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19 million Amps

Posted by Hemos on from the coursing-thru-their-veins dept.

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)."

2 of 457 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Math by eugene259 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    resistance of a conductor is:
    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 :-) 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...

  2. MOD PARENT UP by rco3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!