Search found 191 matches

by blaisepascal
Fri Sep 11, 2009 1:22 am
Forum: Design
Topic: Muons
Replies: 19
Views: 15004

G is a fundamental physical constant, the Newtonian constant of gravitation. It is experimentally determined to equal 6.674 28(67) x 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2 See http://physics.nist.gov/cgi-bin/cuu/Value?bg|search_for=gravitational+constant I hope this link works. For some reason the standard method of en...
by blaisepascal
Thu Sep 10, 2009 4:03 am
Forum: Design
Topic: Muons
Replies: 19
Views: 15004

Now I'm not sure, I do remember reading it in an article online (my memory is usually really good so its possible the article was simply wrong). I'll just finish up these Richard Feynman lecture books before I start asking more stupid questions :oops: The Feynman Lectures are good generally, but ar...
by blaisepascal
Wed Sep 09, 2009 9:32 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Rick Has A Word or two for sceptics.
Replies: 128
Views: 62551

If you include the steam plant the numbers are not near as good as the reactor alone. If an aneutronic machine can be made to work I think the overall balance might come out in favor of fusion. I think you mean an aneutronic direct conversion machine. Otherwise I think you're back to needing the st...
by blaisepascal
Tue Sep 08, 2009 8:46 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Focus Fusion and Nuclear Proliferation
Replies: 64
Views: 24059

Excerpted from a current thread at the Focus Fusion site: I contacted the Committee on Science and Technology (CST) - the organization that was tasked with managing the ARPA-E grants. ... I wanted to see if they had any particular issues with aneutronic fusion. It does appear that they hold Aneutro...
by blaisepascal
Sun Sep 06, 2009 12:58 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Ejection of byproducts
Replies: 31
Views: 14514

Dan, Convention when writing a number like 30,000 in text exponential form is 3E4. Not 3 *10E4. The 10 is assumed. Of course if you can do exponents then 3 10<sup>4</sup> is perfectly proper. Not wishing to drag a boring bit of pedantery too far, but why not when the boards are so quiet, but Dan is...
by blaisepascal
Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:18 am
Forum: News
Topic: Rick Has A Word or two for sceptics.
Replies: 128
Views: 62551

I was boggled by that for a bit when I first ran across it too. It's like burning a gallon of gasoline and getting half a gallon back. Seems like it ought to be impossible. It may have big implications in a couple hundred years, if we don't have an economic method of fusion yet. It seems hard to be...
by blaisepascal
Mon Aug 31, 2009 1:31 am
Forum: Design
Topic: Muons
Replies: 19
Views: 15004

I was reading up on muons a couple of weeks ago while reading about the Strong force, as I understand it the only player involved in the Strong Force between particles is muon exchange. Does the muon exchange involve the muons flowing back and forth within and between/among particles much like elec...
by blaisepascal
Sun Aug 30, 2009 4:28 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Rick Has A Word or two for sceptics.
Replies: 128
Views: 62551

I've read that, it's the "more fuel out than in" thing the boggles me, how are you getting power out as well as fuel, perpetual motion machines can only be built by a bored lisa simpson. It's not really "more fuel out than in", it's really converting a non-fuel into a fuel faster than it's using up...
by blaisepascal
Wed Aug 26, 2009 12:26 pm
Forum: News
Topic: Rick Has A Word or two for sceptics.
Replies: 128
Views: 62551

It's not possible. There is a review board, so all the results are peer-reviewed. The contracts have specific reporting requirements. The review of the WB-7 results led to WB-8, not a bureaucrat's sheepish look. I didn't read that as a take on the results of the WB-7 contract, but perhaps what lead...
by blaisepascal
Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:49 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Is There an Optimal Size for Magrid Casings?
Replies: 339
Views: 166976

Your algorithm is confusing: To model this thing, follow the following algorythm. Select an expected core diameter and sphere size. Model a torus around the sphere, north to south, thru the 0 degree longitude line. [ok Greenwitch] Rotate that torus around the 0,0 point [you mean the planet core? ar...
by blaisepascal
Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:09 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: proton boron 11 fusion / fission shielding
Replies: 42
Views: 21036

Which is heavier - an ounce of feathers or an ounce of gold? If you think you know that one, try; which is heavier - a pound of feathers or a pound of gold? Aww, that's easy... An ounce of gold is 480 grains, while an ounce of feathers is 437.5 grains, so the gold is heavier. A pound of gold is 576...
by blaisepascal
Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:24 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES from RFP
Replies: 120
Views: 57536

Greetings, Please excuse the truly crude graphics, but I hope it will get the idea across. Truely crude graphics excused. They have one major advantage over the elegant graphics I was thinking of drawing: they exist. They also get your point across. Now we can discuss their accuracy. Final panel. T...
by blaisepascal
Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:52 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES from RFP
Replies: 120
Views: 57536

Here's a link. It's the little PPT icon on bottom right, p24. Thanks. I believe you are wrong, as the truncated dodecahedron pictured on that page has odd degreed vertices I'm not sure what you mean by this. Can you cite a reference for Bussard on that, or explain why this matters? My understanding...
by blaisepascal
Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:52 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES from RFP
Replies: 120
Views: 57536

]As a matter of fact, you are both correct. The graphic in Tom Ligon's ISDC presentation did use decagonal coils instead of pentagonal, which would have produce strong line cusps between the adjacent sides of the decagons, and probably wouldn't have been as good a Polywell as one would want. But ma...
by blaisepascal
Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:33 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES from RFP
Replies: 120
Views: 57536

It's interesting, I've seen WB-6 called a truncube, rectified cube, and cuboctahedron. Of course they're all close to the same thing, it's just a question of how you expand the truncated corners. A cuboctahedron and a rectified cube are the same thing, and is the same thing as a rectified octahedro...