From The Science Asylum.

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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https://nebula.tv/videos/scienceasylum-we-discovered-this-matter-by-accident

Nick Lucid – Host, Writer, Editor, Animator
Em Lucid – Producer
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VIDEO ANNOTATIONS/CARDS

Sirius Binary System:

Fermi Paradox:

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SOURCES

Fermi’s Paper:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01400221 (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/FALL/thermodynamics/notes/node40.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Therm/entropgas.html

Fermi-Dirac Distribution:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/quantum/disfd.html

Fowler’s Paper:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/87/2/114/1058897

Dirac’s Paper:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.1926.0133
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LINKS TO COMMENTS

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IMAGE/VIDEO CREDITS

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images

Enrico Fermi Portrait:
https://repository.aip.org/islandora/object/nbla%3A297743

Ralph Fowler Portrait:
https://repository.aip.org/islandora/object/nbla%3A298543
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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