There is a fairly popular thought circulating the cyberspace that a single gram of U contain about 20 billion calories , with some joking that eat it could nourish you like a turbo - shoot diet appurtenance . But is that nutritionist’s calorie enumeration right , and could you actually get energy from it ?
Well , the first thing we should probably get out of the direction is that under no circumstances should you beeatinguranium , even if you ’re trying to gain weight for bodybuilding reasons .
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If you visualise something juicy , adjudicate a nice curry rather than radioactive element .
Now that that ’s out of the agency , how many gram calorie are in uranium ? First up :
What are calories?
" In the late 1800s , apothecary W.O. Atwater and his colleague prepare a system to reckon out how much energy – that is , how many calories – various nutrient stop . Basically , he burned up food sample distribution and recorded how much energy they release in the class of heat , " Terezie Tolar - Peterson , Associate Professor of Food Science , Nutrition & Health Promotion at Mississippi State University explicate in a piece forThe Conversation .
" A calorie is a large calorie is a calorie , at least from a thermodynamic standpoint . It ’s defined as the amount of energy needed to rear the temperature of 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius ( 2.2 pounds by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit ) . "
Under this definition , atomic number 92 is apparently loaded to the lip with calories . If – and that ’s a big " if " – you may release the energy stored in uranium , it will raise the temperature of water significantly .
How many calories are there in uranium?
A common estimation thrown about the net is that 1 gram of uranium contains 20 billion calories ( which is actually 20 million nutritionist’s calorie , listed as Calories with a majuscule C on food packaging ) . But is that right ?
In usualuraniumore deposits , three principal isotope are found ; uranium-238 , uranium-234 , and uranium-235 , found on how many neutrons are check within the lens nucleus . Of these isotopes , uranium-238 is the most abundant , while uranium-234 is the rare . Uranium-235 makes up around 0.72 percentage of atomic number 92 deposits , and is the most desired – this is because if you could enrich it past3 percentit can be used to create a free burning atomic chemical reaction .
Focusing on uranium-235 , the average amount of energy loose during fission – when a neutron expunge the karyon and the nucleus splits into two or more little atoms – is about200 megaelectron volts(MeV ) . A gram of uranium-235 contains2.56 × 1021atoms . assume that all the uranium underwent nuclear fission successfully , that would release around 5.12 x 1023MeV.
Converting that to kilogram calorie , that ’s around 19,605,984,734 – or 19,605,985 Calories . However , it should be heavily noted that you do not have a chemical mechanism for bombarding the uranium with neutrons within your abdomen . Unless you ’re conceal a atom accelerator somewhere in your intestines , you are not going to be capable to use those nutritionist’s calorie for Department of Energy . In world , as state above , you will likely just die . Eating more than 50 mg will likely result inrenal failure and death .
