AFAIK, the first rail-gun was tested a few years ago...it cosisted of a turned metal tube, about 2 inches thick with a 1 cm hole bored in it, filled with water and a ball bearing, then a HUGE capacitor bank (4700 nF @ 25,00b0 volts!) was discharged through the water...BANG! The ball bearing, when fired at a lump of clay, spiral'd into it and made a huge entry wound...then they tried it with the bearing...same thing! SCARY!
Don't try this one at home...that sort of capacitor bank can explode the skin off your bones a la BlipVerts from Max Headroom...
EdSi.
Smartass...
But you are right in someways, but the 4th dimension is not time...it's just another dimension...look for references to tesseracts or hypercubes. Cooooooooool!
I've always thought that the only way we could travel the universe would be faster than light transport, although the energies involved are very silly...
Well, we can always try!
I suppose you're right about the materials (cadmium for example...), but I doubt mass produced fusion reactors would be made of such choice materials...also, there are certain parts of a tokamak that will become irradiated with fast neutrons anyway...(just don't ask me to name them!)
And I (or the governments with fusion power) don't care about whether or not the Pu 239 is hidden or not, just as long as they get it for their stupid bombs.
Aside from that, I am still not convinced about the existance of any other form of fusion other than solar fusion.
I know *all* about half life - done them in physics class for years, and elsewhere...Pu 239 is about 24,500 years...but my original point was that any substance atomically heavier that iron (which the tokamak will need to be to stop it from being fried by the plasma) will be irradiated by the fast neutrons released.
Another interesting point is that fusion reactors can breed weapons-grade Pu 239 just like our old friend the atomic pile....
Slashdot Mirror
AFAIK, the first rail-gun was tested a few years ago...it cosisted of a turned metal tube, about 2 inches thick with a 1 cm hole bored in it, filled with water and a ball bearing, then a HUGE capacitor bank (4700 nF @ 25,00b0 volts!) was discharged through the water...BANG! The ball bearing, when fired at a lump of clay, spiral'd into it and made a huge entry wound...then they tried it with the bearing...same thing! SCARY! Don't try this one at home...that sort of capacitor bank can explode the skin off your bones a la BlipVerts from Max Headroom... EdSi.
Smartass... But you are right in someways, but the 4th dimension is not time...it's just another dimension...look for references to tesseracts or hypercubes. Cooooooooool! I've always thought that the only way we could travel the universe would be faster than light transport, although the energies involved are very silly... Well, we can always try!
I suppose you're right about the materials (cadmium for example...), but I doubt mass produced fusion reactors would be made of such choice materials...also, there are certain parts of a tokamak that will become irradiated with fast neutrons anyway...(just don't ask me to name them!) And I (or the governments with fusion power) don't care about whether or not the Pu 239 is hidden or not, just as long as they get it for their stupid bombs. Aside from that, I am still not convinced about the existance of any other form of fusion other than solar fusion.
I know *all* about half life - done them in physics class for years, and elsewhere...Pu 239 is about 24,500 years...but my original point was that any substance atomically heavier that iron (which the tokamak will need to be to stop it from being fried by the plasma) will be irradiated by the fast neutrons released. Another interesting point is that fusion reactors can breed weapons-grade Pu 239 just like our old friend the atomic pile....