Smallest Book of Mormon in the World
2022-10-12The Book of Mormons has nearly 291,652 words and nearly 1.5 million characters, but several students and a professor at Brigham Young University have managed to carve the entire book into a 4.6-centimetre square piece of silicon. If you want to read, you can only use a microscope. Founded in 1875 and located in Provo, Utah, Brigham Young University is the largest religious university in the United States.
Each letter in the Book of Mormon measures about 25 x 35 microns，that is millionths of a meter, a little smaller than the letters in the 531 pages of historical religious texts, and sometimes seems too small to read. It is made from technology in the manufacture of computer chips. The actual process of forming a pattern on a silicon chip and etching can take less than an hour.
Aaron Hawkins, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Brigham Young University, said the idea came from a student discussing a nano-version of the Bible at a research conference. The carved small Book of Mormon is gold because the silicon is plated with gold. This is a tribute to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who believe that the Book of Mormon was translated from the Golden Page tablets. Although gold is used in computer chips for specific purposes, it is pure for aesthetics in this case.
The smallest book of Mormon is currently on display outside the lab where it was made in the Clyde Building on Brigham Young's Provo campus. Hawkins says the project has a religious purpose but is also one that fits the typical example of industry.
