On Dec 9, 2008, at 10:30 AM, Jones Beene wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Edmund Storms
When C12 is converted to C13 by addition of a neutron, the following
mass change occurs:
12.0000000 + 1.0086649 = 13.0033548, which represent a loss of mass
equal to 0.0053101 AMU. This is equal to 4.95 MeV. The mechanism
does
not matter. If C12 is the starting material and C13 is the product,
this much energy MUST be removed.
No one denies this Ed. You seem to be missing the point.
The point is that C12 has a cross section for neutrons which is so
very low that this reaction above will NEVER happen in practice, so
the energy content before and after, of a real neutron, is
absolutely meaningless to this situation.
We are not dealing with a real neutron reaction. Period
I agree, Jones. However, if C12 is converted to C13, a real neutron
must be added. This real neutron might have been a virtual neutron at
one time, but once it enters the C12 nucleus, it has to become a real
neutron to make C13 real C13. Once this happens, by whatever magic you
can imagine, the mass balance must take place.
Ed
OK let's move on from there. You may complain that my invention of a
"transmuton" which derives from a proton initially but has far less
mass to loose, when it is adsorbed by 12C as a neutral energy poor
particle - has no basis of fact in prior science, and that is
clearly true.
I will agree that for now - the transmuton or virtual neutron or
whatever one wishes to label it - is a "construct" or an invention
which serves a specific purpose. It could easily be fiction.
But it is a construct in exactly the same sense that the neutrino
was for many decades a construct, a fiction and an invention - which
served a specific purpose ... that is, until the neutrino was
discovered to be both real and very close to having the physical
properties that its inventors thought it would have when it was
"constructed".
Jones
