At 01:36 AM 5/11/2011, Joshua Cude wrote:
On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 10:53 PM, Wm. Scott Smith
<<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote:
> Bohr "orbit." It takes energy -- a lot of energy, apparently, -- to
> bring an electron and a proton into close proximity.
Actually it takes the removal of lots of energy to bring an electron
and proton together. it is only orbital energy that can maintain
their separation; this is its energy of fusion.
I'm sorry, but this is just wrong. There are other forces involved
in electron capture. Nuclear forces, albeit weak nuclear forces.
The rest energy of the neutron is 0.8 MeV higher than the rest
energy of the electron plus proton. That means it takes 0.8 MeV to
cause the electron capture by a proton. It's endothermic. That's why
a free neutron decays spontaneously to a proton plus electron with a
half-life of about 15 minutes.
This 0.8 MeV barrier to the formation of a W-L neutron is 10 to 100
times higher than the Coulomb barrier to fusion, and fusion is exothermic.
W-L try to obscure the energy barrier to the formation of a neutron
by calling the electron a "heavy" electron instead of an energetic
electron. The Coulomb barrier is something familiar to most people
from static electricity; the energy barrier to electron capture by a
proton is not understood by people who only give W-L a superficial
look. People, regrettably, like NASA's Bushnell.
Yeah, kind of what I think. Thanks, Joshua, maybe you are good for
something. How about helping out at http:en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Cold
fusion? Just remember: Be Nice.
