"Because people seem to enjoy their absolutely false psuedo-science:

1. When the sun goes all Red Giant, it will engulf all the inner planets. That includes Earth.

2. 100% of the energy on Earth comes from the sun.

3. "Cold fusion" doesn't maen "energy from nothing." Fusion is the process by which all stars generate energy, through the process of fusing small atoms into larger ones. For example, two deuterium atoms (1 proton, 1 neutron, 1 electron) fuse into a single helium atom with a mass slightly less than the two deuterium atoms (93.3%, I believe). The excess mass is released as energy (according to E=mc^2).

4. Try reading the Mars trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars). Interesting read about colonizing Mars.

5. Shut up, Solbadguy500."

1. correct
2. correct
3. correct except it wouldn't fuse into helium. I don't know exacly what, but helium is small and deuterium is big. ( helium has an atomic mass of 4, and deutrinium is like a hundred something. ) I think you meant to say it gives helium off as a by product of the fusion.
4. We need waaaay more advanced technology to actually colonize mars, and have people live there. Maybe in the distant future....
5. No, if you have the right to be a prick, I have the right to be annoying.
Correction to Garthor:

2. 100% of the energy on Earth comes from the sun.

Except of course the energy that comes from radioactive atoms already here, heating under pressure, the tidal pull of the moon, light from other stars, and various other minor sources outside of the sun-earth-moon system.

Corrections to Solbadguy500:

3. correct except it wouldn't fuse into helium. I don't know exacly what, but helium is small and deuterium is big. ( helium has an atomic mass of 4, and deutrinium is like a hundred something. ) I think you meant to say it gives helium off as a by product of the fusion.

Deuterium is a form of hydrogen. It's a hydrogen atom including a neutron, exactly what Garthor said. Hence the atomic mass is close to 2. No idea whose butt you pulled that 100-something idea out of.

4. We need waaaay more advanced technology to actually colonize mars, and have people live there. Maybe in the distant future....

Probably not "waaaay" more. Do read the Red/Green/Blue Mars trilogy; it explains a lot of the science involved rather nicely.

5. No, if you have the right to be a prick, I have the right to be annoying.

But Garthor is a prick to serve a purpose: Education.
'No idea whose butt you pulled that 100-something idea out of.'

He probably said that because the more complex atoms tend to have the longer names, which is an extremely bad assumption.
Garthor said:
3. "Cold fusion" doesn't maen "energy from nothing."

I said nothing of the sort. =p
You said it was the process in which all stars generate energy- then if our own star stopped working, we could just compensate by making another one/mimicking the process etc.

Oh, and about the whole "Garthor is awesome" debate going on here.
He's a nasty peice of work and everyone knows it- it over it already. =p
We can already get a fusion reactor working. Running it isn't the problem - Sustaining the reaction, and getting it to generate more energy then we put into it is the problem. Then there's an additional problem with the neutrons produced by the process mangling all the equipment used, eventually.

'Cold fusion' is trying to do it at temperatures (And pressures, normally) that are much lower then those inside a star, because it's easier that way. Sort of.

Stellar fusion works on something called the proton-proton cycle. It works like this: (Nuclear equations, atoms in the form nXp, where n is atomic mass, p is atomic number, X is the element)

1H1 + 1H1 -> 2H1 + e+ + v

1H1 + 2H1 -> 3He2 + y

3He2 + 3He2 -> 4He2 + 1H1 + 1H1

(v=neutrino, y=photon)
Deutrinium is a form of hydrogen? Oh, yeah I forgot, I did learn that in chemistry. I forgot the same elements could have different names, so I figured it was one of the bigger ones. I don't know a lot of the higher ones, I just assumed because I knew like the first.... 40 or so, and figured deutrenium had to be higher. My bad.
Deuterium. It's an isotope.
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