3.6 Billion Degrees in Lab...

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: nboy22
My question is, How would it not melt everything around it at that temperature?

The magnetic field probably keeps the plasma contained.

this is exactly why it didnt melt anything. remember people - temperature is a measure of kinetic energy. if the ions dont touch anything, they will not transfer any of their kinetic energy to the material around them.

there are other ways to contain plasma but the most prominent is non-uniform magnetic fields.

odin, plasma is by nature a high thermal energy state, so it was at that temperature for longer than just a little while.

What about radiation?? The sun isn't touching the earth is it?

understanding what radiation is and how it is effected in a magnetic field is not a trivial issue. radiation is the emission of photons because of particle collisions, electron decay, alpha decay, etc. at such high temperatures, the plasma is undoubtedly emittig at least soft xrays, but more than likely hard xrays to gamma rays.

at that point, you need to know some quantum mechanics to understand the barrier presented by the energy of the field and the steel. the transmission and reflection coefficients of each of the aforementioned barriers will bounce a lot of the radiation off, but also pass a lot of it. they account for this in the design.

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: nboy22
My question is, How would it not melt everything around it at that temperature?

The magnetic field probably keeps the plasma contained.

this is exactly why it didnt melt anything. remember people - temperature is a measure of kinetic energy. if the ions dont touch anything, they will not transfer any of their kinetic energy to the material around them.

there are other ways to contain plasma but the most prominent is non-uniform magnetic fields.

odin, plasma is by nature a high thermal energy state, so it was at that temperature for longer than just a little while.

What about radiation?? The sun isn't touching the earth is it?

understanding what radiation is and how it is effected in a magnetic field is not a trivial issue. radiation is the emission of photons because of particle collisions, electron decay, alpha decay, etc. at such high temperatures, the plasma is undoubtedly emittig at least soft xrays, but more than likely hard xrays to gamma rays.

at that point, you need to know some quantum mechanics to understand the barrier presented by the energy of the field and the steel. the transmission and reflection coefficients of each of the aforementioned barriers will bounce a lot of the radiation off, but also pass a lot of it. they account for this in the design.

How is the temperature measured?

 

[harobikes333]

Originally posted by: jagec
That scenario sounds very similar to what they use for fusion reactors...maybe they figured out the secret to workable fusion? That would be way cool.

Heck yes! When that day comes I'm betting alot of oil, coal, etc. companies are going to be calling up hitmen.....

 

[Mardeth]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: nboy22
My question is, How would it not melt everything around it at that temperature?

The magnetic field probably keeps the plasma contained.

Plus its in a vacuum.

This is really cool. Seems to me like a breakthrough, how big one we'll see later.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

How is the temperature measured?

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: OulOat
How do you measure something that hot?

Maybe some type of IR thermometer? Dunno.

it can be measured by shooting heavy particles through it and detecting the deflection from the potentials found inside the plasma. the plasma adversely affects particles through potential differences (voltages) because the magnetic field causes currents in the plasma. the plasma ions will bounce back and forth in the tub, oscillating between under-damped, critically damped, and over-damped states.

 

[MrDudeMan]

Originally posted by: Mardeth

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: nboy22
My question is, How would it not melt everything around it at that temperature?

The magnetic field probably keeps the plasma contained.

Plus its in a vacuum.

This is really cool. Seems to me like a breakthrough, how big one we'll see later.

how is it in a vacuum? plasma is made of a bunch of super-heated ions, which by definition makes it not a vacuum since particles are present (and a sh!tload of them at that).

 

[MrDudeMan]

and just for the record, im somewhat skeptical of their claim to have produced power...

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: harobikes333

Originally posted by: jagec
That scenario sounds very similar to what they use for fusion reactors...maybe they figured out the secret to workable fusion? That would be way cool.

Heck yes! When that day comes I'm betting alot of oil, coal, etc. companies are going to be calling up hitmen.....

No, the oil companies will be the ones building fusion reactors. They're not stupid, and not evil...just greedy. Remember how back in the day everyone's favorite conspiracy theory was how oil companies were buying up the patents to alternative energy sources, since they didn't want people moving away from oil? Now they're all putting ads in magazines and stuff talking about how they're "investing in alternative energy." You bet they are. When oil starts getting too pricey to extract, they'll dust off those old patents, and all the research they've done up until that point, and continue to sell their product. They are ENERGY companies, not OIL companies, and they know that oil won't last forever.

Frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing. If Shell sells me cheap, clean fusion power, I'll buy it and be just as happy as if HippieCorp, Inc. did the same thing. As long as SOMEONE does it...and the oil companies have the money to make it work.


My only complaint about them is drilling in the rainforest. C'mon, man, that's not cool..there's plenty of oil in the desert!

Originally posted by: MrDudeMan
how is it in a vacuum? plasma is made of a bunch of super-heated ions, which by definition makes it not a vacuum since particles are present (and a sh!tload of them at that).

So since there are planets in space, it's not a vacuum? The plasma proper is obviously not a vacuum, but it's magnetically contained...the space between the contained plasma and the wall of the container is almost vacuum.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma?s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.

cool

Naquada

Naquadah you n00b.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I think Im going to have to call shens on this one. At that temperature you can have fusion power, requiring a mere 100 Million Kelvin.

But 2 billion degrees Kelvin? Shens! :laugh:

 

[venk]

Originally posted by: OdiN

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma?s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.

cool

Naquada

Naquadah you n00b.

Naquadariah?

PS. that pic looks like the opening scene of Half Life. :Q

 

[iroast]

where are the marshmallows?

 

[theknight571]

Originally posted by: five40
Yeah that's just a little scary. "We don't really know what the fvck is going on in there...all we know is that it's real hot". Am I the only one who finds this just a little bit scary? That's like playing with nukes and going...sorry we blew up the entire state...we where really just hoping for 1 square mile to disappear. I'm so glad I live far far far away from Albuquerque.

IIRC...Some of the scientists working on the first Atomic Bomb weren't fully convinced that the reaction wouldn't just keep going and consume the entire atmosphere prior to the first tests.

(I thought I read/heard this somewhere)

 

[PimpJuice]

thats awesome, I have a couple buddies that work at San Dia Labs

 

[frankgomez75]

... I saw this on Spiderman 2 already

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: harobikes333

Originally posted by: jagec
That scenario sounds very similar to what they use for fusion reactors...maybe they figured out the secret to workable fusion? That would be way cool.

Heck yes! When that day comes I'm betting alot of oil, coal, etc. companies are going to be calling up hitmen.....

No, the oil companies will be the ones building fusion reactors. They're not stupid, and not evil...just greedy. Remember how back in the day everyone's favorite conspiracy theory was how oil companies were buying up the patents to alternative energy sources, since they didn't want people moving away from oil? Now they're all putting ads in magazines and stuff talking about how they're "investing in alternative energy." You bet they are. When oil starts getting too pricey to extract, they'll dust off those old patents, and all the research they've done up until that point, and continue to sell their product. They are ENERGY companies, not OIL companies, and they know that oil won't last forever.

Frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing. If Shell sells me cheap, clean fusion power, I'll buy it and be just as happy as if HippieCorp, Inc. did the same thing. As long as SOMEONE does it...and the oil companies have the money to make it work.


My only complaint about them is drilling in the rainforest. C'mon, man, that's not cool..there's plenty of oil in the desert!

i agree. i don't care if it is shell vs another company.

Though i do wish they would hurry up. I would really love to get off the dependancy of oil. I think if they actually pumped some good money into it we could find a salution far quicker then they been talking about.

 

[Goosemaster]

In other news, some fool at Los Alamos set off a weak EM Pulse that may have damaged electronics as Albaquerque






Seriosuly though, this is cool stuff.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: harobikes333

Originally posted by: jagec
That scenario sounds very similar to what they use for fusion reactors...maybe they figured out the secret to workable fusion? That would be way cool.

Heck yes! When that day comes I'm betting alot of oil, coal, etc. companies are going to be calling up hitmen.....

No, the oil companies will be the ones building fusion reactors. They're not stupid, and not evil...just greedy. Remember how back in the day everyone's favorite conspiracy theory was how oil companies were buying up the patents to alternative energy sources, since they didn't want people moving away from oil? Now they're all putting ads in magazines and stuff talking about how they're "investing in alternative energy." You bet they are. When oil starts getting too pricey to extract, they'll dust off those old patents, and all the research they've done up until that point, and continue to sell their product. They are ENERGY companies, not OIL companies, and they know that oil won't last forever.

Frankly, I don't think it's a bad thing. If Shell sells me cheap, clean fusion power, I'll buy it and be just as happy as if HippieCorp, Inc. did the same thing. As long as SOMEONE does it...and the oil companies have the money to make it work.


My only complaint about them is drilling in the rainforest. C'mon, man, that's not cool..there's plenty of oil in the desert!

i agree. i don't care if it is shell vs another company.

Though i do wish they would hurry up. I would really love to get off the dependancy of oil. I think if they actually pumped some good money into it we could find a salution far quicker then they been talking about.

We've had a solution for 50 years. Nuclear (fission) power and a rational fuel cycle. We were well on the way in the 70's but we pulled back out of irrational fear.

 

[ViviTheMage]

hawt

 

[Throwmeabone]

They must be testing a new Intel processor

 

[JDrake]

:shocked: awesome

 

[So]

Originally posted by: Throwmeabone
They must be testing a new Intel processor

At those temps?




...they must have underclocked it quite a bit.

 

[TySnyder]

Originally posted by: PimpJuice
thats awesome, I have a couple buddies that work at San Dia Labs

O RLY? You don't know how to spell Sandia though.

 

[LcarsSystem]

Now all we need is to get some matter/anti-matter and build us a warp drive!

 

[So]

Originally posted by: LcarsSystem
Now all we need is to get some matter/anti-matter and build us a warp drive!

Oh, we have anti-matter...just very, very little of it. If you could find a way to make a large quantity of it, you'd be richer than God.