Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ? So our space rocket will just scoop up rocks
and fuse them firing super powerful lasers at them . With the huge
positive release in energy as in hundred megatonne H bombs the rocket
will speed on its way to the stars .
Of course we must not get carried away with compression ,
because we might end up making a mini black hole and the earth will be
sucked into it .
This might be the reason why there are no advanced
civilizations trying to contact us . Some smart ass scientists get
carried away and create black holes . Over to you Uncle Al .

Habshi wrote:

Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ?

Nuclear binding energy products vs. reactants, imbecile.

[snip]


--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
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Habshi wrote:

Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?

There are many fusion reactions... most of them taking place in the
cores of stars at different temperatures, pressures and densities of
various fusion participants. Lang gives extensive reactions with
energies in section 4.4 Nuceosynthesis of the Elements in "Astrophysical
Formulae", Vol. I, Springer (1999), pgs 402-432.

Nucleosynthesis produces energy only in reaction with products up through
atomic weight A=60.

In article , Habshi wrote:
Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ? So our space rocket will just scoop up rocks
and fuse them firing super powerful lasers at them . With the huge
positive release in energy as in hundred megatonne H bombs the rocket
will speed on its way to the stars .
Of course we must not get carried away with compression ,
because we might end up making a mini black hole and the earth will be
sucked into it .
This might be the reason why there are no advanced
civilizations trying to contact us . Some smart ass scientists get
carried away and create black holes . Over to you Uncle Al .

Iron is the dividing line. You can fuse things up to iron and release
energy, after that more energy is used in the process than can be
released. Aging stars have no trouble burning helium, lithium, and
heavier elements, but it stops at iron or nickel.

Above iron you can fission things and release energy, but below
that it takes more energy to fission something than can be released.

--
"Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the
truth... But let us beware of publishing our dreams before they have been
put to the proof by the waking understanding." -- Friedrich August Kekulé

"Habshi" wrote in message
...
Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ?

Fusing everything up to iron has a potential energy release. However, the
practical inefficiencies of this process pretty much limit the process at
carbon, even in stars.

(Habshi) wrote in message ...
Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ? So our space rocket will just scoop up rocks
and fuse them firing super powerful lasers at them . With the huge
positive release in energy as in hundred megatonne H bombs the rocket
will speed on its way to the stars .
Of course we must not get carried away with compression ,
because we might end up making a mini black hole and the earth will be
sucked into it .
This might be the reason why there are no advanced
civilizations trying to contact us . Some smart ass scientists get
carried away and create black holes . Over to you Uncle Al .

It takes an atom bomb (million degrees sustained for a certain amt of
time) to fuse two H atoms. To fuse heavier nuclei is going to take a
whole lot more. I believe that even in the center of hot stars nuclei
heavier than Fe (if they can even exist for a while) cannot get fused.
As for propelling crafts with nuclear explosions, how are you going to
shield the craft from the explosion itself?

Adi Anant

Hi Greg ,
You say :
" Above iron you can fission things and release energy ,
but below that it takes more energy to fission
something than can be released . "

I wonder if that'd be true
given a different ambient temperature ?

What if the ambient temperature were
10 ^ 10 degrees Kelvin ?

Habshi wrote:

Why should only Hydrogen-Hydrogen fusion release energy ?
Why not all materials ?

It is like asking: when electricity can run in many materials, why use
only good conductors to carry it? :-)

The reasons are practical. Any light nuclei can be used for fusion, but
Hydrogen has just one electron to strip; is the most common element in
the Universe; and is available in abundance on Earth as well.

A.