First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics
Pro Fusion or Con Fusion?
The core of the Sun is 15 million degrees Celsius
Fusion occurs 1038 times a second
Sun has 1056 H atoms to fuse
1018 seconds = 32 billion years
2 billion kilograms converted every second
Sun’s output = 50 billion megaton bombs per second
Notes:
Be sure audience members understand what the symbols mean. Especially that the superscripts for H and He are the atomic weights.
The energy comes from the slight difference in mass between four H atoms and one He atom. This excess mass gets converted to energy via Einstein’s famous equation.