"An Amazing Grasp of the Obvious"
Chapter 4
Like An Egg
(continued)
Plasma, however, doesn't look anything like the World
Book drawing. In the plasma state random electrons and nuclei are
moving about at such high rates of speed as to be absolutely explosive!
Heating atoms causes movement and movement causes atoms to heat! When
they heat up enough they come apart, this state is called plasma and
it is the most common state of matter throughout the universe.
Why is plasma the most common state of matter in the universe? By
comparison to hot stars planets are infinitely fewer in number. It
is only on planets, however, that conditions are cool enough to permit
the three states of matter that we take for granted on Earth. Hot
stars consist of broken-down atomic particles blasting about in a
most dangerous way!
The result of the colliding of those random particles is the conversion
of matter to energy at a rate established by the most famous mathematical
formula there is. Einstein's brilliant formula, E= mc2! The "E"
is for energy, "m" is for mass (which refers to matter composed
of atoms or atomic particles). The c2 part of the formula is a very
large number indeed; the square of the speed of light! So, simply
put, mass contains a vast amount of energy!
The Manhattan Project at the end of World War II was a race to make
a controlled release of that energy for destructive purposes here
on Earth (they wanted to make a big bomb!). But stars have been releasing
the energy contained in mass far longer, even, than a bus ride from
LA to Cleveland!
What the Manhattan Project came up with was a "nuclear reaction."
Energy was released from atoms by removing the hard electron shell
of an atom and then injecting a neutron into an atomic nucleus. The
nucleus was thereby rendered so unstable that it broke (divided)!
That division released such great energy that the nuclear parts scattered
outward with enough force to blast away electrons and break up more
atomic nuclei as they encountered them. The newly broken nuclei then
exploded outward expelling more atomic electrons and dividing more
unprotected nuclei causing a "nuclear chain reaction." A
big ol' bomb!
This dividing of atomic nuclei is called "nuclear fission."
There is an even more powerful and fearful way to release the energy
contained in matter. If enough heat is applied to atomic nuclei, in
an environment where the protective electron shells are absent, then
two (or more) atomic nuclei can be "fused" together. This
is an extremely unnatural condition because every atomic nucleus has
an electrically positive charge. Opposites attract, don't you know.
The corollary is that likes repel! Thus, positively charged nuclei
repel one another. To get them to kiss is very unlikely, but get them
to hug? No way! But if, with lots of heat, you can thrust them upon
one another by force and cause them to melt into one another, their
repulsion will be an energy release of unimaginable force. It's a
process called "nuclear fusion."
And, it's what stars do! The result is the energy and heat release
that radiates outward into space. In the case of the Sun, that radiant
energy reaches the Earth in 8 minutes because it travels at the speed
of light and the Earth is 8 minutes from the Sun at that speed.
Before we conclude, a bit more information about atoms will help us
transition into the chapters ahead. And, a better description of what
an atom really might look like is appropriate.
Atoms consist of electrons, which are negatively charged particles
racing around a nucleus. An atom will always have in its nucleus the
same number of protons (positively charged particles) as it has electrons
in its shell(s). When the number of positives and negatives are matched,
then the tiny chunk of matter has no electrical charge... it's neutral.
When electrons and protons are not matched in number, then it's no
longer called an atom. Instead, it's called an ion! Ions have an electrical
charge while atoms are electrically neutral.
Electrons move around a nucleus at such velocity that they make up
what is called a shell. It's not at all like an orbit, as the Earth
orbits the Sun, for example. An electron does not revolve around it's
nucleus in any kind of plane, like the Earth does. Rather it shifts
position and does so with such speed that the effect is to find the
electron everywhere surrounding the atom simultaneously!
Remember that the normal laws of Physics are defied at the sub-atomic
level? Here's an example. Electrons somehow actually occupy all of
the three-dimensional space around an atom's sphere simultaneously.
Thus, the term "shell" is used to describe the movement
of an electron around an atom. And a hard shell it is. Much force
is required to break it. Therefore, an atom may actually look like
a really round egg!
When we get to the "Mickey Mouse molecule" (a molecule is
a basic collection of atoms), you will be wowed with even more outrageous
physical impossibility at the sub-atomic level.
Now that you've acquired an astrophysicist 's knowledge of the makeup
of the Sun, let me simply say that nuclear fusion reactions are happening
continually on the Sun. And they are going on with such unlikely and
uncommon constancy as to render the blue planet evenly and continually
energized and perfectly suited for life.