Okay. I need a physicist. How does that relate to the heat death of the universe. Is all iron-56 the most probable distribution of energy in the universe (max entropy)?
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Not a physicist yet, temporarily a high school physics and maths teacher until I can start my PhD
Fe-56 is the heaviest nucleus that releases energy when other nuclei fuse into it. Everything heavier requires energy, that has to come from somewhere else, to fuse. All things tend to keep doing stuff that release energy, and they don't like to do stuff that requires energy. So, in a long enough amount of time, nuclei keep fusing together while it releases energy, and stop when it starts to require energy.
At least that's what happens inside regular old stars. The vast majority of them will have an iron core after a certain amount of time.
It pretty much only takes nuclear physics into account though, whereas the actual universe is a lot more complicated and will thus probably not turn itself into all iron.
Least Energy. I.e. yes. Does be pretty good.
Not a physicist, but I thought the heat death of the universe also involved all the matter being sucked into black holes and turned into pure energy. There's a big chunk converted up front in the accretion disk, then the rest is converted into hawking radiation as the black hole(s) evaporate over the oodles and oodles of years.
Whether or not there are also lumps of iron-56 or other matter floating around in the cold void probably depends on the real truth behind dark matter and dark energy and their long-term behavior.
This is an important question with real-life implications.
Add this feature to minecraft, so if you wait too long, everything is just iron. Even the air blocks.
You're saying bedrock eventually becomes breakable?
YES
Next up: ProtonDecayOrBust
Please help I tried this experiment but my eyes turned to Iron how can I see inside the box?
You don't need to, I can tell you what's inside.
Iron.
Step 1: kill the cat in the box Step 2: make sure the cat isn't still alive when you're not looking
This post really resonates with me
Thanks, that is indeed a long time
Btw also known as a quinquagintaducentillion So cheers to that
Its actually 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0 00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,00 0,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years
Fixed the spaces
I'm lazy how many sets of zeroes is that
Did you just type this out? Nice
Execute that in your browser console: `1${',000'.repeat(500)}`
Only Buzz Lightyear will get to see it :(
Gotta change it to scientific 
Yeah i got this first, thanks! But it didn't give any meaning in size, after I saw "infinite" I knew more or less how long I should wait
It was mostly for the joke, as the scientific calculator answer is just the equation written with different notation.
I didn't understand this one. Why would any matter eventually turn into iron?
Iron has the most stable nuclei because of... chemistry reasons... so it was thought most radioactive decay chains would effectively end there. This is also neat on an astrophysics level because iron is the last element created by first generation stars, so you'd get this grand entropic cycle that ends with a universe made of black holes, neutron stars, iron, and loose hydrogen atoms, more or less. In theory but not practice, probably.
For all human practical purposes decay chains end in lead though. The time scale in the meme is the difference between "effectively stable" lead and "as stable as possible" iron.
Tl;Dr everything below iron will get fused into at least iron by stars. Everything above will decay into iron.
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(4 replies)
Iron-56 is one of the most stable nuclei, along with nickel-62, so after untold time lengths, due to standard fissile decay/spontaneous fusion (possibly due to quantum tunneling), all baryonic matter decays into iron-56, and a little nickel-62.
Elements with a proton number less than or greater than iron become more stable as they approach iron, and so, over very, very long timeframes, from random quantum tunnelling effects, will favour being iron over being other elements.
Thus, in 10^~1500 years, virtually all atoms in the universe will turn into iron, assuming protons don’t decay (which may or may not happen).
To my understanding, elements smaller than iron can produce energy in nuclear fusion reactions (like in stars and such), but bigger elements require a net energy input to make them fuse. Meanwhile, bigger elements eventually decay into smaller ones (though many take an extremely long time). So, given a sufficient not quite eternity of time for everything lighter to get fused together and everything bigger to decay, iron is the midpoint everything ends up as.
That’s..
this aigen?
or does my slop sense tingle wrongly?
Wrongly, I'm afraid. I remember this series of "alot" illustrations from years ago. IIRC a web comic author made them.
The origin of the alot is the blog hyperbole and a half, this article in particular. It is very cute tbh. I don't find it hard to believe that somebody drew this particular alot in response later on.
I tried a few reverse image search sites, none of them could find that exact image, not even something similar.
Also, that font is really similar to what AI might use.
I’d say it’s AI slop.
For some extra existential crisis, consider this.
In 1x10^10^^56 years, a new big bang could occur in the universe, through quantum tunneling.
If you multiply that with all possible ways in which all subatomic particles in the observable universe could be arranged (1x^10^^115), that might be a possible timeframe for a new universe exactly like ours.
That is, a universe in where you posted that comment, and I'm writing this right now. Maybe we're doing that a few seconds differently, but overall it's the same universe.
Someone tried to make a meme out a few random bits of knowledge and I'm not sure what my reaction is supposed to be.
why do we say 10^ years instead of seconds
like you can't imagine the timespan anyway so why use non-metric units?
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