That idea crossed my mind but I still do not know where the 5.6 MeV of energy imparted upon the proton wound up. If the path were exothermic I would expect to be able to recover(or at least locate) all of the 5.6 MeV as well as some extra energy.
I recall reading an article years ago that suggested that fusion energy was possible within stars until the final product was iron. The star would then collapse under the influence of gravity due to the lack of extra heat. Could this be the effect that I am calculating? It does seem to add up in the numbers. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Tue, May 22, 2012 5:22 pm Subject: RE: [Vo]: Proton Fusion Ni58 to Cu59 Endothermic? Are you discounting QM and quantum tunneling? One could say that the in tunneling - threshold energy is briefly "borrowed" and then a short time later, the "debt" is repaid – before the net gain is obvious. From: David Roberson Could you help me understand how the 5.6 MeV is recovered or released? Is there extra energy released into the copper crystal structure that equals this magnitude? I am having a difficult time trying to get back the 5.6 MeV to make the next proton energetic enough for the next reaction. Forgive me for being ignorant about this mechanism, but it truly is difficult to visualize.
