what happens to a neutron left in the open?

Question

tritium and deuterium fuse to form helium, thus ejecting a neutron, this neutron is suppose to turn into energy, but how?
i already know about E=MC^2, but i also know that neutrons only become energy when it comes into contact with an anitneutron, and none of these antineutrons exist here on earth with normal matter, so how can the neutron turn into energy?

Answer 1

The neutron will decay after a meanlife of approximately 10 minutes (not exact time) into a proton, an electron, and an electron-type antineutrino. The energy will be contained in the rest-mass energy of the three resultant particles and the kinetic energy of the particles. The three particles will conserve both energy and momentum, total of both being the same before and after the decay reaction. The kinetic energy is the difference of the rest mass energy of the proton, electron, and antineutrino (presuming this has mass) in sum versus the rest mass energy of the neutron and is the energy you normally think of as released during the decay.

Answer 2

The ejected neutron flys off at considerable speed and therefore has kinetic energy... the energy of a mass in motion. When it comes into contact with matter, the kinetic energy is transformed to heat, but the neutron survives. It just moves a little bit slower. It definitely does NOT "turn into energy."

After a lot of "bumping around" among the atoms, the neutron has slowed down to the point where it is moving at about the same average velocity as any atom or molecule due solely to the temperature environment it is in. The neutron is now said to be "thermalized."

A thermal neutron, if it doesn't escape into outer space, will eventually be captured by a nucleus and turn that particular atom into a different isotope, invariably a radioactive isotope. At this point we can say the neutron ceases to exist as a separate identifiable entity. What happened to it after it was "captured" by the nucleus (and probably tortured by all those gluons and quarks in there) can not be known to mortal man, but it wasn't turned into energy.

If the neutron manages to escape capture, it faces a more dismal fate: after a short while, it spontaneously decays into a proton, an electron, and some sort of neutrino (to conserve momentum... momentum is always conserved!) which all go flying off in more or less opposite directions.

Electrons live forever, but anonymously in a sea full of other electrons.

That leaves the proton and the neutrino. Protons could possibly decay but no one has ever noticed. There is a deep hole filled with water and observed by a few thousand photomultipler tubes in Japan that is looking for proton decay. After searching for a few years they now put a lower limit of about 10^35 years for the "half life" of a proton.

A neutrino can zip along without interacting with matter for a very long time, although it possibly changes flavors once in a while. But eventually it too will be captured by a nucleus, maybe on the other side of our Universe, and disappear for a while from our "real" world to live with the quarks and gluons.

So, think of it this way: the neutron is just a messenger, carrying away excess binding energy as kinetic energy from the nuclear fusion event. After the message (the energy) has been delivered the neutron soon vanishes as described above. It does give up some more energy if it decays instead of being absorbed, but this is an almost trivial amount compared to what it started with.

Answer 3

Hey, Joe-Rocks, where are you goin with that neutron in your hand?

Anyway, I wish you would cite the source for that "average life" of a neutron.

If a neutron were just to sit there in a vacuum, it would never be hit by anything or influenced by anything. It would not just turn into energy on its own accord.

Something extraneous must happen to the neutron for it to "turn into energy". Usually this energy is considered to be in the form of light, which also includes heat and magnetism, but I suppose that the energy could be converted into mechanical energy as a result of a collision or even into potential energy if the neutron is turned into some other particles.

What I am saying is that I am unsure of the answer to your question due to the lack of constraints or description of the situation.

"LONG LIVE THE NEUTRON"

Answer 4

The neutron does not turn to energy. The half-life of a neutron outside the nucleus is about 15 minutes. If it doesn't collide with something else first, it decays into a proton, and electron, and an antineutrino, using the beta decay mode.

Answer 5

First of all it is needed to Understand what energy is. Objects dont turn into energy as if it was magic.
When an object moves its because power caused it to move.
When some thing moves its a process of motion . this process is called energy.
In the case of Neutrons there are slow neutrons and fast neutrons. They are used to create nuclear fission in Nuclear reactors to produce power.
A free Neutron does not live very long it has a short life time. At that point it breaks down into components which are electron and proton plus a mass loss which dissipates as radiation power.

As far as E=mc^2 it is a formula which represents interaction of space with mass to form a chemical mass structures as we know in the periodic table of elements. Electron ,protons, neutrons are all mass structures which live in such a way to form atoms.
Since you know about the formula which was inititally formulated by Henri Poincarre by which he described the definition of energy in mass structures.Later others elaborated on it and finally Einstein made it alive by using it in his theory of relativity which was really a theory of invariance.

Answer 6

if I remember correctly the Neutron has a life time of about 8 min

that is, left alone, it will decay in about 8 min statistically speaking, inside the nucleus, He is stable

I read the rest of your question:

It seems to me that you have the notion that energy is only a photon or electromagnet energy. The equation e=mc^2 means that every matter with mass m has an energy equally mc^2. When the neutron leaves the reaction you mention, it carries energy with itself too, even before decaying.

Answer 7

Hi. The neutron has a half-life of about 1,000 seconds. http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=neutron&gwp=16

Answer 8

A neutron, left to itself with no matter or antimatter to interact with, is considered reasonably stable. It won't decay into smaller particles on its own for millions of years.

Answer 9

I'm not sure but do you remember that song "Neutron Dance"? I bet the guys who sang that song would know.