Search found 3140 matches

by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:53 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Focus Fusion at Google Tech Talk
Replies: 36
Views: 24036

[It is my opinion that America as the world's premier imperial power has a plan for civilizing the world. I have no proof. One only has to look though. Second - copious energy is part of that plan. Simon, Simon, Simon. Let's not get into black helicopter territority. Yes, there is PNAC, but that's ...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:44 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Focus Fusion at Google Tech Talk
Replies: 36
Views: 24036

Re: Uh

scareduck wrote: Lerner represents himself as a "researcher"
Interesting sidenote: Lerner was banned from editing the Aneutronic Fusion wiki by an arbitration committee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Aneutronic_fusion
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:36 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Focus Fusion at Google Tech Talk
Replies: 36
Views: 24036

Al Queda exists, but I am pretty sure that its power is overblown to further political agenda. Ask Iraqis about that. AQ has killed tens of thousands there. And lest we forget, they killed 3000 in one day here in America. A lucky shot, maybe, but another lucky shot with WMD could kill millions. Mos...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 6:28 pm
Forum: General
Topic: Focus Fusion at Google Tech Talk
Replies: 36
Views: 24036

It had nothing, and absolutely nothing to do with ending Saddam's tyranny. It was for oil, plain and simple. Yes and no. We invaded Saddam because he used oil money to build a huge military (which he used to invade Iran and Kuwait to seize their oil) and produce WMD, which he used on his own people...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:36 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: WB-6 tests results: FOUR successful tests. Lab notes
Replies: 35
Views: 26921

DO I have this right... Neutrons come out of the machine in different directions.. no? and the detectors only represent/cover a small sample. SO couldnt the machine have generated 90 neutrons.....? Yes, in fact I think Bussard calculated 5E5 fusions or something like that, which would be a whole lo...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:34 pm
Forum: Theory
Topic: Test result details - they detected light as well?
Replies: 22
Views: 11487

They are also very fast. In the order of 1 GHz bandwidth. That would be my guess, as they're chasing a quarter-millisecond event. I noticed that Bussard used commercial headlights for his electron generators! Maybe that's what was causing the light they detected (only partly joking). Heh. Well, if ...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:56 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: Test result details - they detected light as well?
Replies: 22
Views: 11487

Test result details - they detected light as well?

I hadn't noticed this before: Fourth, the PMT registered a large pulse for 4 of the 5 tests, indicating a large light output, in the center of the machine, at exactly the time of the counts. There is nothing there in the PMT’s field of view to cause an arc (which usually is the culprit for noise). h...
by TallDave
Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:37 am
Forum: Theory
Topic: WB-6 tests results: FOUR successful tests. Lab notes
Replies: 35
Views: 26921

It's an important point. Detractors have been waving their arms and shouting "only three neutrons!"

Tom's notes on neutron shielding have been helpful as well.

I made a small update to the Polywell Wikipedia page re this issue.
by TallDave
Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:37 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Does a dodecahedron really meet Bussard's requirements?
Replies: 52
Views: 27975

What you guys are saying is that generating a plasma in a polywell using a microwave so that the electron energy is about ice cold guarantees no electrons will ever escape. Should be an easy enough experiment - I bet the confinement time is a lot shorter than "forever". I'll settle for 1E5 transits...
by TallDave
Tue Jan 22, 2008 4:29 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Does a dodecahedron really meet Bussard's requirements?
Replies: 52
Views: 27975

So does a cube - there are 3 faces off each vertex (corner). Yeah, all I can think is Bussard must have been referring to the 2-dim "vertices" -- the corners of the decagons in a trunc dodec, or the octagons in the trunc cube -- rather than the 3-dim corners of the 3-dim shape (where the 2-dim deca...
by TallDave
Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:57 am
Forum: Implications
Topic: Post-Polywell Investment Thoughts
Replies: 15
Views: 14725

This has been the assumption hitherto, mainly on the strength of the ridiculously low price of the cost of fuel (whether D-D or p-11B cycles are under consideration). Not the fuel so much as the plant. The fuel is practically a non-issue; tokamaks have cheap fuel too, but it costs $15B to make a de...
by TallDave
Tue Jan 22, 2008 1:30 am
Forum: General
Topic: Zero Point Energy Video
Replies: 9
Views: 6132

You know, harnessing the Casimir effect via nanotech is something I've wondered about. Yes, you need vast surface areas to harness it, but how much volume do you need? I think I read once that dog's noses and carbon monoxide detectors both have huge (football field sized) internal surface area. Sinc...
by TallDave
Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:39 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Does a dodecahedron really meet Bussard's requirements?
Replies: 52
Views: 27975

And Bussard did call WB-6 a truncated cube, even though it's really a collection of circles arranged as the faces of a cube: WB-6, 2005, R = 15 cm, B = 1.3 kG, E = 12.5 kV, clean recirc truncube with minimal spaced corner interconnects, multi-turn, conformal can coils, uncooled, cap pulsed drive, Ie...
by TallDave
Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:30 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Does a dodecahedron really meet Bussard's requirements?
Replies: 52
Views: 27975

TallDave wrote:Maybe he just meant there was an even number of faces around every place that the surface polygons' edges diverged. That does seem to be the case for both the trunc cube and the trunc dodec.
You can see this wouldn't be true for other shapes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedean_solid
by TallDave
Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:16 pm
Forum: Design
Topic: Does a dodecahedron really meet Bussard's requirements?
Replies: 52
Views: 27975

You know what, I think maybe we've (I've?) misunderstood what he meant by "vertex." Look at the truncated cube, it has the same issue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truncated_cube Maybe he just meant there was an even number of faces around every place that the surface polygons' edges diverged. That ...