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summer M summer M
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What are the life stages of a proton in a silicon atom?

From the beginning of life as a proton in the universe to its present location in a rock. When was it born? What are the characteristics? What forces have influenced the proton and the other particles around it? How did it get to be inside the silicon atom? To what other atoms is the atom likely to be attached? In what way? Summary of a proton's life story. HELP!!!!!! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS IS!
  • 2 years ago
Midatlantian by Midatlan...
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05 January 2008
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I regret that you have gotten such poor responses on this site, but you have asked too large a question and no serious players have bothered to try.

Protons came into existence in the very early period of our universe, and eventually formed into mostly helium and hydrogen atoms.

You know that now there are many different elements, but in the early universe there were only, or nearly only, these two.

Then, over a long time - billions of years - atoms drew each other together by their collective gravity and formed into larger bodies, but their collective heat made them into stars, where inter-atomic forces were released; that is, there were nuclear reactions within these stars, just as there are nuclear reactions in stars today. In the cauldron of these 'first generation' stars, the heavier elements were formed, as we know them today.

Eventually, these stars aged, and just as our sun will do, burst apart, and these particles floated in space until they formed into other stars, like our own. But these newer stars already had the heavier materials - like silicon - because they were present in the dust that formed them, the dust of the first generation stars.

The silicon that one finds on Earth today is the same silicon that was there when the earth was formed. Most of it was created in the first generation stars, billions of years ago, and some was probably created in the heart of our sun, before Earth spun off as a separate particle.
  • 2 years ago
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