When the electrons fall back into their ground states we can comfortably assert that the photons emitted will equal the energy input.
This is a bad assumption. If two helium atoms fuse about 18 MeV is produced along with a positron and a neutrino. I do not understand this reaction. Maybe someone can help. http://everything2.com/title/proton-proton+chain In the PPIII stellar fusion reaction, Steps 1 through 3 can be replaced by the first half of the triple alpha stellar fusion process http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-alpha_process Explicitly 1 - 4He + 4He → 8Be(-93.7kEV) 2 – 8Be + proton → B8 (0.135 MeV) - other possible reactions involver electron and hydrogen capture. 3 - B8 -> Be8 + positron + neutrino (followed by spontaneous decay...) 4 - Be8 -> 2He4(18.074 MeV) We start out with two helium atoms and we end up with two helium atoms but about 19MeV of additional energy is produced. Where does this energy come from? J. Rohner says that he stops the triple alpha stellar fusion process before a third helium atom is fused. He calls this process recombination as the Be8 fissions back to two helium atoms. Cheers: Axil On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 1:44 PM, James Bowery <jabow...@gmail.com> wrote: > Let's say you've got a xenon atom. It likes to absorb energy and emit > photons. You know, xenon lamps etc. > > OK, so lets ask a real simple question: > > When a tube filled with xenon gas has some energy pumped into it and the > electrons go to higher orbitals -- yes this happens for a very short period > of time before photons are emitted but let's talk about just the short > period of time. The diameter of the atoms presumably increases. Does the > gas pressure increase during that interval? > > Now lets say that the energy is sufficient to actually strip the electrons > away and form an ionized gas for a short interval. Does the ionized gas > pressure increase during that interval? > > Now lets talk about really-simple magnetic confinement (say a magnetic > mirror <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_mirror> type bottle) used > in conjunction with a solid tube so that the non-conducting (because > non-ionized) gas phase is confined by the solid tube and the conducting > (because) ionized gas phase is confined by the magnetic bottle: > > When the electrons fall back into their ground states we can comfortably > assert that the photons emitted will equal the energy input. However, what > if the plasma has expanded during the high pressure phase, ie: done work > against the magnetic confinement (like, oh, I don't know, generating an > electrical power spike in a conductor associated with the magnetic field). > Does that mean the "free" electrons of the plasma no longer want to return > to their ground states and give up exactly the same amount of energy that > they would have in the absence of having done work? If not, where did the > electrons go and where do the xenon atoms get electrons to substitute for > them? >
