Born to do Math 51 – Metaprimes (Part 17)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/04/27
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Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Why elements, or heavy elements, in an IC universe?
Rick Rosner: If IC is true-ish, you have to answer “Why heavy elements”? from two perspectives. You have to answer it under the Big Bang and the IC perspectives. Some elements formed from protons smashing together in the early history of the universe. You know, the first few seconds, where you have a ratio of 12 Hydrogen atoms to every Helium atom to small percentages of Lithium and Beryllium.
Everything else has to form within the interior of a star, where things cook down under huge pressure. Stars run from fusion. Fusion is protons being fused together into heavier and heavier nuclei. When two protons are fused together into heavier nuclei, into Deuterium, one of the protons flips into a neutron, which is basically what happens in all of fusion. When you have proton-rich matter that gets smushed into heavier and heavier nuclei, and more and more protons get flipped into neutrons, there is energy released from each act of fusion.
Because it takes, naively, energy to pull a nucleus apart, which means that when you put a nucleus together you release energy. It is in a lower energy state than when its contents were separate. You mush two protons or you mush two nuclei together into a bigger nuclei. You generally release energy because that combined thing is in a lower energy state. That’s what power stars.
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