So I just finished writing a post about the Sandia Z-Machine over on the Stormy Weather blog. Why? Because it’s cool and it involves lots of electricity, which is sort of related to lightning, kinda, if you squint hard enough.
Clicky for a bigger version!
This is the sort of science that’ll ruin your day if you make any wrong moves around it.
I think that is the coolest thing I have seen in a while, and I’d absolutely love to see one of those in action. That’s my new desktop wallpaper 🙂
Me too!
You have the most interesting journal 🙂
Thank you!
The first thing I thought when I saw the pic was “Awesome desktop pattern!” I’d love to see this bad boy fire–but only from a safe distance…
Hmmmm… at the risk of sounding like I’m pulling an “I saw it first!”, I’d intended to show you that very picture way back when. ‘Course, there are a lot of things that I intend to do, only to have them fall out of my brain.
The larger version of that pic was one of the first wallpapers I used on Gir. I love a busy desktop!
I think that is the coolest thing I have seen in a while, and I’d absolutely love to see one of those in action. That’s my new desktop wallpaper 🙂
oooOOOOOOoooooo
thats better than the singing tesla coils.
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
Singing tesla coils?
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
http://polylizzy.livejournal.com/80296.html
I just posted about it reciently!
uber geeky coolness!
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
Wow,rad!
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
You should try to make it out to Dragon some time!
oooOOOOOOoooooo
thats better than the singing tesla coils.
Me too!
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
Singing tesla coils?
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
http://polylizzy.livejournal.com/80296.html
I just posted about it reciently!
uber geeky coolness!
I can only imagine what the EMP would feel like. Wonder if the pulse is too brief to feel, or whether one’s hair would kind of jump for a split second.
As an aside I’m not 100% certain but I reasonably sure that you can’t really feel anything. People are very very insensitive to both magnetic and electrical fields. The hair on end feeling you get from a tesla coil is actually from a having a huge potential difference between yourself, once you are touching it, and the air around you.
Okay; I knew that the magnetic field generated by, say, an MRI wasn’t perceptible, but I didn’t know how the transient pulse generated by this machine compared to an MRI (which has a strength, I believe, on the order of 1 T).
On the other hand, I read that rapidly spinning neutron stars can generate magnetic fields on the order of 1012 to 1015 T. We probably wouldn’t feel a magnetic field of that magnitude, either; but in this case I suppose we’d be too busy dissociating into our component atoms to notice. : )
If you were standing close to anything metal, you’d no doubt feel the results of the EMP, but you’d almost certainly not feel the pulse itself. Your watch might, and if it were strong enough any metal jewelry you were wearing might, but that probably wouldn’t be terribly pleasant…
I can only imagine what the EMP would feel like. Wonder if the pulse is too brief to feel, or whether one’s hair would kind of jump for a split second.
You have the most interesting journal 🙂
I actually used to have that picture as my wallpaper and since we are on the subject of fusion check this out:
http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php
Aneutronic fusion! A quite long talk on the process
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1518007279479871760&q=Google+tech+talks+lerner&pr=goog-sl
There are two major problems at the moment with fusion from what I can tell the first is turbulence. Much of the energy spent to heat the plasma is wasted making the plasma swirl like laundry in a washing machine and not just causing compression. This method seeks to take advantage of the bulk plasma velocity.
The other big problem is in the most easily reached fusion reactions with the D-T reaction the lowest energy of the lot:
D + T → 4He + n
Is that the bulk of the energy is released in the kinetic energy of that neutron. This is a major pain in the ass for people designing fusion reactors as neutrons are uncharged. This requires big chunks of material usually metal, as it conducts heat nice, to stop them. Unfortunately as a material absorbs neutron it becomes radioactive! This is not so good from a clean power angle. So fusion reactions that don’t result in neutrons might be a better choice. The problem of course with all the aneutronic reactions is they take a higher initial energy density!
Sorry to blather on but I have a soft spot for reactor design.
Interesting. Don’t fast neutrons tend to bounce off large nuclei instead of being absorbed (fissionable nuclei excepted)? The trick would be to slow them down enough to be absorbed by some material with a large cross section for neutrons, such as cadmium, that could be replaced as it grows radioactive; but I have no idea how that could be done.
If I recall correctly they are basically thinking of using thick steel jackets that are water cooled to absorb the neutrons. Oh and bouncing is okay as each bounce drains KE from the neutron involved.
I actually used to have that picture as my wallpaper and since we are on the subject of fusion check this out:
http://focusfusion.org/log/index.php
Aneutronic fusion! A quite long talk on the process
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1518007279479871760&q=Google+tech+talks+lerner&pr=goog-sl
There are two major problems at the moment with fusion from what I can tell the first is turbulence. Much of the energy spent to heat the plasma is wasted making the plasma swirl like laundry in a washing machine and not just causing compression. This method seeks to take advantage of the bulk plasma velocity.
The other big problem is in the most easily reached fusion reactions with the D-T reaction the lowest energy of the lot:
D + T → 4He + n
Is that the bulk of the energy is released in the kinetic energy of that neutron. This is a major pain in the ass for people designing fusion reactors as neutrons are uncharged. This requires big chunks of material usually metal, as it conducts heat nice, to stop them. Unfortunately as a material absorbs neutron it becomes radioactive! This is not so good from a clean power angle. So fusion reactions that don’t result in neutrons might be a better choice. The problem of course with all the aneutronic reactions is they take a higher initial energy density!
Sorry to blather on but I have a soft spot for reactor design.
As an aside I’m not 100% certain but I reasonably sure that you can’t really feel anything. People are very very insensitive to both magnetic and electrical fields. The hair on end feeling you get from a tesla coil is actually from a having a huge potential difference between yourself, once you are touching it, and the air around you.
Okay; I knew that the magnetic field generated by, say, an MRI wasn’t perceptible, but I didn’t know how the transient pulse generated by this machine compared to an MRI (which has a strength, I believe, on the order of 1 T).
On the other hand, I read that rapidly spinning neutron stars can generate magnetic fields on the order of 1012 to 1015 T. We probably wouldn’t feel a magnetic field of that magnitude, either; but in this case I suppose we’d be too busy dissociating into our component atoms to notice. : )
Interesting. Don’t fast neutrons tend to bounce off large nuclei instead of being absorbed (fissionable nuclei excepted)? The trick would be to slow them down enough to be absorbed by some material with a large cross section for neutrons, such as cadmium, that could be replaced as it grows radioactive; but I have no idea how that could be done.
If I recall correctly they are basically thinking of using thick steel jackets that are water cooled to absorb the neutrons. Oh and bouncing is okay as each bounce drains KE from the neutron involved.
Thank you!
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
Wow,rad!
The first thing I thought when I saw the pic was “Awesome desktop pattern!” I’d love to see this bad boy fire–but only from a safe distance…
Re: oooOOOOOOoooooo
You should try to make it out to Dragon some time!
If you were standing close to anything metal, you’d no doubt feel the results of the EMP, but you’d almost certainly not feel the pulse itself. Your watch might, and if it were strong enough any metal jewelry you were wearing might, but that probably wouldn’t be terribly pleasant…
Hmmmm… at the risk of sounding like I’m pulling an “I saw it first!”, I’d intended to show you that very picture way back when. ‘Course, there are a lot of things that I intend to do, only to have them fall out of my brain.
The larger version of that pic was one of the first wallpapers I used on Gir. I love a busy desktop!