It was December 1938, the of Christmas when physicists Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch came up with something that would lead us to nuclear bombs and then to nuclear reactors. They had discovered the process called atomic fission but even before that Ernest Rutherford had discovered another weird atomic process that was as iconic as fission, he had discovered atomic fusion, the process that is very important in our everyday life. How? We wouldn't have our sun without it. Decades have passed since the discovery but people still get confused between the two. The confusion however should not be there as they both are exactly opposite to each other but now it's time to end the confusion and differentiate between the two.
Let's start with atomic/nuclear fission.
In this process, you need to trigger a chain reaction in such a way that nuclei of atoms break apart.
Let's imagine that we are trying to trigger an atomic bomb which is a nuclear bomb made through nuclear fission. To trigger such a bomb you would have to strike an atom's nucleus with a neutron. The nucleus breaks apart releasing more neutrons that hit more nuclei and the process caries itself out. This breaking of nuclei releases a large amount of energy which we see as the bomb blasts.
Now let's move towards atomic/nuclear fusion.
As discussed earlier this process is exactly opposite to atomic fission. In this process you make atomic nuclei come close to each other, going against nuclear forces until they merge releasing a massive amount of energy. Let's take the example of our sun. In there H(Hydrogen) atoms fuse to for He(Helium) which further form C(Carbon) atoms and later in the process heavier by-products like Fe(Iron), Au(Gold), Ag(Silver)* are formed.
Now fusion is the real killer of stars but how? Because of fusion stars slowly convert their fuel into heavier compounds and hence run out of fuel and die. This same thing will kill our sun incoming 5.2 billion years and just to correct some common misconceptions---
OUR SUN IS TOO SMALL TO TURN INTO A BLACK HOLE.
Here's another interesting thing about nuclear fusion.
Did you know that so far we have been able to create only a Hydrogen bomb using fusion of level 1.
MYTHBUSTER AHEAD!
Despite common belief, a nuclear bomb and an atomic bomb are not the
same. An atom bomb is just a type of nuclear bomb that works on the process of nuclear fission and a Hydrogen bomb is another type of nuclear bomb that works on the process of nuclear fusion.
LET'S END THIS BLOG WITH A QUOTE:
Fuision is like snooker the only diffrence is then the ball multiply on being hit.
And that's it for this month's blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it. If ys then make sure to visit PHYSICS ISLAND for more such blogs and fill the subscribe form to receive a free monthly PHYSICS ISLAND newsletter in your inbox. Join Us for an exclusive member badge.
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