How the Sun works: Fusion and Quantum Tunneling
Now that you know about the sun, do you want to learn about quantum tunneling? http://bit.ly/p7l3gv Sorry I'm late - I was busy working on freddiew's new video: http://bit.ly/n73Uwj ...
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Did you know that if the sun were fueled by combustion of, say, gasoline or wood, it wouldburn out in just a few millennia? So how is it still here after 4.5 billion years? Physics.The sun is like a big nuclear submarine… in the sky. That's right - it's fueled bynuclear reactions that fuse hydrogen atoms together into helium and other heavier elements,releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. In this way the sun is slowly converting itsmass into energy – in the form of sunlight! And it has more than enough fuel to last billionsof years.But nuclear fusion's no walk in the park - on earth we need to heat hydrogen up 100x hotterthan the sun to get a fusion reaction. So how does the sun do it? Quantum tunneling.There's a small chance (whi...
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Did you know that if the sun were fueled by combustion of, say, gasoline or wood, it wouldburn out in just a few millennia? So how is it still here after 4.5 billion years? Physics.The sun is like a big nuclear submarine… in the sky. That's right - it's fueled bynuclear reactions that fuse hydrogen atoms together into helium and other heavier elements,releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. In this way the sun is slowly converting itsmass into energy – in the form of sunlight! And it has more than enough fuel to last billionsof years.But nuclear fusion's no walk in the park - on earth we need to heat hydrogen up 100x hotterthan the sun to get a fusion reaction. So how does the sun do it? Quantum tunneling.There's a small chance (whi...
