Re: In Need of Science Advice

Indra's Sorrow <hotlizt@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> I would like to know what would happen if a hydrogen bomb was detonated
> in the middle of some large body of water. I have done some research
> and have found that water can be electrolysed by two means, a) by
> electirc current, and b) by immense amounts of heat. I know that, when
> one detonated a hydrogen bomb, it produces heat, but is that heat
> enough to electrolyse water? Furthermore, if that water was
> electrolysed, providing even more hydrogen, would it set off a chain
> reaction, causing more and more water to electrolyse and fuse,
> eventually engulfing the earth?

Hydrogen fusion doesn't really undergo a chain reaction.

Fission can create chain reactions because fission is triggered by
neutrons, and each fission reaction generates neutrons. If the reaction
generates more neutrons than it takes to trigger (including the neutrons
that miss, etc.), you get a chain reaction. This is like the famous
physical analogy of a room full of mousetraps, each loaded with two
ping-pong balls. Toss one ball in, get two back, each one generates two
more, etc.

Fusion, on the other hand, doesn't work anything like that. Here, you just
need two nuclei to smack together hard enough to stick (simplified: with
normal hydrogen, the reactions are much longer and more complicated). The
products are heavier atoms and various reaction products, but the only one
which helps the reaction along is the heat given off.

So basically, fission just requires neutrons, plus enough material and
the right physical arrangement of the material, so that enough neutrons
are captured rather than escaping. You can fit the necessary material in a
suitcase.

Fusion requires high pressures, densities, and heat (again, simplified).
Of these three, the actual fusion reaction only produces one, heat. The
heat will help increase pressure, but simultaneously, without something to
contain it, this will actively decrease the pressure. While a
self-sustaining fission reaction can fit in a suitcase, a self-sustaining
fusion reaction needs a star-sized amount of hydrogen. Set off a hydrogen
bomb next to a bunch of ideal fusion fuel, and the end result is not a
bigger boom, the end result is that your ideal fusion fuel gets vaporized
and scattered along with the rest of the debris from the explosion.

(Wandering off topic: how small could a star be if it were composed
exclusively of deuterium, or tritium?)

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software
.

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