Search found 69 matches

by Barry Kirk
Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:08 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Polywell: We'll know in 7 months time?!
Replies: 203
Views: 83711

Been lurking on this site for several months now...

Keep up the great discussion... Sorry I don't have more to contribute.
by Barry Kirk
Wed Dec 02, 2009 5:33 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Black Hole Starship
Replies: 11
Views: 6776

OK I got to ask this question.

Don't forces such as the electromagnetic force operate by exchanging virtual particles. I think the particle used by the EM force is the photon.

Since photons cannot escape from a black hole, how can the EM force operate through the event horizon?
by Barry Kirk
Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:33 pm
Forum: News
Topic: More: The $8 million award
Replies: 60
Views: 25150

MSimon,

Here's hoping that you have to change your sig in the near future...
by Barry Kirk
Mon Sep 14, 2009 4:55 pm
Forum: News
Topic: EMC2 Gets $8 million
Replies: 98
Views: 56906

Congratulations to Dr. Nebel and team...

I know he didn't promise any pronoucnments for another 1 1/2 years, but it would be nice to hear something every now and then.

Even a keep alive message.

Best of luck.
by Barry Kirk
Tue May 26, 2009 7:23 pm
Forum: News
Topic: WB-8 Coming
Replies: 79
Views: 47823

I just have to say it....

"Captain, the engines are shutdown cold, we can't restart them for 30 minutes... There is no way to change the laws of physics..."

Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott, USS Enterprise


or something like that... I'd have to look up the exact quote.
by Barry Kirk
Thu May 21, 2009 7:35 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

The polywell has 2 major advantages over the Tokamak. 1) It is only trying to directly confine electrons not ions. Electrons are a lot easier to confine. 2) It is not using a Maxwellian distribution for energy. By flipping a Tokamak from ion confinement to electron confinement, you gain one of those...
by Barry Kirk
Thu May 21, 2009 6:52 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

hmmmm... Welll.... If I understand what your saying, with the Torus shaped fusor, Fusion occurs on the circumference of a circle located at the center of the minor radius instead of at a point. Well that does improve the volumetric efficiency quite a bit. However, the picture you provided was for a ...
by Barry Kirk
Thu May 21, 2009 5:53 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

It could be argued that we know a shape that doesn't work... A torus... and we do know a shape that does work... a Sphere.

It may be that other shapes work, but we don't know yet.
by Barry Kirk
Wed May 20, 2009 3:06 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

Art, I couldn't write down an equation for this.... Not my skill set. However, does the cross component of the velocity have to be that high? Also, and again, i'm just asking questions which I probably have the physical model wrong. Is it possible to set this up, with the ions relatively stationary ...
by Barry Kirk
Wed May 20, 2009 2:26 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

Art, That is no problem if the ions and electrons pass through each other periodically. Right now, they are mixed together all of the time. If they pass through each other, and spend only a small portion of their time in "contact", then that is a small amount of time for energy transport to occur. T...
by Barry Kirk
Wed May 20, 2009 12:11 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

Not exactly. The fuel ions always lose energy to the electrons, The electrons always lose energy to bremsstrahlung. If the electron temperature is high, then the bremsstrahlung power is high, and that has to be replaced somehow. If the electron temperature is low, then the power transfered from the...
by Barry Kirk
Tue May 19, 2009 6:51 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

I seem to remember that Polywells can recirculate the electrons and possibly the ions so that most of the electrons that escape the cusps end up back inside the well with minimal energy loses...
by Barry Kirk
Tue May 19, 2009 6:49 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

Aha... Did some searching on the web.... Should have done my homework before the last post...

I thing you were referring to the electrons being transported out of the machine and effectively lost?
by Barry Kirk
Tue May 19, 2009 6:33 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

Thanks...

So, it is effectively how fast you can get the energy out, ( maybe in the form of high energy alphas? ), of the machine compared to the rate that energy is injected into it?
by Barry Kirk
Tue May 19, 2009 6:14 pm
Forum: News
Topic: We Will Know In Two Years
Replies: 158
Views: 89462

I've been following Polywell on and off for a couple of years now, but I missed the definition of transport.

What is the transport issue?