Eli5. What happen when two atoms collide?
In: Physics
99.99999% of the time- absolutely nothing other than some kinetic energy is exchanged, one atom bumping the other and their movements affecting each other.
For anything interesting to happen, they must be collided together with immense force and pressure. For the atoms to touch (and this is a very wide generality), we’re talking the rough energy of a fast baseball pitch. PER ATOM PAIR.
If they hit hard enough, they can fuse, releasing massive energies by the breaking of bonds of the strong nuclear force. This is what powers the sun.
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