*“This is clearly not true. If it were then hot fusion wouldn't work, and there* * *
*would be no Sun. It takes less energy to get in than it takes to get out.* * * *The difference between the two is the net energy of the reaction.”* I said: “The coulomb barrier is symmetric. It takes as much energy to leave the nucleus as it takes to get in.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay Alpha particles were first described in the investigations of radioactivity by Ernest Rutherford <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Rutherford> in 1899, and by 1907 they were identified as He2+ ions. For more details of this early work, see Alpha particle#History of discovery and use<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle#History_of_discovery_and_use> . By 1928, George Gamow <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gamow> had solved the theory of the alpha decay via tunneling. The alpha particle is trapped in a potential well <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_well>by the nucleus. Classically, it is forbidden to escape, but according to the (then) newly-discovered principles of quantum mechanics<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics>, it has a tiny (but non-zero) probability of "tunneling<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_tunnelling>" through the barrier <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potential_barrier> and appearing on the other side to escape the nucleus. Gamow solved a model potential for the nucleus and derived, from first principles, a relationship between the half-life <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life>of the decay, and the energy of the emission, which had been previously discovered empirically, and was known as the Geiger–Nuttall law<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger%E2%80%93Nuttall_law> . This is where you are going off the track,you think: "It takes less energy to get in than it takes to get out.” Cheers: Axil On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 10:56 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > In reply to Axil Axil's message of Sat, 11 Aug 2012 21:52:52 -0400: > Hi, > [snip] > > The coulomb barrier is symmetric. It take as much energy to leave a > >nucleus as it take to get in. > > This is clearly not true. If it were then hot fusion wouldn't work, and > there > would be no Sun. It takes less energy to get in than it takes to get out. > The difference between the two is the net energy of the reaction. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html > >
