- #1
Jimmy87
- 686
- 17
Hi,
In my textbook it says that if you consider the electrostatic repulsive barrier that protons in the Sun need to overcome in order to get into the range of the strong nuclear force to fuse together then it fails to fully account for the measured power output of the Sun.
It says that the observed power output of the Sun can be explained if you take into account the QM effects of the protons wave function. Some protons that don't quite overcome the electrostatic barrier and are not in range for the strong nuclear force can still fuse because their wavefunction has a non-zero probability of being within range of the strong nuclear force i.e. quantum tunnelling.
I am fine with this but I just wondered how energy is conserved. Work needs to be done in order to overcome the electrostatic repulsive force (force x distance). So if protons can fuse at shorter distances does this not violate conservation of energy in some way? Surely energy still has to be conserved and I don't see how it can be.
Thanks in advance.
In my textbook it says that if you consider the electrostatic repulsive barrier that protons in the Sun need to overcome in order to get into the range of the strong nuclear force to fuse together then it fails to fully account for the measured power output of the Sun.
It says that the observed power output of the Sun can be explained if you take into account the QM effects of the protons wave function. Some protons that don't quite overcome the electrostatic barrier and are not in range for the strong nuclear force can still fuse because their wavefunction has a non-zero probability of being within range of the strong nuclear force i.e. quantum tunnelling.
I am fine with this but I just wondered how energy is conserved. Work needs to be done in order to overcome the electrostatic repulsive force (force x distance). So if protons can fuse at shorter distances does this not violate conservation of energy in some way? Surely energy still has to be conserved and I don't see how it can be.
Thanks in advance.