First I would like to explain something. You all must wonder why I think it is necessary to talk about science all the time in such an inane forum as myspace. Am I trying to impress you all or show off how smart I am? Well, yes, but that's not the only reason I do it. Believe it or not, writing about and explaining science is considered a very important skill for a researcher to have and it is one of the tools you absolutely must acquire as a master's student. What do we do with research after we have it? We travel around to conferences, write papers, teach, and generally try to explain what we are doing. It is considered a vital aspect of the skill set (buzzwords, eww).
In my exploration into my new field of specialization,- physics- I am coming to learn the why's and hows of most of the forces in the universe which I must admit I previously found baffling. Sometimes I find that subjects which seemed inscrutible are really quite simple and elegant in their explanation. The physics of Nuclear Reactions is one of those. It all stems from Nuclear Physics (surprise, surprise). First, a clarification. To what do you suppose the 'Nuclear' in Nuclear Physics refers? It is actually the same as the 'Nuclear' in Nuclear Family, although most people assume that that 'Nuclear' refers to the 'Nuclear' in 'Nuclear Power' or 'Nuclear Physics'. It actually refers to the Nuclear, adjective form of the word Nucleus, meaning (from websters)
"a central point, group, or mass about which gathering, concentration, or accretion takes place"
In the term 'Nuclear Family' it refers to the fact that the modern family unit is centered around the most base members of mother, father, and children, without any extended relations, as has been the custom in every other part of the world and in every other time period since the dawn of man.
Now what of Nuclear Physics?
The 'Nuclear' of 'Nuclear Physics' also refers to a nucleus, that of the atom. What is most interesting about this is how I never really considered or thought of it before.
First let's talk about the atom for a moment. We all remember a bit from high school science classes about the atom, how it is made of 3 major components. (there are others like quarks and such but they are subatomic and not important here). They are the neutral neutron, the positive proton, and the negative electron. The protons are clumped in the center while an equal (usually) amount of electrons buzz around in orbit. What powers this machinery is the electric charge that the two latter particles have which, as we all know, is opposite and therefore attracts. The weird part, the part I never thought of, is as follows:
We know what affect 2 oppositely charged particles have on each other; they attract, and what do similarly charged particles do? Repel!
So the question is, how do those protons stay all clumped together in the nucleus when the basic forces of the universe fight as hard as they possibly can to do the opposite?
The answer is the 'Nuclear Force'. What is it you ask? I don't know. I think it's another one of those things like the particle/wave duality of light that is just an enigma without a real explanation. What I and the rest of the really smart people (yes, I am counting myself among them, humility be damned) do know about the nuclear force is that it is VERY strong. Much stronger than gravity, stronger than the electromagnetic force - it has to be to keep the nucleus together after all- in fact, one of the strongest forces in the universe. What we also know about it is that it has very short range. This leads us to NUCLEAR REACTIONS ladies and gentleman.
There is a reason why uranium is used in nuclear reactions. There are others, but the main one is that it is BIG. When I say it is big I mean it has an atomic number of 92! That means that there are 92 protons crammed in that nucleus all kept together purely by the nuclear force. As we previously discussed, the nuclear force, strong though it is, has a very short range, and 92 protons strains the boundaries of that range. If you smash a couple of them together you break the bounds of the nucleus and release some of the force (called fissioning), which chain reacts into releasing the neighboring nuclei.
As I said the nuclear force is very strong. Force requires energy. Break the force, release the energy.
How much energy?
1 kg of Uranium 235 fissions to release
1 Tera Joule of energy, or
almost 300,000 kW hrs of electricity, with a street value of
$30,000. (however, they don't use the energy directly, I think they use it to heat water into steam and harness steam energy).
Isn't that interesting?
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