| The Challenge | |
| Venus: | "I can give you the basics of the atom in two minutes. You'll understand it perfectly and remember if for months." |
| Arnold: | "Two minutes. You're crazy, you know that?" |
| Venus: | "If I can teach you about the atom in two minutes, will you go back to school and finish out the year? You're a betting man, how about it Arnold? How about it, huh?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah, yeah. OK, sure." |
| Venus: | "I've got your word?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah, you've got my word and two minutes." |
| The Lesson | |
| Venus: | Getting supplies, clearing space and walking to a blank wall. "There are three gangs on the street, right?" |
| Arnold: | Lounging on some supplies. "Yeah, yeah, three gangs." |
| Venus: | "And this..." Points to the blank wall "...this right here is the territory." Draws a big circle. "Now here is the neighborhood. Got that?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah" |
| Venus: | "And right in the middle of this neighborhood is a gang called the new boys." Draws a small capital N in the center. |
| Arnold: | "Yeah. The new boys. Good name." |
| Venus: | "OK." Points to the outer circle. "Out here on the outside of the neighborhood, on the edge of the neighborhood, is another gang. You know these are real negative dudes, really negative. Right?" |
| Arnold: | "Right, right." |
| Venus: | "Now they call themselves the elected ones." Draws a small capital E on the circle at about 1 o'clock. |
| Arnold: | "All right, the elected ones." |
| Venus: | "You got that? Really negative. They don't like nothing." Runs his hand around the circle several times and draws another concentric circle outside it. "Now they're all the time out here circling around the neighborhood, just circling, checking out the new boys." Taps the N in the center. "Now the new boys see this." Runs his hand between the N and E several times. "So they make a deal with another, another gang. A gang of very happy go lucky guys. They call themselves the pros. The pros." Draws a small capital P next to the N in the center. "Now the pros are very positive cats. They've got all the good looking women, right?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah!" |
| Venus: | "Right." Laughs. "Now, the pros and elected ones, they hate each other. So much so that they keep the same number of members. Just in case. You dig?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah." |
| Venus: | Starts some rapid fire questions. "So if I've got ten elected ones, how many pros do I have?" |
| Arnold: | "Ten." |
| Venus: | "All right. Now how many gangs do I have?" |
| Arnold: | "Three, the new boys, elected ones and the pros." |
| Venus: | Points to the circle. "Who's here?" |
| Arnold: | "The elected ones." |
| Venus: | "Now, what are they? Negative?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah." |
| Venus: | All right. Now who's positive?" |
| Arnold: | "The pros and you're running out of time." |
| Venus: | "You see right here?" Points to the P and N area. "The pros and the new boys, they call their hangout the nucleus." Draws a small circle around the P and N. "Yeah. Now that's a real tough word. It's Latin. But I think it's Swahili and it means center." |
| Arnold: | "Yeah. What is it?" |
| Venus: | "It's nucleus. Say it!" |
| Arnold: | "Nucleus. Is that really African?" |
| Venus: | "Say it!" |
| Arnold: | "Nucleus." |
| Venus: | "You got it?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah." |
| Venus: | "All right. Give you another Swahili word. It's, ah, it's tron. It means dude." |
| Arnold | "Yeah, tron. Dude." |
| Venus: | All these gangs like that name so well that they all decide to use it. The pros right here in the middle start calling themselves the protons. And the new boys, well they start calling themselves the neutrons. And out here on the edge, the elected ones, they start calling themselves the elect...?" |
| Arnold: | "The electrons. The protons and the neutrons." |
| Venus: | Circling his hand over the empty area between the center and outer circles. "And all this here is the neighborhood. This is block after block of nothing. You understand block after block of nothing don't you?" |
| Arnold: | "Yeah, yeah, I know all about that and your time is up professor DJ." |
| Venus: | Dusting his hands and walking away from the wall. "Good. I was finished anyway. Now you go on back to school man." |
| Arnold: | School? Man, all I know about is a bunch of damn gangs that live in a round neighborhood." |
| Venus: | "Arnold! that's the atom! That's it man! That's it." Points to the center and starts rapid fire questions again. "What's this right here?" |
| Arnold: | "Protons and neutrons." |
| Venus: | Points to the little circle. "And they call this what?" |
| Arnold: | "Nucleus." |
| Venus: | Points to the E. "All right, what are these guys up here?" |
| Arnold: | "Electrons." |
| Venus: | "Are they positive or negative?" |
| Arnold: | "Negative." |
| Venus: | "And how do they move?" |
| Arnold: | "Round and round." |
| Venus: | "And if I've got two of them, how many protons do I have?" Points to the center. |
| Arnold: | "Two." |
| Venus: | "Now, are protons positive or negative?" |
| Arnold: | "Positive." |
| Venus: | Points to the empty area. "What's all this right here?" |
| Arnold: | "Ah, that's the neighborhood." |
| Venus: | "Which is?" |
| Arnold: | "Nothing." |
| Venus: | "You've got it man. You got an A." |
(Minor changes were made to the grammar to make it read better on paper.)