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Real simple chemistry / physics question.
Chop Logic
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I am doing some homework regarding fusion and nucleosynthesis.
All I have to do is add some elements together, but I was absent in class this day. I know how to do everything else.
If I have: (All of the numbers are small and raised, like exponents)
4He + 4He =
Does that just become 8He?
What about:
4He + 12C = ?
I'm sure this is simple, I just didn't know what to google to find my answer. Thanks a lot.
All I have to do is add some elements together, but I was absent in class this day. I know how to do everything else.
If I have: (All of the numbers are small and raised, like exponents)
4He + 4He =
Does that just become 8He?
What about:
4He + 12C = ?
I'm sure this is simple, I just didn't know what to google to find my answer. Thanks a lot.
Chop Logic on
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope
I'm not extremely versed in chemistry but i'm thinking maybe it's
4He+4He=4He2+energy Edit:this is wrong but it seemed like a good guess at the time see below.
where the 4's are all superscripts and the 2 is a subscript.
Edit: actually according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_fusion
The fusion of helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) is known as the triple-alpha process, because fusion of just two helium nuclei only produces beryllium-8
I'm copying the whole dang wiki article here.
Helium fusion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Helium fusion is a kind of nuclear fusion, with the nuclei involved being helium.
The fusion of helium-4 nuclei (alpha particles) is known as the triple-alpha process, because fusion of just two helium nuclei only produces beryllium-8, which is unstable and breaks back down to two helium nuclei with a half life of 1×10−16 to 2.6×10−16 seconds. If the core temperature of a star exceeds 100 million kelvins (100 megakelvins), as may happen in the later phase of red giants and red supergiants, then a third helium nucleus has a significant chance of fusing with the beryllium-8 nucleus before it breaks down, thus forming carbon-12. Depending upon the temperature and density, an additional helium nucleus may fuse with carbon-12 to form oxygen-16, and at very high temperatures, additional fusions of helium to oxygen and heavier nuclei may occur (see alpha process).
The fusion of helium-3 with itself or with helium-4 occurs during the fusion of hydrogen in main sequence stars (see proton-proton chain), and is not ordinarily referred to as helium fusion.
those reactions look familiar?
so 4He+4He->8Be
4He+12C->16C
But you should look into why this happens so you understand it, (i'm not a chemist/physicist)
stuff in the periodic table is organised by number of protons in the nucleus.
He has 2 protons
2protons+2protons=4protons
Be has 4 protons
carbon has 6 proton
2protons+6proton=8protons
oxygen has 8 protons
that's how you get the answer (more or less)
Edit: http://www.webelements.com/
Make sure that it is nuclear chemistry and not just electron exchange.
Next, make sure that you have 4/2 He and not 3/2 He, because I can find very little on 4/2 He but a lot of stuff on 3/2 He.
Were you just giving a made up example illustrating the concept, or this is a real problem?
Since the element is determined by the number of protons in the nucleus, you can tell by checking your handy periodic table that an atom of helium with an atomic mass of 4 has two protons and two neutrons. (Atoms with different numbers of neutrons, but the same number of protons, are called isotopes of the element. )
So, what do you get when you combine two helium atoms of atomic mass 4? 4 protons and 4 neutrons. Check your handy periodic table again, and you can see that that's an isotope of beryllium. (Incidentally, it's not a stable one. The listed mass on the table for beryllium is 9, so you can tell it would be more stable with 1 more neutron.)