Re: Not always joking, it seems

Tim McDaniel <tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> For something to be a mirror, it must be opaque, and it must be
>> smooth on the scale of whatever it's reflecting.  ... To neutrons,
>> nothing is smooth, as solid matter consists of empty space with
>> occasional small lumps.

> How about neutronium as a neutron mirror?

That might work.  I'm not sure if it's smooth enough, or whether
it reflects neutrons or just absorbs them.  There are a few minor
problems with it, however:

* It's rather dense, something on the order of a hundred million tons
  per cubic centimeter.  This might make it just a little difficult
  to manufacture, trans****t, and install.

* It's only stable under immense pressures, far greater than in the
  center of the Earth, or even than in the center of the sun.  Without
  such pressure, it instantly explodes, yielding many trillions of
  megatons of explosive force per cubic centimeter -- nuclear fission
  on a very large scale.  And it's a particularly toxic explosion,
  with a tremendous amount of neutron-rich radioactive fallout.

* Nobody has any idea how to make any.

Other than that, I think it would work quite well.
-- 
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
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