Question

Two critical requirements must be met before light elements, like hydrogen or helium, will fuse and form heavier elements. The two requirements for nuclear fusion are

Answer 1

In order to achieve a nuclear fusion, one of the following requirements that must be attained are high temperature and high pressure.

High temperature - temperature must be 100 million degrees kelvin to a point that hydrogen already becomes plasma

High pressure - extremely high pressure is required so that the distance between hydrogen atoms must be at the required 1 picometer apart

Answer 2

• An extremely high temperature is required.
• It is necessary the existence of a force that surpasses the force of electric repulsion between the nuclei of the two atoms.

Step-by-step explanation:

Nuclear fusion is the union of the protons and neutrons of two atoms to form a single atomic nucleus, of greater weight than those that gave rise to it.

In this process, an amount of energy equivalent to the difference between the binding energy of the new atom and the sum of the energies of the initial atoms is released.

For the fusion process to occur, it is necessary to overcome the electric repulsion force between the two nuclei, which grows in the direct ratio of the distance between them. This is only possible with extremely high temperatures, these reactions are also called thermonuclear reactions.