Enrico Fermi

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/enrico-fermi

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Enrico Fermi born?September 29, 1901
2. When did Enrico Fermi die?November 28, 1954 (age 53)
3. Where was Enrico Fermi born?Rome, Italy
4. What did Enrico Fermi discover about slow neutrons?He found that slow neutrons are much better at causing nuclear reactions than fast ones, which helped scientists build nuclear reactors.
5. How did Fermi help create the first artificial nuclear reactor?He led the team that built Chicago Pile-1, and on December 2, 1942, it became the first reactor to sustain a nuclear chain reaction.

Fermi-Dirac Statistics: A statistical model describing the behavior of a collection of identical particles that obey the Pauli exclusion principle.
Neutrino: A fundamental elementary particle with very low mass and no electric charge, interacting only through gravity and the weak force.
Nuclear Fission: A nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits into two or more smaller nuclei, releasing a large amount of energy.