The Sun can’t work without Quantum Tunneling

[@maximkhan-magomedov431]

Everyone tells about protons bumping in stars, but nobody has ever mentioned quantum tunnelling before, even in school, where we had an excellent astronomy and physics teacher. As always, new video, new interesting fact.

[@maximkhan-magomedov431]

I mean quantum tunnelling needing in this process to exist, of course :)

[@An0nim0u5]

I came to know about the necessity of quantum tunneling for nuclear fusion in our star in David Butler's video last year. So yeah it seems no one (laypeople like me) normally knows about this because no one normally tell the likes of us.

[@macewindu3305]

minute physics briefly mentioned it before

[@danojc4966]

Check out Dr.A Physics...he did.

[@YounesLayachi]

If you ever lookup something astrophysics or nuclear in Wikipedia's rabbit holes, chance are you'll find quantum tunneling mentioned ^^ For example in the article about stellar nucleosynthesis en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis#Reaction_rate

[@Master_Therion]

The Sun uses quantum tunneling for nuclear fusion and nuclear fusion is how the Sun creates light... so, is this the light at the end of the tunnel?

[@patbluetree4636]

Nice ;)

[@peachesrambo4037]

Groan.

[@jessedampare1379]

Master Therion i love you

[@feynstein1004]

Truly a pun worthy of you, Therion-sama 😂

[@-na-nomad6247]

It's a freight train coming your way.

[@GlenHunt]

I knew there was a non-convection zone in the sun but it never occurred to me that it isolates the core from additional hydrogen. Now a lot more about stars is making sense! Thanks Nick and Question Clone! What a team!

[@ScienceAsylum]

You're welcome! 😊 In fact, the only stars that can fuse all their hydrogen are red dwarfs (because they're fully convective).

[@GlenHunt]

@@ScienceAsylum Sometimes it pays to be itty bitty!

[@YounesLayachi]

Our sun is perfect 😍

[@localverse]

Would love to understand how the zone isolates the core.

[@YounesLayachi]

@@localverse well, no convection means no exchange of fuel, only fusion products like neutrinos and photons, and forces can go through the layer. There's so much energy coming out of the core that the hydrogen of the outer layers can't get close to the core to fuse Don't take my words for it, I'm just guessing from what makes sense to me x) Red dwarfs' cores would be of weak enough activity to not prevent this convection from happening

[@XtReMz98]

I remember reading a while back that quantum tunneling is the reason why modern electronics struggle to shrink size of processors due to transistor plates being too close to one another, allowing quantum jump of electrons. I really enjoyed your video Nick :D

[@runs_through_the_forest]

lol quantum jumping electrons sometimes jump 2nm, but at the sun they love to do it over a few hundred kilometers or wait its theorized, not factual? maybe its a wrong interpretation of fields interacting, same for the magical leap at the suns surface..

[@vyor8837]

@@runs_through_the_forest they can jump up to 30nm depending on design of the circuit.

[@runs_through_the_forest]

@@vyor8837 any thoughts on what kind of circuit the solar system and by extent the universe is? i'm not trolling btw.. and what i was referring to in my previous post is the notion of some (in my view fairly smart and insightful people) its all fields and only that, not particles.. i know this must sound a bit weird and extreme if you're into technology and/or mainstream concepts of particle physics and cosmology.. i'm exploring plasma cosmology and trying to understand basic plasma physics, as there are quite a few phenomena in that field behaving unusual if looked from either fluid dynamics point and chemically.. (the relation of electric fields, magnetic fields, double layering, composition of plasma, dusty plasma etc) also i'm having trouble with some of the popular concepts in astrophysics and have the feeling they make it to hard on themselves when holding on to certain models, tweaking them with new observations.. thinking outside of the box is what has given us all this technology and for anything space exploration related the expertise of electromechanics is much appreciated, but if these people want to raise the notion on scalability of electric phenomena and certain observed things in space (mars geology is their most notable but also the shape of ultima thule etc) its strongly flipped off as if fools and certainly not capable of making decent statements on anything astrophysics made claims on..

[@vyor8837]

@@runs_through_the_forest it all revolves around energy differentials. Electrons and protons move to the lower energy areas.

[@runs_through_the_forest]

@White Rice are you f serious? you mean vyor.. i found IT's answer short and unable to.. it makes sense there's no emotion in the linguistics but didn't cross my mind this shit is done already.. thanks

[@Andrew-ep4kw]

A book I read put the quantum tunneling process in the sun in an interesting perspective. Since the probability of a fusion event for any square meter of core material was extremely low, an equal volume of compost actually produces more energy. The book said the sun doesn't produce so much energy because it's efficient; it produces it because it's so huge.

[@migBdk]

I've heard that cold-blooded reptiles produce about the same amount of heat per volume as the sun.

[@Will-be-free]

I have been wondering why the sun doesn't just use up it's hydrogen all at once. Thanks for explaining.

[@okaydedeoglu4771]

dude the sun already consumed its time it lived for just one moment, energy protects that one moment from time. so that only moment which sun has lived is katrilion years in our time understanding

[@vs6x3]

@@okaydedeoglu4771 Elaborate

[@urano4810]

@@vs6x3 don't listen to a guy who says "katrillion" lmao

[@the_dropbear4392]

@@vs6x3 Hes talking nonsense

[@jpt3640]

Did you not pay attention? The fusion is extremely unlikely. The sun got 10^56 protons available for fusion. And it fuses 10^(forgot) protons per second. So just fetch your calculator and find out how long it is going to take until all fuel is burned?

[@fep_ptcp883]

Fact about the Sun: sunspots are actually quite bright spots on the surface of the sun, and if observed isolated they would be brighter than the Moon. They appear as dark patches only because of the contrast with the surrounding area of the sun's photosphere, which is considerably hotter and brighter

[@ArticBlueFox96]

Which is why black and white are the same color (if you consider them colors at all) just different shades, white is when the entire visible spectrum is being reflected a lot and absorbed a little, and black is when the entire visible spectrum is being absorbed a lot and reflected a little, but in both cases the entire visible spectrum is being reflected. Something can seem to be black or white based on its surroundings. Though you could just consider all of this to be a side effect of how we perceive light.

[@localverse]

@@ArticBlueFox96 Seriously? Wow that's mind blowing! Something doesn't make sense though. Black holes should release zero amount of the spectrum, so is their black different?

[@ArticBlueFox96]

@@localverse Our brains would still register it as black. It would be the darkest, blackest, black ever. We have been trying to make darker and blacker blacks as a pigment (like vanta black) for various reasons (like telescopes) and they come close, but they usually only absorb like 99.98% of the light that hits it.

[@localverse]

@@ArticBlueFox96 It would be the darkest, blackest black but wouldn't be the same as white, correct?

[@ArticBlueFox96]

@@localverse Yes

[@vineetasingh145]

Actually my teacher told us in high school that source of sun energy is quantum tunneling but he just told the fact. After 2 years I finally found it complete .✌

[@chrismcgarry3160]

Very complex concepts : made it look so simple! Once again, Brilliant choices of models/illustrations! 5:40 "Wave Particle in a box with a lil' tail sticking out" = Best illustration of Quantum Tunneling I've seen yet!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! I try really hard to make good visuals.

[@AndrewDotsonvideos]

Every time I thinking’s done a good job explaining something you make a new video and put me in my place lol.

[@ramkumarr1725]

That is why I liked open source software. You can always know how it works. It puts everybody in their place. Good for science and engineering. The Sun is open source 😀🙏👍. Unless they build a Dyson Sphere and start selling the Sunlight.

[@anshumanagrawal346]

what

[@chair547]

I feel like your videos serve different purposes. Nick's videos are to give high-level overviews to interested laypeople. your videos are to give more detailed explanations to people formally studying physics. A fourth year physics major won't get much out of Nicks video and I, an interested layperson, often don't get much out of your more serious videos (I'm here for the memes lol). But both of those are necessary and you both do a good job at your respective video types.

[@mathadventuress]

Hi Andrew Dotson

[@matthoward8546]

Yes... anytime you start feeling smart you can always find someone on KZbin to put you in your place.

[@UltimateBargains]

"The Sun can’t work without Quantum Tunneling" Yet another ridiculous union demand...

[@nannefrijlink5572]

Opl

[@ffggddss]

No it isn't! It's all right there, spelled out in the contract the Sun negotiated with the laws of physics. Fred

[@classicsciencefictionhorro1665]

In NYC it would be bridges and tunneling.

[@outoftheboxtalk]

Thank you. I have been explaining this in my grade 6 class for the past few years, and now I have a video to go with it! In fact, CPUs can't get much smaller because "quantum tunneling sets a fundamental limit on how small transistors can get. If any internal barriers get thinner than a nano-meter, too much current will tunnel through when the transistor is off." -QUANTUM MECHANICS IN YOUR PROCESSOR

[@darkiusdark5452]

NDT has put it clearly when he said “ if you have sample size [of probabilities] large enough, rare things become common”

[@exoplanets]

True

[@soostdijk]

Nonsense, statistics are a descriptive language. Even if we have a trillion people on earth it still does’nt become likely one of them will spontaneously jump to the moon. They might build a rocket though...get the difference?

[@ekrem_dincel]

@@soostdijk what you said is nonsense

[@soostdijk]

Ekrem DİNÇEL you have any arguments with that statement?

[@r.roberts]

@@soostdijk I was over the moon when I met my first girlfriend.

[@rbkstudios2923]

Yu hu I'm here too Videos on 1. Temperatures below absolute zero 2. Gravitational waves property. If they travel at light speed, do they have other similar properties like reflection, refraction, diffraction, doppler shift polarization. What is their wavelength range? does special relativity apply to it? 3. Collapsing an air bubble with sound underneath a liquid surface 4. Square waves

[@nooneatall5612]

The sun is a lot more badass than I thought.

[@francischimenti1374]

Even more than the fact you can't even look at it regardless of its 92 million mile distance apart. Imagine a bloody O-type star!! 😳😳😳

[@YounesLayachi]

@@francischimenti1374 imagine standing on the sunny side of mercury, with the sun screaming at your face and no atmosphere to block it xD

[@francischimenti1374]

@@YounesLayachi 🌅🔥🔥☠☠☠

[@exoplanets]

Haha

[@randyg.7940]

Agreed

[@flannn6]

Friendship ended with "FAST FAST" 08:16 now "WHAT WHAT WHAT" is my best friend 05:23

[@sadrevolution]

You can have more than one friend...

[@GeneralZod560]

"WHAT WHAT WHAT" maybe be all shiny and new now...but in the end you'll come back to "FAST FAST".

[@exoplanets]

Haha

[@seanspartan2023]

You've really outdone yourself here. I learned so much in a single video. Thank you for making and sharing these!

[@Broockle]

o, that finally explains the difficulty of building a fusion reactor. Amazing Vid :D

[@shoam2103]

Exactly what I was thinking while watching this! 😁

[@skoggiehoggins1445]

yes, but now i wonder so does this actually prevent us from attaining sustainable positive output fusion reactors?

[@Broockle]

@@skoggiehoggins1445 only for so long

[@kenlogsdon7095]

But it does explain how (relatively) easy it is to make a fusion bomb!

[@Broockle]

@@kenlogsdon7095 well all u need for that is to strap a bunch of regular fission bombs together and place some fusion material in the middle. Then when they all go off at once they fuse the heavy hydrogen into helium and make an even bigger kaboom. They figured that one out back in the 50s didn't they?

[@charliemcelveen2418]

Hi Nick. It’s so great seeing your channel grow. I started watching years ago when I think your subscriber count was in the single-thousands. Keep up the great work. Not only are you explanations...lucid...they are also readily accessible by me, a mere mortal. I a really appreciate your work.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks! 😊 Also, thanks for subbing when I was so small.

[@technicallittlemaster8793]

This was a whole new fact to grab Never thought that fusion in stars would require quantum tunneling. That's great, that's awesome!!! Keep on the good work

[@jamespayne8252]

I'm sick with the flu, and this video made me feel better. Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Glad I could help 😊 Get better soon!

[@vedangratnaparkhi]

Wow! I'm glad you're posting so often! Always eager for your next video!

[@Lucky10279]

I'll have to mention quantum tunneling and fusion when I'm explaining "at least once" probabilities to statistics students. That should definitely make things more interesting.

[@BranchEducation]

Great video Nick! I would have loved you to discuss some applications of modern technology that use quantum tunnel. For example, I recently learned SSD's VNAND rely on electron tunneling in order to write information to charge traps. Also, you should try doing video premieres- even if it's an hour away premiere, it would be good to watch your videos with you and then have a 5-10 min discussion about them.

[@ScienceAsylum]

I've had a few friends do a premiere before and the video didn't perform nearly as well 🤷‍♂️

[@BranchEducation]

@@ScienceAsylum Ohh, we are all mercy to the whims of the workings of the YT black box. Regardless, keep up the great work!

[@PeterMatisko]

Nick, great work as always! This was completely new to me. I have always thought that the mass/temperature is enough for fusion.

[@AlleyKatt]

This is a great example of the quality product you're capable of turning out by doing this full-time. Love it!

[@ScienceAsylum]

And it wouldn't have been possible without Patreon patrons. The stability they provide is invaluable.

[@Victor76661]

I didn't even know I could have my mind blown that much on something I never asked myself about... As always, great stuff !!!

[@prosimulate]

All I can say is this was incredible, what a gift you are! Hats off to you👍

[@Chad_Thundercock]

3:57 "Quantum mechanics forbids this" - PBS Space-Time

[@YathishShamaraj]

@Joe D actually the universe is under no obligation to make sense to us. We don't need to bring in the creator for this ;)

[@vinniehuish3987]

@@YathishShamaraj Your rebuttal is literally the most irrelevant argument 😂😂😂

[@YathishShamaraj]

@@vinniehuish3987 😝 so it seems

[@petslittleworld]

You made that topic extremely simple to understand!! Excellent video as always Mr. Lucid!!!

[@gardenhead92]

Great video! But I think it would be beneficial in this case to explain that the "boxes" the protons are in are actually the Coulomb barrier. Otherwise it's not clear why the particle-in-a-box model applies here.

[@jimmysegal9515]

This model is just an idealized explanation of a particle with the boundaries of a box with barriers of infinite height. These do not have to be Coulomb barriers. When complicated quantum mechanics equations are solved they show that these quantum particles have a finite possibility of existing beyond these infinite barriers. When applied to protons in the core of sun we get a finite probability of the colliding protons to penetrate each others' boundaries causing some of these pairs to fuse and release energy. I learned the math of these calculations several decades ago and have forgotten all the details. They are very complex and easily forgotten.

[@MrSmokeey]

even though I was aware of this mechanism, you gave me a new, clearer way to think about it and explain it. thanks Nick!

[@msclrhd]

Another wild thing about quantum tunnelling is in electronics. Microchips like those used for CPUs have channels in which electrons can flow to power the circuits as the building blocks of transistors. Those channels are now so small that the electrons can quantum tunnel to different parts of the circuit. To avoid this, the sides of the channels are now made with a material that has a higher electrical resistance than in previous chips, making it harder for the electrons to escape.

[@mikakorhonen5715]

Commodore 64 had game named Great Escape. It was about this phenomenom.

[@shakti666]

I could listen to this dude explain the simplest science for hours

[@Lucky10279]

It really is amazing that there are enough protons in the sun for this to actually happen regularly. E.g. My textbook says that, for an electron with an energy of 5.2eV, the probability of it tunneling through a barrier of only 7.5*10^(-17)m is approximately 45*10^(-6). For a _proton_ in the same scenario, the probability is approximately 10^(_-186_)! (The huge difference is because protons are _far_ more massive than electrons.) The probability isn't as bad for protons in the sun, since they've got a lot more than 5.2eV of energy, but it's still only 10^(-28), like Nick said. And yet this incredibly low probability event is a big part of what makes life on earth possible (since we'd all be dead without the light and heat from the sun). I know I'm just reiterating what he already said in the video, but it's just so amazing. To think that our source of heat and light relies on something that, on average, happens only 1 in 10²⁸ times. 🤯🤯🤯

[@ScienceAsylum]

I love it when events become inevitable/common _just_ because the numbers are large.

[@bitterlemonboy]

Can you calculate the probability of me quantum tunneling to the Andromeda Galaxy? I weigh 85 kg.

[@Lucky10279]

@@bitterlemonboy I can tell the probability of any macroscopic object quantum tunneling anywhere, while not _technically_ zero, is zero for all practical purposes.

[@bitterlemonboy]

@@Lucky10279 So you're telling me there's a chance

[@JohnSmith-hn6kv]

I learnt some new stuff with this video, I also learnt some stuff from Up and Atom's video on quantum tunneling. It would be nice to have the information merged into one video. Hers is the only video I'm seen on KZbin which refers to total internal reflection for quantum tunnelling.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Jade and I have tried to collab a couple times, but it's never worked out. Maybe one day.

[@vilkillian]

That is so hard to get off from particle model to everything-is-a-wave model. But, this is, to some degree, proves that conscious observer is not required in quantum mechanics to collapse wave functions. Because... Well, there is no observers in the sun's core (but maybe Boltzmann's brains :) ) and quantum effects like collapsing some bunch of particles to a single one, considering them as probabistic waves is still takes place.

[@nick130420]

vilkillian I don’t know much about quantum mechanics because I don’t have much knowledge of science, but doesn’t quantum mechanics basically just mean that life at the quantum realm is inherently random and unpredictable?

[@vilkillian]

@@nick130420 as some smart guys says: "if you think you understand quantum mechanics, then you do NOT understand quantum mechanics" speaking shotly: we do really know bunch of things about quantum mechanics, but this is simprifies to a simple sentence: "We do not know why or what happens in the deepest realms, but we do know to what it is all leads, and we have have plenty of MATHEMATICAL models APPROXIMATING the results" Which means if we even have accurate model, wh can't really understand WHY something happens

[@vilkillian]

@@nick130420 also as Einstein said: "The God does not play dice with the universe" Even if we approximate all of quauntum mechanics using probabilistic method, i do beleve that there is somethig more "predictable" which controls everything and we just still didn't discover it

[@dogioposel]

@@vilkillian en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden-variable_theory

[@nick130420]

vilkillian there has to be something more predictable, unless you believe in magic. Don’t you agree?

[@TheJohnblyth]

Physics can be beautiful; but I didn’t think statistics could be beautiful-until now! Thanks for your peerless illustrations of fundamental processes. You’re the best.

[@rarra]

Amazing, I understood most of it. Thanks Nick for being such an amazing teacher

[@LathyrusRoots]

This guy always has the best guest actors appearing in his videos. It's great.

[@jppagetoo]

Holy crap! I thought I understood the H->He fusion process(es) in stars. That quantum tunneling was needed to bring protons together is totally new to me. Mind blown!

[@bobinmaine1]

I don't care how many times you do it, "fast fast" will always make me smile..

[@ScienceAsylum]

😊

[@SuperVstech]

What I find crazy is, the facts you resent... 1. the core of the sun has about 12% of the sun’s protons... 2. There are 10^57 protons in the sun 3. There are 10^56 protons in the core... Soooo... 10^56 is only 12% of 10^57??? That’s CRAZY, but it’s ok to be a little crazy!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Crazy... but true.

[@KaiHenningsen]

It's actually 10% (one tenth) - but the difference isn't important for the points in this video.

[@franckgambu244]

xkcd summed up this kind of thinking with an astrophysisit saing something like "assuming pi is 1 .. ok, let's make it 10 if you prefer"

[@1943rfagan]

@Franck Gambu You're forgetting 10^56 and 10^57 aren't the exact numbers. They're probably a lot more, but the numbers are too long to write out.

[@jimmypk1353]

By far the BEST and MOST entertaining explanation of the Sun's Fusion!

[@Tracks777]

lovely video

[@FunkyCold_Santa]

This is the best I have ever heard this explained. I wish we were taught this in school in the 80s instead of the bullshit we were taught.

[@cheetor5923]

I found this video very interesting... I remember back say 15 years ago when I was studying my first year at college... Quantum tunneling did my head in... Took a good dose of magic mushrooms for me to 'get' the concept. But this concept, I've never heard it before, or seen it an any textbook... I found this video absolutely fascinating!

[@lucidmoses]

As usual, Nicely done. It's so nice seeing videos take on a topic without analogies so bad that it breaks the actual topic they are talking about.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Yeah, I actively avoid analogies. I only use them when their absolutely necessary.

[@robertchavez5137]

I think if my astro prof introduced this concept mid class our minds would've melted to our monitors LOL

[@playerscience]

Wow 👏what an amazing 👏explanation. Dude your channel is criminally underrated.

[@MrKurkudjikul]

Fun fact (not so fun for fusion research): suns core produces less energy than human body per unit volume. It is around 270 W/m3

[@juniormynos9457]

Explains why humans are used as batteries in The Matrix

[@Blastgun1]

Junior Mynos Not really since people consume food and inhale air then extract oxygen from the air and then do a bit of chemistry with energy loss to do actions with energy loss. If anything, humans being small radiators signal how inefficient we are at stocking energy. Typical batteries don’t have to stay alive as well and therefore don’t expand energy doing that. The Matrix -as good as it is- was dumb in that aspect.

[@localverse]

@Gerben van Straaten I'll assume the exponential result means we can do more with fewer protons and skip the quantum tunneling?

[@localverse]

@@Blastgun1 But how does the human body produce more energy than the sun's core per volume? And how does the sun unleash blinding light and sweltering summers from many millions of kilometers away if the core's energy per volume isn't even a mere equivalent of a human?

[@Blastgun1]

Marino Hernandez Simple: the sun is huge compared to the usual volumes you encounter and so you have many m^3 of core.

[@laykefindley6604]

One of your previous videos made me understand why everything gives of infrared light better I think! Still waiting to see that topic explained better if it's still in the works! Keep being you and awesome!

[@MrJdcirbo]

Interesting fact about fusion in the sun: when two protons fuse, one of them turns into a neutron, releasing a positron, neutrino, and energy in the interaction. A positron is an anti-electron. The core of the sun is a plasma (which is, basically, a soup of positive nuclei and electrons). At least some of those positrons will find electrons and they will annihilate each other. Therefore... A portion of the sun's energy output is from matter/antimatter reactions!

[@skyrask1948]

Also most of the time helium two decays strait back into two protons via proton emission only 1 in 10000 fusions result in beta+ decay of (2)He into deuterium.

[@calm.aware.]

Learning more about nature through such great videos than in 12 years of school. We are living in blessed times!

[@MultiversalVideo]

I'd love to watch 10^38 of these videos, but I don't think I could do it in one second... Regardless of my bad jokes, these videos are amazing. Keep up the good work.

[@Samien]

High Quality stuff as always Nick 👍

[@louis-philip]

"They're moving really f..." *already anxiously waiting for FAST FAST!

[@jlpsinde]

You really deserve my financial support! Amazing video!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thank you for your support!

[@bigbadt392]

Nick: the sun ain't hot enough Sun: what do u mean!?

[@stefaniasmanio859]

Hi! The continuity between exponential and sinusoidal functions Is perfectly shown in the animation. great job! Very well done!!

[@huntingresonance]

Thanks Nick, these videos are really excellent for high school IB Physics... you pitch the level just right and make it really memorable and engaging. I really appreciate it and I know my students do too!

[@ScienceAsylum]

I love to hear when my videos get used in classrooms! 🤓

[@jacobharris5894]

I actually learned this in my astrophysics class last semester. I thought that it was pretty cool fact.

[@tom_something]

Tunneling reminds me of those bingo/lottery machines with all of those balls bouncing around, but with the glass painted black. If you have a very large number of these machines, all identical aside from "microstate", running at the same time, you can predict how long it will take for about half of them to spit out their first ball. But if you're just looking at _one_ of those machines, you can't predict to any useful level of precision when it will spit out a ball. Even if you know that it usually takes two million years, you can't tell when it's just about to happen, even if it's "overdue" for that. The best you can say is there's a 50% chance that it will happen in the next one million years, but that's the same prediction you'll have every single time you guess, from the moment the machine is turned on until 100 billion years later, it always has a 50% chance of spitting out a ball in the next one million years from that moment. Of course, lots of other probabilistic things also fit with this analogy, but specific discussions of "half life" usually hover around nuclear physics and medicine.

[@MaxBrainDevices]

I really love your explanation never heard of quantum tunneling in the sun before! It’s really intriguing

[@davidp.7620]

So... Nuclear fusion is like getting a royal flush. The Sun can get it every time because it's dealing a gazillion hands every second. On Earth, we have like three decks

[@ScienceAsylum]

Exactly.

[@rodrigoserafim8834]

But we are getting really good at rigging the deck in our favor.

[@davidp.7620]

@@rodrigoserafim8834 in 20 years we'll be able to deal the cards however we want

[@migBdk]

That non-convection zone gave me an explanation of a calculation I've done with my students: Calculate the Q value of the sun's fusion reaction. Compare this value with the power of the radiation of the sun to get number of reactions happening each second. Use this to get mass of hydrogen used every second. Divide mass of sun by hydrogen/sec to get time for the sun to burn out. You get a timescale that is 10 times the lifetime of the sun that astronomers predict. As only 12% of mass is actually available for fusion in the core, that suddenly makes perfect sense.

[@migBdk]

I make the same calculation with my students...

[@zdlax]

The power/volume density of the whole sun is lower than a mammal's metabolism. Closer to that a compost pile, I believe.

[@emceeboogieboots1608]

Interesting. Complexity builds though thanks to the giant compost heap in the sky!

[@sacr3]

Theoretical models of the Sun's interior indicate a maximum power density, or energy production, of approximately 276.5 watts per cubic metre at the center of the core, which is about the same rate of power production as takes place in reptile metabolism or a compost pile Quote from wiki

[@danialbrown4417]

Thank you for taking time out of your science and making a video for me/us. Super noble imo

[@TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

_We should visit the sun at night_

[@jamesdriscoll9405]

@Ross Meldrum nope

[@Petrov3434]

I just love this video - simple, informative, funny. One of many Nick's masterpieces.

[@playgroundchooser]

5:22 is what we're all here for!

[@grapy83]

Dang it man. Why do you have to blow my mind so often. Every time I come here it makes me feel I know very little.

[@uesdtosignin1038]

I think the sun's magnetic field is in interesting. Could you make video about the sun's magnetic field ? (And about 8 planets' magnetic field as well ? Why do some of them have and not have ?)

[@msclrhd]

And the heliosphere -- the furthest extent to which the sun's magnetic field shields the solar system from interstellar winds, just like how the Earth's magnetic field protects the Earth.

[@owenduck]

The magnetic field is an interesting point! The nuclear fusion model has failed dismally to account for the strength of the suns magnetic field. The convection currents are 100 times to slow to produce the field. The plasma cosmology theory accurately predicts far more observable phenomenon. A much better theory IMO.

[@davidhenningson4782]

Wow, learn something new every day! Great video!! Completely explains how it is that the sun can last for billions of years without burning through it's fuel in a catastrophically short time frame. I always wondered what kept the sun from blowing through it's fuel supply all at once... this makes perfect sense now😊

[@lordnk3698]

once again quantum physics is everywhere

[@winstonsgmx]

Wow this is a whole new information. Nobody mentioned this before. Thank you very much. This is easy for me to understand.

[@psynfly]

MIND BLOWN. Thanks Nick for today's dose of reality boggling serum

[@addajjalsonofallah6217]

Reality is something else we have only scratch the surface

[@sangramkapre]

OMG! I feel enlightened! Super awesome stuff!!

[@joelmiller4574]

Possible video topic: how does the process of turning two protons into two neutrons, two photons, two neutrinos, and two positrons actually work?? @The Science Asylum

[@zorroloco_ok]

5:24 that's precisely my reaction too all of your videos

[@FriedrichHerschel]

I have a fun fact about the sun: The temperature on its surface is about 5,500 K, but in the corona above it it's in the millions of Kelvin.

[@ScienceAsylum]

Nice fact!

[@gchatz6480]

why that happens?

[@wdragoner]

@@ScienceAsylum You should make a video about that :-D

[@sparkerov]

@@ScienceAsylum Could you please do a video on STELLAR ENGINES

[@mechy3834]

When you see corona u only have 1 thought sadly

[@芦白龙]

The subliminal messages worked, I just subscribed

[@chriswilliams8159]

Next time when someone tells me to think outside the box, I'm gonna be like, "dude, there's no such thing as outside the box...that's not reality!! I possess an infinite number of 'thinking' states..."

[@hardoise667]

Goodness your channel is one of the best! Dude! you are making reallllllyyyyyyyy good stuff!

[@ScienceAsylum]

Thanks!

[@bitterlemonboy]

Ah, Electron volts, the ultimate measurement unit for energy and mass

[@elmuziko]

Cracking video. Really enjoyed. Actually followed too which is even more impressive!

[@moisessalazar4432]

The mystery of the corona, the corona is hotter than the surface of the sun.That is odd

[@kenlogsdon7095]

My hunch regarding the temperature of the sun's corona is that the sheer intensity of the solar radiation near its surface is enough to generate the million+ degrees plasma. Nothing to do with the temp of the surface itself.

[@toosas]

Great video Nick, big fan!

[@aheesh2425]

Fact that photon emitted in the core takes millions of years to come to surface is Sun and reaches Earth in 8 mins... The light from Sun that you see is millions of years and 8 mins old...🙃🙃🙃😅

[@ScienceAsylum]

Well... millions of years is a bit of an over estimate. It's more like 100 thousand years, but yes it's still crazy 🤓

[@aheesh2425]

@@ScienceAsylum yeah sorry for my error bar of more than 10 percent...😂😂

[@ChrisWalshZX]

But the light itself will have experienced 0 time and traveled 0 distance from being generated in the core of the sun and hitting the retina in your eye. That's special relativity for you!

[@mikakorhonen5715]

100000 Years, but where is observer with the clock? Following photon inside Sun, or on Earth?

[@seanrodgers1839]

@@ChrisWalshZX I believe that it's not the same photon. It's absorbed and re-emitted billions of times, each time at a slightly lower energy. That's why we have visible light and not gamma rays by the time it reaches the surface.

[@mihai6564]

Thank for the video. Last time you made videos about light. Can you please make a video and explain why the phosphorus emits light for some time? Of course if you consider it as a good topic for your channel.

[@darkiusdark5452]

2:01 We should start using this as a scientific meme for pedantic people

[@cuongdang3304]

Love your work, thank you for keeping it up

[@menecross]

That moment when, here on Earth, we need hundreds of milions of degrees C and the Sun is like... " - pfff, newbies... I can do it with only 15 milion C !"

[@ScienceAsylum]

😂

[@piratekingluffy6430]

Where did you go when i really needed you???? I didn't understand any thing about quantum tunnel for my physics exam in my college 3 months back. Now I understood it very clearly. If only I got to see this 3 months back , i might have got more marks. But today i got knowledge and i'm happy about it

[@stanimirivanov4052]

Just bought a new phone and watching you in full HD, what a joy, thank you sir!

[@Vexed09]

I learned something new today. Keep up the good work!

[@tfive24]

Man, I love physics.

[@andrewpatton5114]

The proton-proton cycle requires an extremely low-probability decay: He-2 into H-2 by positron emission. He-2 is not a bound state, so for proton-proton fusion to work, one of the protons must decay into a neutron during the fraction of an attosecond that the resonance holds He-2 together. This is why the CNO cycle is more productive at higher temperatures: it has a higher activation energy because of the greater charge of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen nuclei, but the intermediates are all bound states which will stay together as long as needed for beta decay. By separating the weak-interaction-dependent step(s) from the strong-interaction-dependent steps, carbon functions as a catalyst for hydrogen fusion, even though it actually raises the activation energy, instead of lowering it like chemical catalysts do.

[@krzysztofklein3057]

"As pressure goes up, so does temparature" - how about a video on that?

[@GTAVictor9128]

It's a fairly intuitive physics concept: when you reduce the volume of a container while conserving all the particles inside, you effectively increase the gas pressure as those particles are squashed into this confined space. And as you increase the gas pressure, you effectively increase its temperature, because you increase the number of effective collisions occurring per unit volume. Remember, by the physics definition, temperature is a measure of the average particle oscillations and effective collisions per unit volume.

[@gardenhead92]

@@GTAVictor9128 That's not true. Temperature is a measure of the average kinetic energy of particles. It does not depend on collisions per unit time. The number of collisions depends on the molarity (particles per volume): a dilute gas will have fewer collisions than a dense gas, even at the same temperature. In fact, pressure itself does not directly increase temperature even. The reason compressing a gas increases temperature is you are doing work on the gas, which by definition increases its energy. The sun's core is hot because gravity does a huge amount of work on particles to bring them there. In general, the best place to start is to look at the ideal gas law PV=nRT, although of course it's only an approximation, and it doesn't tell you *why* something is happening.

[@GTAVictor9128]

@@gardenhead92 Ah. Thanks for the correction. What I said was what I assumed to be the case, based on my own intuition. I guess I should've done the research. Edit: What I said seems to be a common misconception, then, because that is what some scientific books and science textbooks claim. Whenever I presented this explanation to teachers, no one ever corrected me. During my course on thermodynamics, I remember that there was some mention of how work done on a gas heats it up, but I never considered how it didn't match my previous explanation. I was also partly misled because I a reading the book "A Brief History of Time". In that book, it said: "A star is formed when a large amount of gas starts to collapse in on itself due to its gravitational attraction. As it contracts, the atoms of the gas collide with each other more and more frequently and at greater speeds - the gas heats up."

[@krzysztofklein3057]

@@GTAVictor9128 Somehow I think I understand that too - but only a bit ;) Nick's video would solve the mysteries I guess :)

[@gardenhead92]

@@GTAVictor9128 It is a common misconception. If you find a textbook that has that explanation it would definitely be a flaw. The quote isn't wrong, but it is misleading. The atoms collide with each other more and more because they are being confined to a smaller space and increasing in speed due to gravity. The collisions ensure the core will reach thermal equilibrium, but they can't provide the energy for a temperature increase in the first place. Remember that energy is conserved. Atoms can't come away from a collision with more energy than went into it.

[@lucianoferrari5066]

Amazing explanation! So interesting and clear. The approach to teaching used is so good. I really like the "it´s ok to be a little crazy"