What is fusion?
By Michelle Morrison I’ve heard the term “fusion” bandied about for quite some time, and it seems that there are a couple of interpretations with very different meanings. The pairing of Middle Eastern Dance moves to non-Middle Eastern music is one example. Flamenco or Spanish-style music is often used and the progression to this pairing is quite logical, given the ties of Moorish Spain to the Middle East . Many bands who play Middle Eastern music have also fused their rhythms to Spanish-style songs (listen to Gypsy Caravan’s Migration track 11 and Moon Over Cairo’s Amayaguena). The result is certainly pleasing and allows for a wealth of interpretive movements. There is also the pairing of belly dance moves to North African music such as Algerian and Tunisian. Then there is the fusion of the styles of Middle Eastern dance within the regions of Middle Eastern music. For example, Egyptian movements performed to Turkish music. I used to dance with a Jordanian drummer who didn’t like that I
Nuclear fusion involves the bringing together of atomic nuclei. The atom’s nucleus consists of protons (p) with a single positive charge and neutrons (n) of similar mass and no charge. The strong nuclear force holds these “nucleons” together against the repulsive effect of the proton’s charge. As many negatively charged electrons as protons swarm around the nucleus to balance the proton charge, and the mass of the atom lies almost totally in the nucleus. The sum of the individual masses of the nucleons is greater than the mass of the whole nucleus. This is because the strong nuclear force holds the nucleons together – the combined nucleus is a lower energy state than the nucleons separately. The difference, the binding energy (ΔE=Δm.c2 ), varies from one element to another. Because of the possible ways that nucleons can pack together, when two light atomic nuclei are brought together to make a heavier one, the binding energy of the combined nucleus can be more than the sum of the bindi
• The nucleus of an atom consists of protons, which have a positive electrical charge, and neutrons which A single Helium nucleus contains less energy than separate deuterium nuclei. Fusing them releases surplus binding energy. have absolutely no charge at all. These nucleons are held together by a powerful force, known as the strong force. The amount of energy you would have to expend to overcome the strong force and dismantle the nucleus is called binding energy, and each chemical element has a unique binding energy associated with its atomic nuclei. Fusion reactions release surplus binding energy when light nuclei fuse, forming heavier nuclei. • In the Alcator C-Mod experiments, two deuterons — nuclei of heavy hydrogen — fuse, creating helium, a natural atmospheric gas.
Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. It is the reaction in which two atoms of hydrogen combine together, or fuse, to form an atom of helium. In the process some of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy. The easiest fusion reaction to make happen is combining deuterium (or heavy hydrogen) with tritium (or heavy-heavy hydrogen ) to make helium and a neutron. Deuterium is plentifully available in ordinary water. Tritium can be produced by combining the fusion neutron with the abundant light metal lithium. Thus fusion has the potential to be an inexhaustible source of energy. To make fusion happen, the atoms of hydrogen must be heated to very high temperatures (100 million degrees) so they are ionized (forming a plasma) and have sufficient energy to fuse, and then be held together i.e. confined, long enough for fusion to occur. The sun and stars do this by gravity. More practical approaches on earth are magnetic confinement, where a strong magnetic field hol
