Could I fuse anything?

[victory143]

I'm just wondering, If I got Two Oranges and smashed them together at 99% the speed of light, would the resulting energy generate enough heat and pressure to make Fusion occur? The Oranges already have H2O inside them, so the energy could possibly separate the Elements and fuse the Hydrogen.

Definitely food for thought

[Skyler4856]

Yes. http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/

[StrandedonEarth]

It should, but to be on the safe side you might want to have some sort of containment to keep it from flying apart before fusion occurs.

As for the title question, anything?????? (Anyone remember the old Cadbury Caramilk commercial? anyways...) Sure, you could, but once you reach iron and heavier elements, fusion releases less energy than it took to start fusion, so you could never break even on the reaction. This is how stars go supernova, once they start burning iron they collapse until they rebound (that's the nutshell version).

[Sillychris]

Absolutely. If your kinetic energy is enough to overcome the coulomb barrier of the electron cloud, you will get a nuclear reaction.

Whether it's energy profitable is a different story...

[victory143]

So what would happen if I somehow managed to fuse Unonoctium (118).

[drakesdoom]

So what would happen if I somehow managed to fuse Unonoctium (118).

You would possibly have **** (236) for the most briefest moment of time, maybe even long enough to record that it existed on some instrument, and then the hard radiation from it splitting would hit you.

[Sillychris]

So what would happen if I somehow managed to fuse Unonoctium (118).

Who knows, maybe it'll decay to the fabled "island of stability" that nuclear physicists are currently seeking.