xkxd #2860: Decay Modes

Submitted ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨randomaccount43543@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨xkcd@lemmy.world⁩

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/decay_modes_2x.png

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.

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A_A@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Electron capture is neat and there is also :
Double electron capture
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_electron_capture

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- Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  holy shit electron capture 2
  
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FrullaPapaya@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know how many of those are legit and how many are humorous

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- palordrolap@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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.)
  
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- ThatOneKirbyMain2568@kbin.social ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  What do you mean? They're all completely real
  
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- Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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.
  
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randomaccount43543@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
explainxkcd.com/2860

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- SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  The skull presumably represents the finality of such a decay, given that the end stage of human decay leaves behind a skeleton, something that does not exist in nucleons. [citation needed]
  
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