this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
216 points (98.6% liked)

xkcd

8977 readers
77 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

https://xkcd.com/2860

Alt text:

Unlike an Iron Age collapse, a Bronze Age collapse releases energy, since copper and tin are past the iron peak on the curve of binding energy.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FrullaPapaya 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I don't know how many of those are legit and how many are humorous

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

First row is real. Second row, not so much.

That said, the "one big nucleon" is pretty close in concept to a neutron star. It needs a few more nucleons than there are in a single atom though. Just a few. And it's not really a decay mode as it is a gravitational effect.

It's also kind of reminiscent of superatoms - clusters of atoms that act like one single atom - but that is very much not the same. (The nuclei aren't fused. They maintain regular, sensible, atomic distances. Electrons are free to pass between. etc.)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

What do you mean? They're all completely real

[–] Everythingispenguins 1 points 1 year ago

Can you prove that the collapse due to the invasion of the sea people isn't real? Until you can, I fully accept it as a real type of decay.