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It would be impossible to put neutron star material inside a cardboard box, and the original post was talking about possibility.
by droopyEyelids 5y ago
It would be impossible to put neutron star material inside a cardboard box, and the original post was talking about possibility.
- ben_w 5y agoIf I remember right, given that free neutrons aren’t stable and have a very short half life, it would be explosively unwise even if it was physically possible.
- deepspace 5y agoYes, a free neutron decays to a proton, an electron and an electron neutrino with a half life of 879 seconds. This decay releases 0.8MeV of energy (mostly in the form of kinetic energy of the electron). My back of the envelope calculation shows that 1 gram of neutronium (approximately a mole) will release 43MW of energy continuously. Multiply that by 10^14 (the number of grams of neutronium per teaspoon) and the resultant energy release would be unimaginably huge. 'Explosively' does not even begin to describe it.
- grog454 5y agoActually, it too was talking about impossibility (see title); a much stronger assertion and usually wrong.