Rod of Iron and mass defect

About a year ago while I was preparing a Sunday School lesson I had this thought but it is too out there for Sunday School.

Throughout the Book of Mormon the scriptures are talked about as being written on precious metals, gold and brass. This I think shows how treasured the scriptures should be. But several prophets, Lehi, Nephi, John and even the Psalmist described the Word of the Lord as a rod of iron, hardly an attractive metal. Why the difference?

First a little physics. Matter in the universe is made up of atoms. Atoms are primarily made up of protons and neutrons (there are also electrons but their mass is almost negligible.) For simplicity, let's say that the mass of a proton in 1 atomic mass unit (u) and the mass of a neutron is also 1 u (actually the neutron is slightly more massive than the proton.) One would think that because there are eight protons and eight neutrons in an oxygen atom that it would have a total mass of 16 u. That is not true. It is actually smaller (15.99). On the other end, the most common form of uranium has 92 protons and 146 neutrons but its total mass is actually larger than the sum of protons and neutrons! This difference is what is called the mass defect.

Where does that mass go or come from? Einstein said it becomes energy. His E=mc2 equation defines the relationship. In atoms like uranium there is extra mass that wants to become energy. A uranium atom will spontaneously split apart releasing a large amount of energy. If enough uranium or similar atoms are in a small space an atomic explosion occurs.

On the other end atoms that are missing mass like oxygen, hydrogen and helium can be slammed together to form atoms that are heavier but are missing even more mass. It seems that atoms prefer to be lighter than the sum of their parts, the lighter the better. In the cores of stars light atoms are being slammed together to from heavier atoms that are missing more mass.

To summarize (and maybe clear up) there is a trend in the universe for atoms to move toward the middle where the atoms are missing the most mass. Heavy atoms like uranium, plutonium and gold want to be lighter and light atoms like hydrogen, aluminum and sulphur want to be heavier atoms. This brings us to the middle of the spectrum, iron. Iron has the greatest mass defect of all atoms. There is more mass missing from iron atoms than from any other. This makes iron the most stable element in the universe.

The Word of God is the most stable thing in the universe it is fitting that is should be represented by the most stable atom in the universe, iron.

I'm back!

Here are some pictures that I took on a hike to the wind caves. It's not my best work but I had an almost three-year-old monkey on my back.

Bevan really did not like crossing this spring.