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How is oxygen the 3rd most I know that Hydrogen is the
most common, then Helium, then
I heard oxygen was, but how is
oxygen the most common, but
shouldn't Lithium be the 3rd
most common because it only
has 3 electrons? I mean you
only need to another electron
to make lithium. You need 8
electrons to make oxygen so
why is it the 3rd most common?
Also what are the most common
kind of bonds when hydrogen
makes helium?
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You're wrong about the electrons. Atoms gain and lose electrons all the time and it doesn't change their elemental status, only their charge. Likewise neutrons: adding or losing neutrons changes the isotope, but it's still the same element. Only the number of protons determines the element. For all the elements except hydrogen, their abundance is a function of nuclear reactions inside stars and the resulting fission products. There is no reason to expect that the third element in the table would be the third most common. It doesn't work that way. Stars create more oxygen than lithium -- you're not going to understand any more until you study a lot more physics. |
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Lithium would be WAY more common if stars started burning it after Helium, instead of Carbon (Which I think is the third most common element, instead of Oxygen). |
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It has practically nothing to do with the electrons. Stars can't make Li by adding an electron to He, they have to add a proton. It turns out that that takes a lot of energy. It is easier (less energy) to do the sequence this way: 3 He --> C (the triple alpha process) He + C --> O |
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it has to do with the nucleosynthesis in each shell of a large star before a supernova 1st shell - H to He 2nd shell - He to C and O 3rd shell - C and O to Ne, Mg, and O 4th shell - Ne, Mg, and O to Si and S 5th shell - Si and S to Fe oxygen is produced in both the second and third shells, which is why it's more abundant than Carbon. hydrogen and helium are more abundant than oxygen even though theyre only produced in one shell because all active stars do the whole H to He conversion (including the smaller stars that don't get to the 2nd shell to produce O and don't have a supernova later on) btw you can see that Lithium isn't even a product of normal star nucleosynthesis, so that's why it isn't giving oxygen a run for its money |
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