How To Make Your OWN Elements | Worldbuilding

World Building: Chemistry and Elements

Introduction to World Building in Chemistry

• The video introduces the concept of world building, focusing on the elements and chemical compounds of the universe.

• It emphasizes the importance of understanding chemistry for creating believable fictional worlds, continuing from a previous discussion on physics.

Understanding Elements and Compounds

• Chemistry is defined as the study of properties, composition, structure of elements/compounds, and energy changes during transformations.

• An element is characterized by its number of protons; pure elements are not bonded with others while compounds consist of multiple bonded elements (e.g., oxygen vs. water).

• Allotropes are introduced as different pure states of an element (e.g., carbon can exist as diamond or graphite).

The Periodic Table's Role in World Building

• The periodic table contains 118 known elements organized by atomic weight; new discoveries must fit at the end unless significant changes are made.

• Changing an element's position in the periodic table has profound implications for chemical properties and universal composition.

Scientific Considerations for New Elements

• Introducing new elements between existing ones disrupts established scientific principles; it's advised to add new elements starting from number 119 onwards.

• This caution stems from potential drastic consequences affecting everything from star formation to atmospheric composition.

Isotopes and Their Importance

• Protons determine elemental identity while neutrons vary among isotopes; isotopes share protons but differ in neutron count (e.g., carbon has 15 known isotopes).

• Stability is key for isotopes; stable forms like carbon 12 and 13 have balanced proton-neutron ratios, whereas unstable forms undergo radioactive decay.

Implications for World Building

• Understanding synthesis processes allows creators to manipulate atomic structures through electrosynthesis and electro severance, leading to transmutation possibilities.

Understanding Electro Severance and Neutronium

The Nature of Electrons and Charge

• Electrons are negatively charged, leading to the assumption they could be targets for Electro Severance to remove their energy. However, removing an electron's charge poses significant physics challenges.

• There is no known neutral equivalent of an electron; thus, one option is to create a fictional subatomic particle that serves as this neutral counterpart.

Proton-Neutron Dynamics

• Protons are positively charged and have a neutral equivalent: the neutron. This relationship allows for transformations between protons and neutrons through beta decay processes.

• In positive beta decay, a proton turns into a neutron, while in negative beta decay, a neutron converts back into a proton. These transformations can affect atomic elements significantly.

Implications of Electrosynthesis

• Electrosynthesis adds charge to neutrons or consumes the charge from protons, suggesting that these processes could facilitate transmutation between elements on the periodic table.

• While most natural occurrences would yield unstable isotopes, controlled environments might allow for stable transmutations.

Challenges with Hydrogen and Neutronium

• A challenge arises with hydrogen (specifically hydrogen-1), which has no neutrons. If it undergoes Electro Severance, it results in an atom with only a neutron—an entity that does not exist in reality.

• The concept of "neutronium" emerges as a hypothetical element with atomic number zero. It is unstable and decays into hydrogen over time through negative beta decay.

Fictional Elements and Worldbuilding

• Neutronium would primarily exist as gas but could condense under extreme pressure found in stellar objects like neutron stars.

• For elements beyond 118 protons, there’s room for creative liberties in worldbuilding since real-world studies on such superheavy elements are limited.

Recap and Future Directions

• The fictional universe will mirror our own chemistry while allowing plausible transmutation processes and creation of fictional elements fitting within the periodic table framework.