Creation Day One: "Let there be light!"
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Using my famous equation, E=mc² , I will now answer all of your questions. List two ways these pictures are like and two ways they differ? The big question we should be asking ourselves is, where does all of this intense energy come from? Th is is the very reason you cannot stare directly at the S un for longer than a brief moment . T he S un releases too much energy for eyes to handle. The same is true if you ever tried to stare at a nuclear bomb being detonated . Once a gain, if your eyes are unprotected, the energy released from the nuclear blast will instantly damage the retinas in back of your eyes. I call this type of intensely released energy, thermonuclear energy. I will now show you how these two different sources of thermonuclear energy, a nuclear explosion and the S un, are alike and how they differ.
Thermonuclear energy is defined as the intense energy released in the form of gamma rays after either a nuclear fission or nuclear fusion reaction take s place inside an atomic nuclei at very high temperatures. Using easy-to-understand graphics and my equation, E=mc², I will now explain how these two sources of thermonuclear energy , nuclear fission and nuclear fusion, release so much intense energy . Nuclear Fission
The best way for me to explain how a nuclear fission reaction occurs is to show what happens inside an unstable uranium 23 5 nucleus just moments before a nuclear bomb is detonated. In the nucleus of each U- 235 atom are 92 protons and 143 neutrons, for a total of 235. Because there are too many neutrons packed into a uranium-235 nucleus, the atoms is unstable and the nucleus can disintegrate . When a U-235
nucleus absorbs an extra neutron, it quickly breaks into two parts. This process is known as nuclear fission (see diagram above ). Each time a U- 235 nucleus splits it releases two or three neutrons and a burst of extremely hot gamma ray energy that radiates outward in all directions. The released neurons strike other U- 235 nuclei causing a CHAIN REACTION. This is what happens in an atomic bomb, or in a more controlled way, in a nuclear fission reactor. Why does this happen? E=mc²!
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