and successfully fission. let's say a neutron approaches the spherical nucleus from a particular distance. its possible route to the nucleus has a conical shape. how far from the center can it strike and still fission? If it just nicks it just inside a tangent line will it fission?
just thinking cross sections here. a neutron that is freed as a result of a fission of pure U235. travels @c/10(fast!) will its trajectory be perturbed by the gravitational force emitted by a nearby nucleus, or do things on the quantum level work differently?
starting to put some numbers together, I will share some thoughts but I'm curious...within what percent off the equator of a nucleus will a fast neutron fission be possible? 5%? 10%? 20%?
so, assuming a critical mass of pure u235, and modifiers to slow down the neutron what is the AVERAGE distance a neutron will travel before it fissions an atom? (in picometers)
and nuclei are so small(on an atomic level!). is it that there are SO many atoms around and that thermal neutrons are still incredibly fast, that if there is a reflector surrounding(lets say we're talking about a critical mass of uranium and an uncontrolled chain reaction), that the neutron will...