How alchemy might be done

[Jalopy]

I think pressure is the solution. 

If enough pressure was exterted on a Silver atom, one electron would be forced out of orbit, causing it to turn into a gold atom. 

I think that's one way alchemy could be accomplished, without having to resource to nuclear fusion etc. 

Pressure can be found in plenty in the natural world, weights, slinkies, a very primitive device could be invented that exerts pressure on atoms that way. One wouldnt even need to turn to technology for the answer. In fact as far back as the middle ages, people used to cause alchemy, which proves the secret to alchemy is in the primitive not in technology. If they could do it, then so can we.

[Sensei]

25 minutes ago, Jalopy said:

If enough pressure was exterted on a Silver atom, one electron would be forced out of orbit, causing it to turn into a gold atom. 

Have you looked at how many protons silver has and how many protons gold has?

You can turn one atom into another by bombarding a carefully selected target with the appropriate "missile".

This is done routinely by quantum physicists.

e.g. Technetium-99 is created from Molybdenum-99, which is created from Uranium-235.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_molybdenum#Molybdenum-99

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium-99m_generator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technetium-99

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Sensei

[Phi for All]

!

Moderator Note

Moved from Politics to Speculations.

 

[swansont]

2 hours ago, Jalopy said:

If enough pressure was exterted on a Silver atom, one electron would be forced out of orbit, causing it to turn into a gold atom.

You're going to have to be more explicit here in step 2.

Gold and silver differ by 32 protons (Z=47 vs 79). One electron isn't going to do this. If you remove it, you have a silver ion. If you force it to combine with a proton and turn it into a neutron (and emit a neutrino) you will have palladium.

[John Cuthber]

3 hours ago, Jalopy said:

people used to cause alchemy

Alchemy didn't really work.
Nobody ever turned base metals into gold.
 

3 hours ago, Jalopy said:

If they could do it, then so can we.

They couldn't.

Edited March 1, 2022 by John Cuthber