The Ridiculous Density of White Dwarfs

White dwarfs are made of degenerate matter, so compact there isn't room for atoms to exist. And, believe it or not, we discovered that using a model from a completely different context.

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Em Lucid - Producer
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VIDEO ANNOTATIONS/CARDS

Sirius Binary System:
   • The Star That Keeps Getting Weirder  

Fermi Paradox:
   • Humans are the First Aliens. Here's Why.  
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SOURCES

Fermi's Paper:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.... (German)
https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9912229 (English)

Helium-3:
https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9503150

Entropy of Ideal Gas:
https://web.mit.edu/16.unified/www/FA...
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/...

Fermi-Dirac Distribution:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/...

Fowler's Paper:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...

Dirac's Paper:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
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LINKS TO COMMENTS

   • The Star That Keeps Getting Weirder  
   • The Star That Keeps Getting Weirder  
   • The Star That Keeps Getting Weirder  
   • The Star That Keeps Getting Weirder  
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IMAGE/VIDEO CREDITS

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images

Enrico Fermi Portrait:
https://repository.aip.org/islandora/...

Ralph Fowler Portrait:
https://repository.aip.org/islandora/...
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TIME CODES

00:00 Intro
00:30 Enrico Fermi
00:52 Fermi Gases
01:25 3rd Law of Thermodynamics
02:20 Quantum Mechanics
03:02 Fermi-Dirac Statistics
04:06 White Dwarfs
04:43 Hydrostatic Equilibrium
05:17 Fermions
06:00 Surface Gravity
06:43 Degenerate Matter
07:34 Electron Degeneracy Pressure
08:37 Closing Thoughts
09:21 Featured Comment