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What could we have done with 40 tWh of energy?!
It takes 15,000 kWh produce one ton of aluminum. That was 2.6 Gigatons of aluminum we could have had. We got stupid hash codes instead. This is 460,000 times the yearly world production of aluminum.

We wasted the energy of 460,000 times (not tons fricken times) the yearly world production of aluminum last year on Bitcoin and Ethereum!

Bitcoin energy use:
https://digiconomist.net/bitco...

Ethereum energy use
https://digiconomist.net/ether...

Aluminum produced / year
http://www.world-aluminium.org...

Energy to produce aluminum:
https://agmetalminer.com/2015/...

Yeeeeahhh, I think we're going to need to, um, see a citation on that one, mmmkay.

And not one from ,strong>tinfoil.org.

Oh My God. I just realised who's behind all these conspiracy theories!

What kind of hat can we use against them?!? We're DOOMed!!!

Additionally, aluminum smelting almost certainly does not using "electricity" produced from a power plant; instead the smelting furnace is almost certainly heated with natural gas.

O RLY?

http://www.world-aluminium.org/production/index.ht ml

"Aluminium ore, most commonly bauxite, is plentiful and occurs mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas: Africa, West Indies, South America and Australia. There are also some deposits in Europe. Bauxite is refined into aluminium oxide trihydrate (alumina) and then electrolytically reduced into metallic aluminium. Primary aluminium production facilities are located all over the world, often in areas where there are abundant supplies of inexpensive energy, such as hydro-electric power.

Two to three tonnes of bauxite are required to produce one tonne of alumina and two tonnes of alumina are required to produce one tonne of aluminium metal."

http://www.world-aluminium.org/environment/challen ges/energy.html

The real fun comes when the aluminum plant loses power, and all the molten alumina metal solidifies within four hours. Then they get to chip it out of the vats with jackhammers. The Alcoa facility in Bellingham, Washington takes a HUGE amount of energy to operate. A new smelter (the most efficient yet) uses 14 kWh (enough power to run a 100w light bulb for the better part of a week) to make 1 kg of aluminum.

We'd be far better off using nuclear power and electric cars.

Additionally, aluminum smelting almost certainly does not using "electricity" produced from a power plant; instead the smelting furnace is almost certainly heated with natural gas.

O RLY?

http://www.world-aluminium.org/production/index.ht ml

"Aluminium ore, most commonly bauxite, is plentiful and occurs mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas: Africa, West Indies, South America and Australia. There are also some deposits in Europe. Bauxite is refined into aluminium oxide trihydrate (alumina) and then electrolytically reduced into metallic aluminium. Primary aluminium production facilities are located all over the world, often in areas where there are abundant supplies of inexpensive energy, such as hydro-electric power.

Two to three tonnes of bauxite are required to produce one tonne of alumina and two tonnes of alumina are required to produce one tonne of aluminium metal."

http://www.world-aluminium.org/environment/challen ges/energy.html

The real fun comes when the aluminum plant loses power, and all the molten alumina metal solidifies within four hours. Then they get to chip it out of the vats with jackhammers. The Alcoa facility in Bellingham, Washington takes a HUGE amount of energy to operate. A new smelter (the most efficient yet) uses 14 kWh (enough power to run a 100w light bulb for the better part of a week) to make 1 kg of aluminum.

We'd be far better off using nuclear power and electric cars.

Indeed. Aluminium used to be very rare and was prized as a result.

link

It has already replaced copper in electrical applications that benefit from it being twice as conductive per unit mass.

It is 65% of the conductivity of copper by volume, close enough that one can just use a slightly fatter (though lighter) wire, and still get the same resistance.

It has already replaced copper in electrical applications that benefit from it being twice as conductive per unit mass.

It is 65% of the conductivity of copper by volume, close enough that one can just use a slightly fatter (though lighter) wire, and still get the same resistance.

but not in the movie :o) - It's a bit like yoghurt/yogurt or tomaRto/tomaYto (sort of).

This http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.ht ml may help.

From http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.ht ml

Derived from the Latin ALUMEN for ALUM (Potassium aluminium sulphate). In 1761 French Chemist Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau proposed that ALUMINE for the base material of ALUM. De Morveau was instrumental in setting up a standardised system for chemical nomenclature and often collaborated with Antoine Lavoisier, who in 1787, suggested that ALUMINE was the oxide of a previously undiscovered metal.

In 1808 Sir Humphrey Davy proposed the name ALUMIUM for the metal. This rather unwieldy name was soon replaced by ALUMINUM and later the word ALUMINIUM was adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists in order to conform with the "ium" ending of most elements. By the mid-1800s both spellings were in use, indeed Charles Dickens commented at the time that he felt both names were too difficult for the masses to pronounce!

The patents of both Hall and Héroult refer to ALUMINIUM and the company Hall helped set up was originally called the Pittsburgh ALUMINIUM Company. It was shortly renamed the Pittsburgh Reduction Company and in the USA the metal gradually began to be known only as ALUMINUM (in 1907 Hall's company finally became the ALUMINUM Company of America). In 1925 the American Chemical Society decided to use the name ALUMINUM in their official publications. Most of the world have kept the I in ALUMINIUM but it is interesting to note that the name for the metal's oxide, ALUMINA has been universally accepted over its more convoluted alternatives, ALUMINE and ALUMINIA.

Both ALUMINIUM and ALUMINUM have an equal claim to etymological and historical justification, and it seems that the difference in both pronunciation and spelling is likely to stay with us for the foreseeable future!

imagine aluminum vs aluminium

That's actually due to Sir Humphrey Davy's indecisiveness. See the fascinating story here...

WRONG. The original spelling was alumium. (no "in")

This was then changed to aluminum, then aluminium. Then it changed back to aluminum in the US.

See http://www.world-aluminium.org/history/language.ht ml

But none of this really matters unless you wanna go back to wulfram, plubnum, etc. (and originally, English had no "correct" spellings for anything.)

Ah, but they say both spellings are valid.

I guess the International Aluminium Institute has a rather embarassing spelling error in their very name. I mean, after all, what do they know?

International Aluminium Institute