u/MisterMisterYeeeesss

Like most people (I imagine), nuclear power was first explained to me as something like "a neutron splits a U235 nucleus and...". As I started reading more about it, it seems like the neutron induces something that a layperson might describe as "wobbling" or "oscillation" in the nucleus, which eventually results in splitting.

My understanding is that the incident neutron "joins" the nucleus, but I've never read anything that mentions the nucleus briefly becoming U236 before the fission event.

That got me thinking that one of these things is true:

a) The incident neutron DOESN'T join the nucleus; it just starts the oscillation and flies away/disappears, so it IS U235 that splits.

b) The incident neutron DOES join the nucleus, but in some fashion where it's not considered to be U236.

c) The nucleus that splits IS actually U236, but it's just not talked about that way for some reason (possibly because it exists so briefly).

d) Something else.

With the addition of option 'D', I'm sure one of those things is true. Can anyone shed some light on which of those is actually the case?

Edit: I should have clarified that the really intense mathematical descriptions are over my head. So maybe it IS described as U236, but only in more advanced literature.

Every now and then when I'm listening to a show, I'll notice something different about the speech patterns. There are plenty of things we simply wouldn't say because they've fallen into disuse, but there are also grammatical differences. As an example, in English there's something called the "meaningless do".

"Do you have plans for this evening?" / "Do you have a pen?"

We might reply "I don't have plans tonight" or "I don't have a pen". In many shows, I've heard the earlier "I haven't any plans tonight" or "I haven't a pen" constructions.

I know this is kind of a niche area of interest, but if anyone's notice other grammatical changes I'd love to hear them. To be clear, I'm not talking about vocabulary (though that's interesting in its own right), just differences in sentence construction or grammar over the decades.