Timeline for Help! An 8 year old asked me how to build a nuclear power plant
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 21, 2016 at 3:51 | comment | added | JimmyJames | I see where you are going but I think there are a couple of issues with this analogy. The first is that, as is well known, nuclear fission can result in an actual explosion so there's an immediate chance for confusion. The other main problem is that fission is to explosion, as fusion is to implosion. So exploding atoms cause a big explosion and imploding atoms causes an even bigger one? Lastly, uranium emits some energy to become... uranium. How about hot coals? They radiate energy and can cause other things to ignite. | |
| Mar 19, 2016 at 0:56 | history | edited | Brionius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 4 characters in body
|
| Mar 18, 2016 at 21:15 | comment | added | Brionius | @JimmyJames Could you explain what feature of an "explosion" differs conceptually from nuclear decay in a way that inhibits an 8 year old level understanding of nuclear decay? I would also be interested in what you think would be more pedagogically appropriate. | |
| Mar 18, 2016 at 20:57 | comment | added | JimmyJames | Nuclear decay isn't an explosion. I suppose you are using this term to dumb it down but I think it might create confusion that could inhibit understanding more than enhance it. | |
| Mar 18, 2016 at 20:18 | comment | added | Dan Is Fiddling By Firelight | @Nelson not quite this explanation, but yes Randal has a reactor in his book. You can see his explanation if you go to Amazon and use the look inside option (link above the book cover on the left side of the page); it's book page 3 (page 6 counting the un-numbered pages Amazon also shows). | |
| Mar 18, 2016 at 18:02 | comment | added | Nelson | You know... There may be a book that has a Nuclear Reactor explained in this form. I'll have to find my book and check. | |
| Mar 18, 2016 at 14:35 | comment | added | HolyBlackCat | I would add that different nuclei have different size, and exploding nuclei are usually the large ones. | |
| Mar 18, 2016 at 13:19 | history | edited | Brionius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 260 characters in body
|
| Mar 18, 2016 at 12:26 | history | edited | Brionius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 10 characters in body
|
| Mar 18, 2016 at 12:14 | history | answered | Brionius | CC BY-SA 3.0 |