Slashdot Mirror
19 million Amps
deblau writes "On July 27, scientists at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Nevada Test Site said they generated a current equal to about four times all the electrical current on Earth. During the few millionths of a second that it operated, the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged about 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can. Official news release is available from the DOE (PDF)."
"current equal to about four times all the electrical power on Earth" riiiight.
The article is vague, but it don't state the same as the editor on SlashDot...
During the few millionths of a second that it operates. Atlas generates electrical energy roughtly four times the Earth's entire energy production.
It doesn't say if it the Earth (magnetic field etc.) or the human energy production....
The statement is just after describing the Earth atmosphere pressure etc. so it could be related to earth it self.
And as the quote above states, it doesn't indicate that the energy production is measured in amps.
-:) Oh no - not again.
www.rednebula.com
resistance of a conductor is: :-) but look at it that way - even if they delivered the 1.21 gigawatts, they need to work out how to get the 650-ton generator moving at 80mph to time travel...
R=rho*L/A
where
rho - resistivity of the material in Ohms/m
L - length of the conductor
A - cross-sectional area in m^2 (in this case pi*r^2).
rho for Al is 26.5x10-9.
I am not sure what size can of tuna they were comparing the aluminium liner to in the official release but say it is a big can, say 5cm in heights, 12cm in width.
This makes the resistance:
R around 1.17x10-7 Ohms which makes the power:
P = VI = I^2*R ~ 42293215 or 0.042 gigawatts at about 2.2V
A bit short of 1.21 (28 times short in fact
Does 19 million amps equal "roughly four times all the electrical power on earth"? Hardly. I'm drawing at least 2 amps right now. If a mere 10 million others are doing the same, we've bested them. The power claim may actually be right, but neither the person who wrote the press release or the original Slashdot poster knew enough about the difference between power and current to make that clear. And there's also the bit about the "sophisticated computer codes." I think that's a reference to computer programs and not to the codes used to order a nucleur strike.
Seriously, people. Is there anyone on the /. editorial staff who can do basic math?
There are easily 19 million electrical service drops in the U.S. alone, counting homes and businesses and such, and I'll bet each and every single one of them uses more than one ampere ALL THE TIME.
Who lets this crap through, anyway?
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
Elsewhere in the news...
e .story&story_id=1212
;)
THIS HAPPENED 4 YEARS AGO!!!
linky: http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=hom
funny parent post though
Sandia National Labs' Z-machine has been pumping out 20+ million amps for quite some time.
I think he was making fun of the fact that you refer to the Nobel Prize as the "noble price."