On May 11, 11:37 am, Terry Austin <tausti...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Bryan Derksen <bryan.derk...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
innews:_qFVj.131802$Cj7.83117@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> > Ben Crowell wrote:
> >> James Nicoll wrote:
> >>> How many uses can you think of for a multiple gigwatt generator
> >>> that has no waste heat or radiation issues, that is smaller than a
> >>> block of butter?
Pretty much any SFnal killer app requiring "only" a magically high-
energy-density power source.
OTOH abovethread James Nicoll points out that the prototype put out
"only" 3 GW for "only" 15 minutes. Obvious questions include- if you
dial the power drain down how much longer does it last- is there a
materials limit that makes it last only that long or what? Was it just
the prototype that had the time limit (they tend to do that)?
Alternatively, can you get TW bursts out of it? What's the max
possible short-term power drain without it going BOOM? If you don't
mind it going BOOM, how big a BOOM can you get? Don't look at me like
that; Stark _is_ a Defense contractor.
> >> Is it a heat engine? If so, then my proposed use for it would be to
> >> use it to obtain the Nobel prize for overthrowing the laws of
> >> thermodynamics.
>
> > The impression I got from the movie was that it was nuclear in some
> > way, nothing physics-breaking. The details don't really matter,
> > though.
How else to get that kind of power out of a butter-stick-sized
thingy controllably?
> The mention of palladium while building the prototype suggests cold
fusion,
> without saying it. So, for values of "nothing physics-breaking" that
> include stuff that's used as the punch line at the water cooler among
real
> phycists.
Considering the waste heat issues in the "real-world" embodiments of
so-called Cold Fusion, it better be Frozen Solid Fusion.
(Grounds for speculation; it says here:
http://skua.gps.caltech.edu/hermann/ice.htm
that "Proton conduction in ice and H-bonded materials is analogous
to electron conduction in semiconductors." So, maybe a block of Ice IX-
Argon clathrate with Palladium contacts?)
> But then, it *is* a comic book.
I useta read the comics but haven't seen the movie yet, so mu.
> Tommie Kratman will reply to this, because that's why my ***** does.
What _is_ that thing attached to your leg, and why is it flapping up
and down like that... oh. Ew. Never mind.
Mark L. Fergerson
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