More Elemental Musings

And on to the real source of energy in fission and fusion

Last week I was thinking about how much force it takes to hold protons together in the nuclei of atoms. The positively charged protons should fly apart. Then my roving mind wondered about gravity, and magnetism, and electricity, and light - which is an electromagnetic wave of energy. Here’s an excerpt for review or in case you missed it:

“God said “Let there be light”; and there was light.” Gen.1:3

…What is light? In physics class, I learned it’s an electromagnetic wave of energy. The frequency and wavelength determine the colors we see [in the visible portion]. With shorter wavelength, like ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, we can’t see the waves; nor can we see the longer wavelengths, like infrared or microwaves or radio waves.

Question: Is light a wave or is it particles?

In a class on quantum mechanics, I was taught that light not only is made of particles called photons, but that the particles could be in two places at once! It sounded crazy to me, and still does. I don’t understand it.

Here’s a 6 minute video on the experiment that gave credence to the quantum theory. Just for fun, watch it and see if you can understand it.

Ai “Quantum light particles, or photons, are the fundamental particles of electromagnetic radiation. They are massless particles that carry energy and momentum, exhibiting both wave-like and particle-like properties. Einstein's theory of light quanta, also known as the photoelectric effect, explains that light's energy is quantized, meaning it exists in discrete packets called photons.”

Question: Where does this energy come from?

Perhaps the dichotomy between thinking of light as a wave or particle is really just a matter of semantics. I think of a wave of energy as vibrating; pulsing from peak to peak. Maybe those pulses are hitting like bundles of energy – not exactly particles, but similar in effect. The shorter the wavelength the higher the frequency, and the stronger the quantized bundles of energy that are impacting.

In Genesis 1:2, it says “the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters”. The original Hebrew word translated “moving” is ‘rachaph’ – sometimes translated “hovering”; sometimes “trembling”, like vibrating.

The Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, is full of unimaginable power. Ephesians 1:19 speaks of “the surpassing greatness of His power”. In the original Greek, the word translated “power” is ‘dunamis’, from which we get the English word “dynamite”!

My point is that an electromagnetic wave, created by God and called “light”, is packed with energy and power.

On earth, it is often said that all of our life and energy can ultimately be traced to sunlight. Photons, which I’ll call the bundles of energy delivered by electromagnetic waves, give us photosynthesis, without which we could not live. Even the ‘fossil’ fuels – oil and coal, are just concentrated reservoirs of biomass that were formed by photosynthesis in the past.

by the way, notice that CO₂ is just as necessary for life as water and sunlight.

Photovoltaics describe the electrical voltage produced when photons of light strike certain kinds of material and knock electrons loose (remember, electrons in motion are the basis of electricity). Electrons are negatively charged particles. There is a connection here with electromagnetism, because moving electrons in a wire are accompanied by a magnetic force field surrounding the wire. Electricity and magnetism go together like a horse and carriage.

So whether we get our energy from fossil fuels, or biomass, or solar panels, we can thank sunlight. Even hydropower from water falling under the force of gravity can be traced to the sun as much as gravity – the sun evaporates the water so it can ascend back up into the clouds and then fall again as rain. Without the sun’s energy, no weather cycle.

(One outlier as another source is geothermal heat energy - from earth’s molten core. But that came from God, too. Gen.1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”)

nuclear fusion confusion

But where does the sun get its energy? We are told the sun is a huge ball of hydrogen gas and it’s so big that its own gravity pulls the hydrogen atoms together with such tremendous force that they “fuse” together. If we could only harness the energy of fusion…

Ai: “Nuclear fusion is significantly more powerful than fission. While both processes release immense energy, fusion reactions, like those in the sun, generate roughly four times more energy per unit of mass compared to fission. Additionally, fusion releases nearly four million times more energy than chemical reactions like burning oil or coal, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency”

So now we can look at both kinds of nuclear power – fission and fusion, and where all that energy comes from.

Einstein somehow saw that mass and energy are related. I have no idea how he figured out that E=mc². I suppose it was derived from his general theory of relativity. The speed of light, squared, is a really big number. Anyway, his formula checks out in experiments. Basically, it tells us that a small mass can be converted into a large amount of energy.

I found an interesting explanation of nuclear fission at Energy Education’s site, and learned what my physics professor was talking about when he told me it’s the “strong force” that holds the protons together in the nucleus, plus I learned there is a name for the force of magnetic repulsion of the positively charged protons - it’s the “Coulomb force”.

“Nuclear fission is the process of splitting apart nuclei (usually large nuclei). When large nuclei, such as uranium-235, fissions, energy is released.^[2] So much energy is released that there is a measurable decrease in mass, from the mass-energy equivalence. This means that some of the mass is converted to energy. The amount of mass lost in the fission process is equal to about 3.20×10⁻¹¹ J [joules] of energy. This fission process generally occurs when a large nucleus that is relatively unstable (meaning that there is some level of imbalance in the nucleus between the Coulomb force and the strong nuclear force) is struck by a low energy thermal neutron.”

A simple graphic usually helps; same source -

So then I looked up their explanation of nuclear fusion:

“Nuclear fusion is a type of nuclear reaction where two light nuclei collide together to form a single, heavier nucleus. Fusion results in a release of energy because the mass of the new nucleus is less than the sum of the original masses. Based on the principle of mass-energy equivalence, this mass difference means that some mass that was "lost" has been converted into energy…Although the fusion of small atoms gives off a lot of energy, initiating this process requires a significant amount of energy. This energy is needed to overcome the Coulomb repulsion that exists between the protons the two different nuclei. Hydrogen atoms must be pushed close enough together so that the strong nuclear force can overcome the coulomb repulsion. The initial energy needed is a major factor which makes fusion difficult to achieve.”

You can see why the quest for a practical, usable harnessing of ‘Fusion’ energy is doomed for failure. The force required is really quite amazing.

I keep coming back to Colossians 1:16-17:

“¹⁶ For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Next week I’ll try to connect the dots…