Why can't we simply add 72 protons to oxygen and become rich? How hard can it be?

Answer 1

You have to add ñeutrons too and pushing them together until they bind takes alot of energy 

Answer 2

If you add 72 protons to an atom of oxygen , then you are forming a new element 

16 + 72 = 88 which is Radium  ( Radio Active) . 

To do this is very hard!!!! You need untold amounts of energy, as you dealing with nuclear physics. 

Answer 3

You want to be an alchemist? It's already been tried, and isn't that easy.

"On January 13, 1404, King Henry IV of England signed a law making it a felony to create gold and silver out of thin air."Wow, Andre sure is easy to trigger. 

Answer 4

I'm working my way up to 72.  So far I'm only halfway there.

Answer 5

How much time do you have?! We WANT to do approximately that with radioactive waste!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Have you ever visited one of the accelerators in the US? Assuming it is possible to do what you are proposing, it would be humongously expensive to obtain even a microscopic amount of the material.  

Answer 7

There has to be some neutrons in any nucleus (except simple hydrogen), with a relationship between number of protons and neutrons.  A nucleus of 80 protons (mercury) needs around 100 or more neutrons to be stable.  Actually, mercury has several stable isotopes.  But I would not expect to get rich from a rather poisonous element.

Answer 8

At the current rate we're polluting our environment, pure oxygen will soon be the most valuable element on Earth.

Answer 9

That's what happens inside massive stars; they start out fusing hydrogen into helium, but, finally - when they die, they create gold, platinum and silver... 

So... all you'd really need to to is bring a really massive star to Earth, and wait for it to die. 

Answer 10

Because the energy and equipment required to produce gold from oxygen, which by the way is a very strange choice, would be more expensive than the value of the gold resulting from it.  And it wouldn't just be protons.  Removing an alpha particle from the relatively abundant lead, then a further proton, would be a much more cost-effective way to do it, but still not worth it.