Idk how I got onto this but I was just googling shit and I was wondering how we are running out of helium. I read that helium is the one non-renuable element on this planet because it comes from the result of radioactive decay. But from my memory and the D- I got in highschool chemistry, helium is number 2 on the periodic table of elements and hydrogen is number 1, so why can’t we just take a fuck ton of hydrogen, do some chemistry shit and turn it into helium? I know it’s not that simple I just don’t understand why it wouldn’t work.
Edit: I get it, it’s nuclear fusion which is physics, not chemistry. My grades were so back in chemistry that I didn’t take physics. Thank you for explaining it to me!
In: Chemistry
The way I was taught, there are four fundamental forces in atomic physics. The strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and gravity. Smashing atoms together involves the interaction of two forces, electromagnetic force and the strong nuclear force. Electromagnetic force keeps particles with the same charge apart. The protons in the nucleus of the hydrogen atoms have the same charge so they want to stay apart. However, neutrons and protons are attracted to other neutrons and protons by the strong nuclear force. The strong nuclear force is powerful enough to overcome electromagnetic force but only at extremely close distances. So you can smush two hydrogen atoms together and make a helium atom but you need to use enough force to get the nuclei close enough to each other for the strong nuclear force to take hold in order to do it.
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