If I have Volts, and I need eV, how do I get that?

Originally post in 2011, updated

2.1.18:

Watching some welding work being done today reminded me of a post about electron volts.  The link directly below allows you to calculate how many electron volts there is in a joule.

1 electron volt equals 1.6 x 10 ^ -19 joules.  Dividing both sides by the right hand side gives the answer, which is approx. 6.3 x 10 ^  19 electron-volts.

The interesting thing about electron volts is that it can be translated into temperature in kelvins.  ( I think)

11k deg kelvin for each electron volt!  Now, multiply that by the number of electron volt in just one joule, and you get an astronomically large number.

Arc welding can melt metals pretty easily.  It just uses electricity to make the metal hot enough to melt.  Once it cools, it becomes tough again.

There may be an error in my calculations, because why do you need so much energy to do the welding?

At any rate, fusion can work because of this fact.  The polywell device works on this principle.  It does not require confinement of a plasma, but instead, it confines electrons like a capacitor does.  Into the capacitor goes some hydrogen protons, and the deep "well" of negative charge of the electrons supplies the energy for the fusion.

It took me awhile to get the concept.  I was figuring that it would get hot, but heat is not required.

Evidently, Bussard's Polywell concept has still not produced a device.  However, progress seems to be taking place.  Proof of scientific concept estimated at 2019-2020.



The original post from 2011 follows:

eV is a unit of energy. It is exactly the amount of kineitic energy that one electron would obtain if it accelerated across one volt of potential difference. You do not convert eV to volts. You convert eV to joules.Since potential difference is defined as the energy per unit charge ratio you will get a unit of energy when you multiply a unit of charge times a unit of potential, hence "electron-Volt"; here the charge is the fundamental charge of the electron. A joule (unit of energy) is equivalent to a "coulomb-volt." Since 1.602 x 10^-19 coulombs is the charge of an electron, then 1eV = 1.602x10^-19 joules.

Assuming the above is correct, let's make some calculations, shall we?

A typical nuclear reaction releases millions of electron volts.  This sounds impressive, and is, but consider this on an atom by atom basis.  If only 1 atom has a nuclear event and releases about 1 million electron volts, how many watts is that?  Well, 1 joule equals 1 watt.  1 million electron volts = 10 ^6 times 1.6 x 10 ^-19 which equals only 1.6 x 10^-13 watts.  Not much energy from just one atom.  But there are many atoms.  How many?

Since there are 6.02 times 10 to the 23rd power atoms in one mole of any substance, and in the case of nickel, about 60 grams.   This reaction if carried through all of the atoms in 1 mole or 60 grams (approx) would yield approx 10 ^11 watts of energy.   Now that's a lot.

The foregoing discussion was not intended to show that a lot of energy can be obtained from a nuclear reaction.  That isn't new.  What is intended is to show that not that much energy is required to make a fusion happen on the atomic level.  Since fusion takes place in the stars at 100,000,000 million degrees Kelvin, this is equivalent to about 10,000 electron volts per atom.   If you had the control to deliver 10,000 electron volts to individual atoms, you can have enough energy for fusion.  The key word is control.  This is the key word in all fusion research, whether it is in a tokomak or a polywell or a deep plasma focus, or a star.  The method of control varies from system to system.  In stars, it is gravitation.  In most fusion devices, plasma is controlled by magnetism.  In a polywell, electrons are controlled with magnetism and the reactants are introduced after the energy potential has been achieved.  In "cold fusion", where's the control?  Is it chemical, or is it bypassed by quantum effects?  That's the question, I think.

Update:

This discussion is a lot like something I said before.

While I am at it, I want to link to other posts that were similar in some concept.

While I was looking for that, I found a video with this young lady saying that a gallon of water has the energy of 55 million miles.  And I thought it was only 25 million miles a gallon.

cold fusion: fire from water

" 'cold fusion' is a surface effect phenomenon"

Comment:  Surface effect phenomenon: how interesting.  Could there be spark gaps as in lightning or spark plugs, in which electrons build up, then leap across the gap after building up energy?  Enough energy for fusion?

catalysts for "cold fusion".  Is it a chemical process?

"palladium on activated carbon"

Without the catalyst, it doesn't work, says Dr. Les Case, retired chemical engineer.

Sir Arthur Clarke refers to it as "so called cold fusion"

discusses the history of the wright brothers and how their discovery was not believed for years.

 This is a "must see" video.  Don't miss it.