Why don't all heavy elements decay to Fe56

An explanation why heavy elements don't decay to the highest binding energy state and thus form Iron.

[@sergioortiz8219]

I'm well past the point in my life where I need to study this stuff, but I love geeking out to your videos just the same. Excellent work! Thanks

[@lancelefevre351]

Thank you for all of your videos. I've never found anything that teaches how to science with math and interesting topics all in one video. You are a very kind person to share all of this with the world.

[@HellsMascot]

The learning possible through these videos is tantamount to that of a real classroom

[@zerksari]

Agreed. Coming from someone working not in physics, but in a highly theoretical subject not far from it. His red carpet of reasoning is perfection.

[@ecospider5]

2 1/2 minutes in and I have subscribed. Excellent presentation of information so far.

[@dr.dimplesoni3105]

Thank you so much!!! I have been looking for the explanation to this query since so long :) Explained beautifully. Its amazing to see how activation energy affects a process so significantly.

[@paulbaker916]

Love your work. No frills, honest physics & maths. Great presentation and cadence. And the line "let's call it 1.5 for cash" was the icing on the cake.

[@toccaru]

Brilliant work! You make it easy to understand and visualize. Great series!

[@bigeteum]

just find out about this channel... it's a gold nugget!

[@e1woqf]

Very well explained, thank you. Greetings from Germany

[@7177YT]

Still watching in 2020. So inspiring! Thank you!

[@DjordjeRomanic]

Perahps my favorite video on KZbin!

[@professionalsleeper6281]

This vid is amazing because even if you dont understand what the terms themselves do, you can easily understand how they cancel out

[@mattkerle81]

The whole way through I was like, what about fissile elements! Then zing! Cliffhanger! Can't wait for the next episode, thanks!

[@alfakennywon]

Isn't physics just so much more captivating than fiction?

[@rockpadstudios]

wow - what an amazing video

[@hamidquayum9946]

Brilliant explanation!

[@cadkls]

Fascinating!

[@tywarwick]

Excellent stuff. It might be worth considering avoiding repeating things and make the video flow better.

[@Mierlok]

Good work Dr ^_^

[@bishalbasak9081]

wow great explanation

[@anujmishra9077]

Thank you so much for your lectures on KZbin... Greetings from INDIA :)

[@Alexander-ri1bp]

Thank you :-)

[@jfpereira5834]

It is just a matter of time for Gold to go Iridium then Rhenium and so on. Of course neither you or me nor the whole human existence as we perceive it will ever notice such an event but anyway it will happen, particularly for Gold as it is monoisotopic and a odd-numbered element. Good video, though. You have a new follower.

[@massimilianobalsamo]

nature is beautiful.

[@daepicadam7358]

What's the criteria for stability? What's the criteria for instability?

[@RadziolGuitarist]

9:30 you draw graph N vs Z and previously the curve of real stability was above the N=Z line so the point (Z/2, N/2) should be under the line you draw. Correct me if I'm wrong. PS. Thank you for those videos, they are great. You make physics easy and interesting :-)

[@RadziolGuitarist]

I know where is an error in my thinking. On the graph N > Z because this point is already above the line N=Z so N/2 > Z/2 Sorry for my mistake

[@justpaulo]

Remember I have asked you this before? Ah! Now I understand. Thank you very much! Although, I still wonder why not all gold turned into iron, with so many high energy cosmic rays out there that could provide the AE....?

[@mustafacubukcu2969]

thanks

[@EnrichedPu]

Wouldn't there exist any tunnel effect anyway? why?

[@ShahrukhKhan-md5oo]

Can anyone provide the link to one of his videos explainig binding energy and mass defect

[@MasterNetwork]

What kind of pencil or marker is that ?

[@DrPhysicsA]

It's a Berol FINE Colour felt tip pen.

hey your voice sounds familiar, have you been on periodicvideos?

[@pgoeds7420]

To me he sounds like singingbanana.

[@WobbleJunkie]

Can anyone link this binding energy video he keeps referring to?

[@jeanpauls123]

where is the next video ?

[@Waranger5]

Is the final computation correct? I fear it is not, since the same result for the binding energies of the two daughter nuclei would have been obtained when the two being far apart. I think you missed the coulomb barrier between the two daughter nuclei, which is what I fear gives the actual activation energy.

[@chemicaltankerdriver]

Well I don't know about iron, but everything I touch almost immediately turns to sh*t, so yeah... this effect surely exists.

[@davidsandell7833]

How does a Neutron automatically gain a + charge?

[@chenlecong9938]

Quark exchange... though I don't really know the reason why quark exchange does happen

[@thebeast5215]

It emits an electron in the process (as well as an antineutrino which isn't important), conserving the neutral charge. In other words, the neutron (0) decays into a proton (+1) and electron (-1), both of which have opposite charges with equal magnitude, which sum up to the original 0 charge.

[@ThePeterDislikeShow]

Who says we know they don't? It wasn't long ago we thought bismuth was stable.

[@ketermeissner9898]

The nucleus with highest binding energy is Ni-62, not Fe-56.

[@dr.dimplesoni3105]

I believe that he is not talking about isotopes. Because then Fe-58 would also come into consideration.

[@arunrakshit9793]

Please consider the fact that the term is "binding energy per nucleon" and not binding energy.

[@migkillerphantom]

So this rule basically works out like a mirror of surface tension? Interesting.

[@onderozenc4470]

The nuclei decays only if it is radioactive...

[@TheAirpirate28]

where are you??

[@Bushcraft-xz6xd]

Is there a reason as to why you cross your sevens and zeds? Is it a physics thing?

[@gracerodgers8952]

But can you spin straw into gold, Rumplestilskin?

[@vanilla_gunpowder7275]

Why iron? What's so special about iron that it has the highest binding energy per nucleon ?

[@kpaasial]

Quantum tunneling will do that eventually to all nuclei heavier than Fe 56 but the timescales required for this to happen are ridiculously long, think of something like 10^1500 years.

[@jomen112]

So due to the tunnel effect all elements heavier than Fe-56 will eventually decay into Fe-56. Good to know, I shall not buy large stocks in iron and then try sell in the future.

[@nickmoore2453]

you made a mistake the binding is not defined as the energy that holds the nucleons togehther.I use to think the same thing as it's intuitive but physicists define it instead as the amount of energy need to sperate the nucleans to infinty.

[@jomen112]

Nick Moore Which is why he defined the binding energy as a negative energy at 4:35. You need to pay attention.

[@metou3072]

It's relativity...it's the outside forces that held a molecule together that has changed and not the energy of the molecules and that's the reason...no need for a 30min presentation

[@davidroy6973]

The increase in surface area is creation.

[@blackholesun4942]

11:30