- 3014 - ATOM - Nuclear Forces and Electron Volts? The Cosmic Ray is a proton traveling at nearly the speed of light. It was flung out of a galaxy that was 12 million lightyears away. It was so near light speed that after 12 million lightyears it was only behind a photon, released at the same time, by 46 nanometers. Because Relativity slows time at light speed the Cosmic Ray has only experienced 20 minutes of flight.
--------------------- 3014 - ATOM - Nuclear Forces and Electron Volts
- Chemistry operates with an energy level around 1 electron volt. A D-size flashlight battery is 1.5 volts. When you move one electron through 1 volt of potential you use 1 ‘electron volt’ of energy.
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- The number of electrons in the outer shells of all atoms determine the characteristics of all the elements. There are about 100 elements in the Periodic Table of Elements. They start with the lightest element, hydrogen, with one electron and one proton. As we add protons and electrons to the elements they get heavier and heavier until we get up to Uranium with 92 protons and electrons.
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- These heaviest elements, up to 113 protons, are all radioactive. They are unstable because the nucleus can not hold so many protons. These atoms eventually decay into lighter elements.
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- What is really going on is that the “Strong Nuclear Force” that holds protons together in the nucleus is running out of strength. Protons are all a positive electric charge. Like charges repel each other. So, something stronger must overcome the electric force and hold these protons together in the nucleus.
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- It turns out that all protons are made up of even more fundamental particles called Quarks. Both protons and neutrons are made up of three Quarks each. So the Strong Nuclear Force is really holding the Quarks together. It can do this because the Strong Force is 137 times stronger than the Electromagnetic Force.
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- Gravity Force is 10^39 times weaker than the Strong Force
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- The Electromagnetic Force is carried by virtual photons. “Virtual” because you can not see these photons but they are the same photons that carry light.
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- Virtual photons and virtual gluons can both become standalone particle if enough energy is added. Gluons take a lot more energy. If the energy exceeds 100,000 MeV the photons in Electromagnetic Force and the gluons in the Weak Force combine into a single Force, the Electroweak Force.
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- It is the exchange of these virtual photons between the positive protons in the nucleus and the negative electrons in the shells that hold the electrons in their orbits. In the case of the Strong Nuclear force it is the exchange of virtual gluons between the Quarks in the nucleus that hold the protons and neutrons together.
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- Unlike the photons that are massless and travel at the speed of light to infinite distances, the gluons are very massive. Their extreme mass limit’s the distance they can travel in exchanging the Strong Force. In fact, the distance is limited to 10^-15 meters, the maximum size of the nucleus of the atoms.
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- Protons and electrons cannot occupy the same space. It is called the “Pauli Exclusion Principle“. So, the protons are stacked side by side in the nucleus and when you get about 100 protons packed together the ones on the outside edge are at the limits of the Strong Force and they start to escape, causing the element to decay into a lighter element. That is radioactivity. Only so many protons can be bound together out to 10^-15 meters distance.
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- The Weak Nuclear Force is a different nuclear force. It is what holds a neutron together and keeps it from decaying into a proton. Neutrons themselves are naturally unstable. If a neutron is by itself it will decay into a proton + an electron + an anti-electron neutrino in about 15 minutes.
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- Held inside the nucleus with the protons the neutrons make the element heavier but do not change the characteristic of the element because the neutron is neutral charge and there are still the same number of protons and electrons to define the characteristic of the element.
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- Elements with neutrons are called “isotopes’ of the element. When a neutron does decay inside the nucleus it turns into a proton and creates a new element. This is called “Beta Decay” that occurs naturally in radioactive isotopes.
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- An example of Beta Decay is Plutonium 15 becoming Strontium 16 + electron + anti-electron neutrino. Actually the Beta Decay changes a neutron to a proton by changing a Down Quark into an Up-Quark.
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- The Weak Nuclear force is carried by force particles called “Bosons“. Bosons are what holds neutrons together. What is interesting about these fundamental particles is that they become a blend between energy and mass, waves and particles.
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- In fact, particle physicists even use electron volts as the units to indicate the mass of these particles. They are taking liberty with E=mc^2 and saying mass = E / c^2. And, since “c” is always a constant and “c^2” is always a constant 9*10^16 meters squared / second squared, they just imply that the “c^2” is always there but don’t bother to calculate the mass into kilograms. Let me illustrate with the mass of a proton.
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----------------- Proton mass is 938 million electron volts, or 938 MeV
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----------------- one electron volt is = 1.6 * 10^-19 joules
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----------------- a joule of energy is = kg * m^2 / sec^2
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----------------- converting 938 MeV to joules = 1.5*10^-10 joules.
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----------------- dividing by c^2 = 1.67*10^-27 kilograms.
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- So the mass of a proton is 1.67*10^-27 kilograms, but we take the shortcut and also say the mass of a proton is 938 MeV. Let’s compare the mass of particles in MeV:
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------------ Electron mass ---------------- 0.51 MeV
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------------ Up - Quark ---------------- 3
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------------ Proton --------------- 938
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------------ Neutron -------------- 940
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------------ W- Boson -------------- 80,400
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- Let’s take the electron volt comparison further and compare electromagnetic energy in MeV:
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------------- Radio wave ---------------- 0.0001 MeV
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------------ Infrared ---------------- 0.1
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------------ Yellow light ---------------- 2
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------------ X-ray ---------------- 63,000,000,000,000,000
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------------ Gamma ray ---------------- 63,000,000,000,000,000,000
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- Gamma rays are soooo powerful. If you convert the energy units to joules it is 1,000,000 joules. This is the amount of kinetic energy of a car traveling 60 miles per hour. It is the amount of chemical energy you burn in a one hour walk.
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- Your daily food consumption is about 10,000,000 joules ( 6.3*10^19 MeV) , about the same as burning a liter of oil has 12,000,000 joules of energy.
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- The fission reaction of one kilogram of Uranium 235 is 56*10^12 joules (3.5*10^26 MeV) A Magnitude 8.0 earthquake releases 25*10^15 joules of energy (1.6*10^29 MeV) The annual consumption of energy in the United States is 4,000 times that energy released by the 8.0 earthquake. Let’s put some of the comparisons into table form:
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------------ Proton ------------------------------------ 1 * 10^0 MeV
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------------ Cosmic ray --------------------------------- 3 * 10^14
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------------ Sunlight per m^2 per second --------------- 8 * 10^15
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------------ Hydrogen fusion 1 liter H2O ----------------- 4 * 10^26
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------------ Magnitude 8.0 earthquake ------------------ 2 * 10^29
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------------ Annual U.S. consumption --------------------- 6 * 10^32
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----------- Annual from the Sun ---------------------------- 6 * 10^46
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----------- Supernova explosion ---------------------------- 6 * 10^58
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- The proton at 1 MeV is at rest. The Cosmic Ray is a proton traveling at nearly the speed of light. It was flung out of a galaxy that was 12 million lightyears away. It was so near light speed that after 12 million lightyears it was only behind a photon, released at the same time, by 46 nanometers.
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- Because Relativity slows time at light speed the Cosmic Ray has only experienced 20 minutes of flight.
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----------------- Science is stranger than fiction ----------------------
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January 31, 2021 ATOM - Nuclear Forces 946 3014
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--------------------- --- Tuesday, February 2, 2021 ---------------------------
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