4 ms·

How does neutrons bumping protons produce light?

• Schroedingersat 4y ago
  It heats them up (The joke is I'm describing the sun and solar panels as the end state of trying to overcome the technical hurdles of building a heat engine to extract electricity from fusion if you're not just playing along). Jokes aside, TEGs are pretty neat. In addition to harvesting what is currently waste heat in someplaces or having applications in geothermal or solar collectors they might even make fission not-stupid. Can't forsee any way fusion works as practical power generation this century though. It has worse power density than chemical and much higher temperatures to deal with and much higher neutron flux than fission as well as needing massive 2 kelvin magnets right next to the 100 million degree plasma that explode if they warm up to 3 kelvin.
  • ncmncm 4y ago
    Solar fusion doesn't produce neutrons hot or otherwise. It produces gamma rays, helium nuclei, and neutrinos.