Why can't this be done?

Hi.

Why can't you transform elements like iron into elements like gold for
"free", ie. without a lot of energy?

What I thought was this: Elements heavier than iron are at a lower
binding energy per nucleon (hence higher potential energy per nucleon)
than iron. So if you could, for example, convert iron (low energy) into
gold (high energy) without expending the necessary energy, then you
could turn the gold back into iron, which would by necessity release
energy -- and since you didn't expend any to get it, you just got "free
energy" -- a perpetual motion machine!!! Since this is obviously
absurd, you can't do it for "free".

Is that correct?

.

Relevant Pages

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