why we can’t just take 2 hydrogen atoms and smash them together to make helium.

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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

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Anonymous 0 Comments

That would be nuclear fusion and the sun does it quite well.

Unfortunately, it takes 16 million degrees and a pressure of 250 billion atmospheres to make it happen.

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