Department of

Visual and Environmental Studies

Harvard University

Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

April 8, 1976

Kenneth Snelson

140 Sullivan Street

New York, New York 10012

Dear Kenneth Snelson:

Thank you for your article, exhibition catalog and magnets, all of which delight me. I shall be happy to meet you, and to discuss your atomic models.

Your models are analogs, as physical models are apt to be, rather than theoretical models that explain, or coordinate physical observations better than previous models do. As long as you accept the uncertainty principle, why put electrons on a spherical shell? I think that smearing the electron out over the surface of a shell is fine, but why not then also smear it out over several shells?

Your interpretation of atomic electron "clouds" is a conmon, but erroneous one. These only describe angular distributions, just as you feel they should. The distance from the origin represents the density of the electron cloud in that particular direction; it is not the radial coordinate, which peaks near the radii of the Bohr orbits.

You should also speak to Peter Stevens, architect at the Harvard Medical School, who also worked on geometrical models of the atom and of the nucleus.

Would you be interested in discussing your models and your work at a meeting of the PhilonDrphs on Wednesday evening, May 19? Peter Stevens and Cyril Smith both both belong to this group, which meets once a month at the Carpenter Center at Harvard. Stephen Jay Gould and I both dedicated our most recent books to the Philoiroiphs. A different wednesday evening in May might also be feasible.

Yours sincerely,

(signed) Arthur L. Loeb

cc: Peter Stevens Peter Pearce