of discontinuous change
in the velocity disproves the contention of a fibrous structure in the
field, unless the assumption be made that there are an enormous
number of ether strings ending in one electron. Such an assumption
takes most of the virtue out of an ether-string theory.
Despite, then, the apparently complete success of the Einstein
equation, the physical theory of which it was designed to be the
symbolic expression is thus far so irreconcilable with a whole group
of well-established facts that some of the most penetrating of
modern physicists cannot as yet accept it, and we are somewhat in
the position of having built a very perfect structure and then knocked
out entirely the underpinning without causing the building to fall. It
stands complete and apparently well tested, but without any visible
means of support. These supports must obviously exist, and the
most fascinating problem of modern physics is to find them.
Experiment has outrun theory, or, better, guided by unacceptable
theory, it has discovered relationships which seem to be of the
greatest interest and importance, but the reasons for them are as yet
not at all understood.

VII. ATTEMPTS TOWARD A SOLUTION

It is possible, however, to go a certain distance toward a solution
and to indicate some conditions which must be satisfied by the
solution when it is found. For the energy , with which the electron
is found by experiment to escape from the atom, must have come
either from the energy stored up inside of the atom or else from the
light. There is no third possibility. Now the fact that the energy of
emission is the same, whether the body from which it is emitted is
held within an inch of the source, where the light is very intense, or a
mile away, where it is very weak, would seem to indicate that the
light simply pulls a trigger in the atom which itself furnishes all the
energy with which the electron escapes, as was originally suggested
by Lenard in 1902,[181] or else, if the light furnishes the energy, that
light itself must consist of bundles of energy which keep together as
they travel through space, as suggested in the Thomson-Einstein
theory.
Yet the fact that the energy of emission is directly proportional to
the frequency of the incident light spoils Lenard’s form of trigger
theory, since, if the atom furnishes the energy, it ought to make no
difference what kind of a wave-length pulls the trigger, while it ought
to make a difference what kind of a gun, that is, what kind of an
atom, is shot off. But both of these expectations are the exact
opposite of the observed facts. The energy of the escaping electron
must come, then, in some way or other, from the incident light, or
from other light of its frequency, since it is characteristic of that
frequency alone.
When, however, we attempt to compute on the basis of a
spreading-wave theory how much energy an electron can receive
from a given source of light, we find it difficult to find anything more
than a very minute fraction of the amount which it actually acquires.
Thus, the total luminous energy falling per second from a
standard candle on a square centimeter at a distance of 3 m. is 1
erg.[182] Hence the amount falling per second on a body of the size
of an atom, i.e., of cross-section , is , but the
energy with which an electron is ejected by light of wave-length
(millionths millimeter) is , or four thousand
times as much. Since not a third of the incident energy is in wave-
lengths shorter than , a surface of sodium or lithium which is
sensitive up to should require, even if all tills energy were in
one wave-length, which it is not, at least 12,000 seconds or 4 hours
of illumination by a candle 3 m. away before any of its atoms could
have received, all told, enough energy to discharge an electron. Yet
the electron is observed to shoot out the instant the light is turned
on. It is true that Lord Rayleigh has shown[183] that an atom may
conceivably absorb wave-energy from a region of the order of
magnitude of the square of a wave-length of the incident light rather
than of the order of its own cross-section. This in no way weakens,
however, the cogency of the type of argument just presented, for it is
only necessary to apply the same sort of analysis to the case of -
rays, the wave-length of which is sometimes as low as a hundredth
of an atomic diameter ( cm.), and the difficulty is found still
more pronounced. Thus Rutherford[184] estimates that the total -ray
energy radiated per second by one gram of radium cannot possibly
be more than . Hence at a distance of 100 meters,
where the -rays from a gram of radium would be easily detectable,
the total -ray energy falling per second on a square millimeter of
surface, the area of which is ten-thousand billion times greater than
that of an atom, would be
. This is very close to the
energy with which -rays are actually observed to be ejected by
these -rays, the velocity of ejection being about nine-tenths that of
light. Although, then, it should take ten thousand billion seconds for
the atom to gather in this much energy from the -rays, on the basis
of classical theory, the -ray is observed to be ejected with this
energy as soon as the radium is put in place. This shows that if we
are going to abandon the Thomson-Einstein hypothesis of localized
energy, which is of course competent to satisfy these energy
relations, there is no alternative but to assume that at some previous
time the electron had absorbed and stored up from light of this wave-
length enough energy so that it needed but a minute addition at the
time of the experiment to be able to be ejected from the atom with
the energy . What sort of an absorbing and energy-storing
mechanism an atom might have which would give it the weird
property of storing up energy to the value , where is the
frequency of the incident light, and then shooting it all out at once, is
terribly difficult to conceive. Or, if the absorption is thought of as due
to resonance it is equally difficult to see how there can be, in the
atoms of a solid body, electrons having all kinds of natural
frequencies so that some are always found to absorb and ultimately
be ejected by impressed light of any particular frequency.
However, then, we may interpret the phenomenon of the
emission of electrons under the influence of ether waves, whether
upon the basis of the Thomson-Einstein assumption of bundles of
localized energy traveling through the ether, or upon the basis of a
peculiar properly of the inside of an atom which enables it to absorb
continuously incident energy and emit only explosively, the observed
characteristics of the effect seem to furnish proof that the emission of
energy by an atom is a discontinuous or explosive process. This was
the fundamental assumption of Planck’s so-called quantum theory of
radiation. The Thomson-Einstein theory makes both the absorption
and the emission sudden or discontinuous, while the loading theory
first suggested by Planck makes the absorption continuous and only
the emission explosive.
 The new facts in the field of radiation which have been
discovered through the study of the properties of the electron seem,
then, to require in any case a very fundamental revision or extension
of classical theories of absorption and emission of radiant energy.
The Thomson-Einstein theory throws the whole burden of accounting
for the new facts upon the unknown nature of the ether, and makes
radical assumptions about its structure. The loading theory leaves
the ether alone and puts the burden of an explanation upon the
unknown conditions and laws which exist inside the atom.
In the first edition of this book, finished in 1917, I expressed the
view that the chances were in favor of the ultimate triumph of the
second alternative. In 1921, however, I presented at the Third Solvay
Congress some new photo-electric experiments[185] which seemed
at the time to point strongly the other way.
These experiments consisted in showing with greater certainty
than had been possible in earlier years[186] that the stopping
potentials of different metals , , , when brought in succession
before the same Faraday cylinder (see Fig. 35) and illuminated
with a given frequency, were strictly identical. The significance of
these results for the theory of quanta lay in the fact that I deduced
from them the conclusion that in the photo-electric effect, contrary to
preceding views including my own, the energy “ ” is transferred
without loss from the ether-waves to the free, i.e., the conduction
electrons of the metal, and not merely to those bound in atoms. This
seemed to take the absorbing mechanism out of the atom entirely,
and to make the property of imparting the energy to an electron,
whether free or bound, an intrinsic property of light itself.
 Fig. 35—Showing how photo-electric stopping potentials of different metals are
compared by rotating and in vacuo into the position of .

But a beautiful discovery by Klein and Rosseland[187] a little later,

in Bohr’s Institute, made this conclusion unnecessary. For it showed
that there was an intermediate process, namely, a so-called collision
of the second kind, by means of which the energy might be
transferred without loss, indirectly from the light-wave to the
conduction electron, thus obviating the necessity of a direct transfer.
In other words, the Klein and Rosseland discovery proved that the
energy could be transferred from the light-wave to the conduction
electron by being absorbed first by an atom, which would thus be
changed from the normal to the excited state, i.e., the state in which
one of its electrons has been lifted from a normal to an outer orbit.
This excited atom could then return to its normal state without
radiation by a collision “of the second kind,” which consists in
transferring its whole absorbed energy to a free or conduction
electron. The reality of this phenomenon has been experimentally
checked by Franck and Cario.[188] This important discovery then left
the evidence for localized light-quanta precisely where it was before.
[189]
 Within the past year, however, a young American physicist, Dr. A.
H. Compton, of the University of Chicago, has discovered another
new phenomenon which constitutes perhaps the best evidence yet
found in favor of Einstein’s hypothesis of localized light-quanta.
Compton’s procedure is as follows. Assuming, for the sake of
obtaining quantitative relations, the correctness of Einstein’s
hypothesis, he argues that when such a “light-quanta” collides with a
free electron the impact should be governed by the laws which hold
for the collision between any material bodies. These are two in
number, namely: (1) the principle of the conservation of energy; (2)
the principle of the conservation of momentum (Newton’s Third Law).
Now the energy of a light-quanta, as heretofore shown, is . It
moves with the speed of light, , and if its momentum is taken as
, it follows at once from the Einstein relativity relation between
energy and mass, namely, , that its momentum is
. This is seen by substituting in the foregoing Einstein relation
for energy. Or, if preferred, the same expression for momentum may
be deduced easily from the established laws of light-pressure.
The qualitative results of the preceding assumptions are
immediately seen to be as follows. The light-quanta, by colliding with
the free electron necessarily transfers some of its energy to it, and
therefore, if it arrives with the energy , it must recoil from the
impact at some angle with a smaller energy , and therefore a
lower frequency , than that with which it impinged. In other words,
light waves should be changed from a higher frequency to a lower—
from blue toward red—by impact with a free electron.
A second qualitative result is that, since the mass of the light-
quanta, as defined above, is even for the hardest -rays (
), of the order of a tenth of the mass of the electron, it is
impossible from the laws of elastic impact that it transfer more than a
small part of its energy to it. In other words, if Compton’s
assumptions are correct, the photo-electric effect, in which there
certainly is such a complete transfer, cannot possibly represent the
interaction between a light-wave and a free electron. When the
electron is bound in the atom there is no difficulty of this sort, for the
huge mass of the atom then permits the momentum equation to be
satisfied without forbidding the practically complete transfer of the
energy to one of its electrons. From this point of view, then, the
photo-electric effect represents the interaction between ether-waves
and bound electrons—the Compton effect the interaction between
ether-waves and free electrons.
The quantitative results which can be deduced from Compton’s
assumptions are definite and simple. Combining the energy and
momentum equations in the manner shown in Appendix H he
obtains easily the result

in which represents the increase in wave-length due to the

“scattering” of the incident beam by free electrons, and is the angle
between the original direction of the beam and the direction at which
the scattered waves come to the measuring apparatus.
Compton then tested this relation experimentally,[190] using as his
incident waves the characteristic -rays from a molybdenum target,
and as his scattering substance the free (or substantially free)
electrons found in graphite. He found indeed that the -line of
molybdenum was shifted toward longer wave-lengths just as
predicted, and in approximately the correct amount. There was also
an unshifted line presumably due to scattering by bound electrons.
Compton had used an ionization-chamber spectrometer for
locating his lines. Ross[191] repeated these experiments at Stanford
University, California, using the more accurate photographic plate for
locating his lines, but still using graphite as the scattering substance.
His published photograph shows a line shifted the correct amount
and also an unshifted one, but he commented on the fact that the
shifted line shows no sign of a separation of the and
components while they are clearly separate in the direct picture.
 Duane and his collaborators repeated the Compton experiments
at Harvard, using again the ionization chamber method, and failed to
obtain any trace of the Compton shift. At the February meeting of the
Physical Society, 1924, they took the view that the Compton effect
did not exist, but that what both Compton and Ross had observed
was the -rays of molybdenum with their energy diminished by the
work necessary to eject electrons from the shell of the carbon
atom. [192] This would actually produce a “scattered line” from carbon
which would be practically coincident with Ross’s published line,
though it should not give a dependence of upon angle such as
Compton had observed.
A few weeks before the date of this writing, at the Norman Bridge
Laboratory of Physics at Pasadena, Becker, Watson, and Smythe,
[193] using aluminum as a scatterer, obtained a Compton-effect
photograph which showed both components of the -rays of
molybdenum displaced by an amount which could be measured with
an accuracy of about 1 per cent (as checked by the author) and
within this limit the agreement with the displacement computed by
the foregoing Compton equation was exact. In this case the Duane-
effect-line is completely removed from the Compton-effect-position,
and it too was found upon the photographic plate. This furnishes, I
think, unambiguous evidence for the reality of the Compton effect.
Ross also informs me that he has obtained the Compton shifted line
from a number of other elements besides carbon—elements in which
the Duane effect could not possibly be confused with it.
The accompanying plate sinews in Fig. 36 one of the Becker,
Watson, and Smythe recent photographs. This one was not taken
with sufficient resolution to show the -line as a doublet, but is more
reproducible than the one that did. The direct images of both the -
and -lines of molybdenum are shown, labeled and , and, a
short distance to the right of each, appears the displaced Compton-
shifted-line marked and .
At the moment, then, Einstein’s hypothesis of localized light-
quanta is having new and remarkable successes. Duane,[194]
Epstein,[195] and Ehrenfest[196] have perhaps made some slight
advances also in the direction of accounting for interference in terms
of it. But the theory is as yet woefully incomplete and hazy. About all
that we can say now is that we seem to be driven by newly
discovered relations in the field of radiation to the hypothetical use of
a fascinating conception which we cannot as yet reconcile at all with
well-established wave-phenomena.
To be living in a period which faces such a complete
reconstruction of our notions as to the way in which ether waves are
absorbed and emitted by matter is an inspiring prospect. The atomic
and electronic worlds have revealed themselves with beautiful
definiteness and wonderful consistency to the eye of the modern
physicist, but their relation to the world of ether waves is still to him a
profound mystery for which the coming generation has the
incomparable opportunity of finding a solution.
In conclusion there is given a summary of the most important
physical constants the values of which it has become possible to fix,
[197] within about the limits indicated, through the isolation and
measurement of the electron.