It usually does - especially in an IEC device.TallDave wrote:Are you even being serious anymore? You think all the energy is going into background neutrals??
Where did you think it went, all that input energy?
Because other IEC devices have grids. They aren't full of electrons, and they operate in backgrounds. Polywells are, and don't.chrismb wrote:It usually does - especially in an IEC device.TallDave wrote:Are you even being serious anymore? You think all the energy is going into background neutrals??
Where did you think it went, all that input energy?
There are as many electrons in a fusor, at any one time, as there are [deuteron] ions - just like a Polywell, actually!TallDave wrote:Because other IEC devices have grids. They aren't full of electrons, and they operate in backgrounds. Polywells are, and don't.chrismb wrote:It usually does - especially in an IEC device.TallDave wrote:Are you even being serious anymore? You think all the energy is going into background neutrals??
Where did you think it went, all that input energy?
In the system, yes. Zipping around inside a magnetic bottle ionizing neutrals, no.There are as many electrons in a fusor, at any one time, as there are [deuteron] ions - just like a Polywell, actually!
Bussard wrote:Typically, for no = 1E13 /cm3 (i.e.
ptorr = 3E-4 torr), veo = 1E9 cm/sec (Ee = 100 eV), and
sigmaizn = 1E-16 cm2, the cascade e- folds with a time
constant of about 1E-6 sec (one usec). Thus all of the
neutral gas is ionized and the system is filled with low
energy electrons in only a few usec.
10^-100 chris. Except at the center where it is 10^100. Lots of power. Wooo hoooo.chrismb wrote:You're living in a fantasy world thinking this kind of stuff.TallDave wrote:There isn't any background matter to heat in a Polywell.
So you mean it's gonna operate at 10^-22 torr?
These are the sorts of ideas that idealistic inventors dream up, then wonder why their invention didn't work.
Problem is, you won't need many loose neutrals to spoil the party, cos once just one gets shunted by a fast ion, then that fast ion is no longer very fast, then you've got two not-full-speed ions, and then 4, and then xxx.. This is thermalisation, and Polywell will not resist it. Polywell's only hope is that this, supposed, annealing process will somehow pull up those slowed ions back to full energy, a process that I am not holding my breath to see.
The only way you can avoid thermalisation is to ensure there really are no neutrals floating around at all, and I presume you do understand that this is just a fantasy.
I think that is a fair observation.MSimon wrote: I was thinking about my sarcastic post (!0^100) and came to the conclusion that there may be a regime where all the conflicting rqmts. will produce net power. The question then is - can such a regime be realized.
So your argument is not with theory. It is with realization.
Grid losses are the accepted reason fusors can not do net power. There may be additional reasons. Why look into them if the grid kills you before you start?People long to see such a simple device as a fusor working. As the grid is the only thing people can physically see in a fusor, so they blame that for it "not working".
God is the accepted reason for why the Universe exists. That doesn't mean its true.MSimon wrote:Grid losses are the accepted reason fusors can not do net power. There may be additional reasons. Why look into them if the grid kills you before you start?People long to see such a simple device as a fusor working. As the grid is the only thing people can physically see in a fusor, so they blame that for it "not working".