Talk-Polywell.org

The launch loop looks like a nice idea. One issue I note is the need of active levitation control of the steel cable in the sheath. I'd be inclined to use an aluminum cable suspended by magnetic repulsion, passively stable. Might also improve the efficiency of eddy current coupling that accelerates ...

I don't see how random collisions can be "exactly counteracted". It is also curious how a 3 dimensional coil might be constructed with interwoven loops in they way picture it. It's possible, but I don't see how it would be efficient. It would be asymmetrical (assuming the fields add linearly). You ...

I'm waiting on WB-7 results. Uncertainty tends to repel investment. WB-7, one way or another, should greatly reduce uncertainty regarding the polywell.

As I see it, the essence of a semiconductor for electronics work is having few charge carriers. As opposed to many charge carriers for a conductor, or no free carriers for an insulator. Having a small number of charge carriers, adding or removing a few carriers vastly changes conductivity. The 4 val...

Looking at ion-ion scattering, it seems a worst case interaction leaves one ion at rest in the center of the electrostatic well, and a second ion flying out with twice nominal energy. If well depth is matched to nominal ion energy (plus a small margin) the second ion escapes with the energy. However...

Development costs are nothing compared to operational costs. <sigh> And where does your knowledge of aerospace come from? Operational costs are proportional to development costs and fleet size, so yes they do matter. Hogwash. 'Penny wise' decisions made to cut development and building costs may com...

Torulf2 wrote:There actual is one magnetic fusion with convex b-field. The Levitating dipole.

I'd expect a similar magnetic field from a toroidal discharge, if it could be stabilized. Modified, of course, by the external field that drives the discharge.

One of Bussard's points in the Google Tech video is that the problem with tokamaks is that unlike stars, they use right-angle forces to confine the plasma. The polywell uses those same right-angle forces to confine electrons. But electrons may be confined over a smaller volume with a weaker field t...

IIRC the reason this won't work in an IEC setup (confining electrons magnetically, confining/accelerating ions with the electrostatic charge on the electrons) is that the "bottom" of the electrostatic well would be in the hole in the center of the torus. No, the bottom of the well would be inside t...

A point has been made that the plasma in a polywell is out of thermodynamic equilibrium. However: - the thermodynamic disequilibrium is as observed locally over a small volume. - I recall mention that the mean free path in a polywell is comparable to the size of the magrid. - It seems to me that dis...

Tip of the day ... code for clarity, not for speed. Code for clarity before speed. If you can get speed without losing clarity, go for it. One of the things that makes C code more difficult to read than English is that calls are so expensive. So you get big (often difficult to test) modules instead...

Publicity We don't have to defeat Rider. Congressmen don't read physics papers. In my opinion we do need to address the objections of Rider et all. Congress critters, and other investors, may not read physics papers, but they should be talking to people who do on matters like this. If it becomes 'w...

I'm not sure WB-7 can drive a stake through Rider to anyone's satisfaction. About the most it can show us is if fusion production and electron losses match theory. With the right instruments it should tell us something about particle energy distribution, brem losses, scattering, and so forth. All o...

drifting off topic...
Cellulose has a fair energy content, but conversion to ethanol is hard. However, if you're flexible about the chemistry of your liquid fuel there are other processes available. I'm still a fan of wet thermal cracking of waste biomass to oil.

MSimon wrote:Seconds of operation is probably a minimum requirement - minutes better.

How fast is the projected POPS frequency compared with test run time?