I heard that hydrogen nuclei in the sun fuse after on average 5 billion years of wandering around bumping into each other (I guess that's kind of obvious - the Sun is due to "live" for about 10 billion years, so it must use its fuel at a comparable rate). So the energy production per volume would seem fairly low - one in 5 billion nuclei fuse per year, or one in 150 x 10^15 per second. I guess density is around 10^23 per cubic meter give or take an order of magnitude, so about a million atoms fuse per cubic metre/second. If I read Wikipedia right, each one releases about 7 Mev so a million release about 7 x 10^12 ev or around 10^-6 J/sec, which I believe is one microwatt.
Damn, I've slipped up somewhere, haven't I? Maybe someone with more of a head for maths can do the calculation properly. On 25 November 2013 19:09, Jason Resch <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Mon, Nov 25, 2013 at 12:57 AM, Chris de Morsella <[email protected] > > wrote: > >> >> >> >> >> *From:* [email protected] [mailto: >> [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Jason Resch >> *Sent:* Sunday, November 24, 2013 9:33 PM >> *To:* Everything List >> *Subject:* Re: Nuclear power >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Sun, Nov 24, 2013 at 8:23 PM, Richard Ruquist <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> Stars are essentially fusion bombs and stars can explode. >> >> >> >> I like the analogy that stars are essentially just giant compost heaps. >> The levels of energy production in the core of the sun is quite low on a >> per-volume basis: a few hundred watts per cubic meter. On the same order >> as your own biological metabolism (and not much greater than that of a >> compost heap). It is only by virtue of the huge volume of a star that it >> produces large quantities of energy, but all the energy of a cubic meter of >> stellar core would be just enough to run a TV or a computer. >> >> >> >> Very interesting; never considered it that way. Thanks for sharing. >> > > Thanks, though I can't take credit for it, I found it on > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_core#Energy_production which appears > to be largely inspired from: > http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/04/17/3478276.htm > > >> So if a star is a compost heap, does that make a black hole the >> swirling flush of a cosmic toilet? >> >> I know… pretty much, a non-sequitur, but such is life :) >> > > :-) > > Jason > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
