Replies

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  Solarkid October 2, 2013 at 10:09pm

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe
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  Phylos October 2, 2013 at 11:57am

  Get it girl!
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  Phylos October 2, 2013 at 11:38am

  Imponderable matter?  Yeah, I like your theory.  Have you been visiting with Einstein in dreamland?  I think he would be interested in your mode of thought. Ma ybe you could write up your theory in detail, get some math nerd to scribble a lot of numbers and stuff on a chalk board and get offered a professorship at Oxford.  Then you could hang out with Stephen Hawkins and be a soccer hooligan in your spare time!
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  Malcolm October 1, 2013 at 8:24pm

  It's called nuclear fusion. A pioneer in this process is Steve Jones (former professor of physics at Brigham Young University (HE WAS FIRED AFTER PROVING THE PRESENCE OF THE BUILDING DEMOLITION CHEMICAL THERMATE AT THE 9/11 WORLD TRADE CENTER BUILDING SITES (#1 and #2)). The by-product of the sun's nuclear fusion process is helium, the same stuff that makes you talk like Donald Duck when you inhale it. I am certain that if this process is used on this planet, Al Gore will implement a Donald Duck tax that needs to be sent to him for insulting ducks. Here's the process:

  What is happening in the middle of the Sun is analogous to burning methane:

  C H₄ + 2 O₂ --> C O₂ + 2 H₂ O

  In this reaction, the final molecules have less internal energy than the starting molecules. Since energy is conserved, the extra energy is released as energy of motion of the molecules. That is the gas gets hotter. The amount of energy involved is 5.5 eV each time the reaction above happens.

  As we have seen, much more energy than that must be involved in the reactions inside the Sun and other stars. The evidence is strong that the overall reaction is "burning" hydrogen to make helium:

  4 ¹H + 2 e --> ⁴He + 2 neutrinos + 6 photons

  The high energy photons produced by the nuclear process don't get far. They are absorbed and heat the gas. The helium remains in the middle of the Sun. The neutrinos easily zip out of the Sun. (Neutrinos easily zip through most anything, reacting with matter only rarely.)

  

  

  In this reaction, the final particles have less internal energy than the starting particles. Since energy is conserved, the extra energy is released as energy of motion of the nuclei and electrons in the solar gas, the production of lots of low energy photons and, finally, the energy of the neutrinos, which just zip right out of the Sun. That is the gas gets hotter and has lots of photons (and neutrinos). The amount of energy involved is 26 MeV = 26 x 10⁶ eV each time the reaction above happens.