I asked that question so I could find out what definition he holds of decomposition. Decomposition, to me, means organic decomposition. You might be referring to radio-active decay.. which is something entirely different. Inorganic materials do not rot to my knowledge..
Inorganic materials have to be in some medium, right? what medium do you want these inorganic materials to be in, as an example?
no darn it...you give an example of inorganic material and a medium these inorganic materials are in... Maybe you don't understand it...to me rotting is decay and decay is increase of entropy of the material or basically the material permeates to a greater space.
In this hypothetical situation were is iron located? If iron of mass 1 kg is located in space and there is nothing else in space than over millenia of time the molecules of iron will dissintegrate as the rotating electrons around the atoms of iron will loose their energy and go to a lower state.
because the second law of thermodynamics state that no process is 100% efficient...and since such is true electrons cannot move around the atom forever without loosing energy to satisfy this law.
Well I am not sure if the change will have effect on protons which define the atom...so if it looses electrons...its still iron but an isotope.
no the electrons will either move out of orbit...relocate with other electrons of other molecules or move to a lower orbit around the atom...
either way...it will all fall apart to protons, electrons, neutrons...and perhaps even farther apart to muons, quarks... But in real universe thats not what happens...in real universe things collapse onto themselves because there is not just 1kg of iron present in the universe...but lots of matter...
Draqon, decomposition implies loss of structure. In biology this means loss of organic structure. In chemistry this means separation into constituents by chemical reaction. Mostly though, when using the word "decomposition", organic decomposition is meant. Rotting is the process of organic decomposition by means of micro-organism and the organic objects own chemical processes and enzymes. Edit: Draqon, you are confusion mere chemical reactions with organic decomposition.