Reply To: Military Effects

[asymmetric_implosion]

dennisp wrote: I was going to ask you about your previous post mentioning momentum…if there’s a simple explanation, why does that force the nucleus to split? Why couldn’t the proton just stick to the boron and give it a push, like a bullet hitting a block of clay?

I understand there will be energy that has to go somewhere…the clay heats, but the carbon could, as you say, emit a gamma.

(As I’m sure you can tell, my physics training only extends to a couple semesters.)

While the gamma can carry momentum to balance the reaction, imagine the state of the 12C nucleus after absorbing the proton. The five protons and six neutrons were dancing around in their quantum mechanical happy place. Balance between the electromagnetic force and strong nuclear force is achieved. Suddenly, some jerk from out town shows up. He has both strong nuclear attributes (attractive over short distances) and electromagnetic attributes (repulsive over long distances) and he’s not afraid to show it. By the time the proton gets close enough for the strong nuclear force to gab onto everyone the electromagnetic force is pushing on the other protons. The neutrons have to stay near the protons to maintain balance so they start to move as well. Like a desperate person falling, the out-of-towner grabs what he can. For some reason, grabbing another proton and two neutrons is the most favorable. The remaining nucleons suddenly find their peace disrupted. Factions grow up in the 8Be nucleus and talks break down. It is far easier to divorce than stay together. Every now and then, the protons course is such that it can grab onto everyone or enough neighbors to stick. At that point, a photon is released to conserve momentum and energy.

If you imagine the case of a neutron going into the nucleus, it has only strong nuclear properties. It can cozy up to the other nucleons. Trying to find its place in the group it fights the other nucleons. Depending on the instability in the nucleus to start with, it can lead to some particles expelled (host of neutron reactions), an invitation to stay (neutron comes and photon goes) or the Jerry Springer show breaks out (fission). Protons and photons can do the same thing but the energy requirements tend to be much larger. Photons of sufficient energy are rare. Protons are charged particles and they are repelled by other charged particles in the nucleus.

Protons reacting with nucleons are throwing a ping-pong ball into the wind. You cannot say the ping-pong ball collided with the wind in the ball hitting the wall sense. Instead, you say the ping-pong ball was continuously deflected. Take a golf ball and throw it into the wind. You won’t notice much change relatively speaking.