In reply to Axil Axil's message of Sat, 11 Aug 2012 23:49:43 -0400: Hi, [snip] >The barrier is not symmetrical because of radioactive decay only.
You started off saying it was symmetrical. ;) >You get >energy out during radioactive decay (i.e., Alpha decay). This is due to QM >tunneling. At its root, this energy increase comes from the uncertainty >principle and is a matter of pure chance. It may be a matter of pure chance, but the uncertainty principle is not the source of the energy. It doesn't have any (net) energy. If it did, our very existence would be much more "uncertain". ;) You get energy from a radioactive decay because the final mass of the resultant particles is less than that of the initial nucleus, IOW mass is converted into energy. Any energy momentarily supplied via ZPE (if it exists), is soon taken (or given) back again. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
