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Chemists warming to Cold Fusion.
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:09 pm
by Diogenes
At Annual Convention, Chemists Warm to Cold Fusion
Looking for new energy solutions, scientists are increasingly embracing the idea of cold fusion, once considered a junk science along the lines of alchemy. "Cold fusion" describes the nuclear fusion of atoms at close to room temperatures, as opposed to the epic temperatures at which nuclei fuse inside stars. If realized on a practical scale, it could provide the world with a virtually limitless source of energy.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/articl ... old-fusion
Note the Calorimeter measuring 50 Megawatts.
Posted: Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:01 pm
by MSimon
Note the Calorimeter measuring 50 Megawatts
Did some one make the mW vs MW mistake again?
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:30 pm
by JohnP
Snippet from article:
He used the system to measure what happened when he charged an ammonium chloride solution, and found that it formed nitrogen trichloride and 50 megawatts of excess power.
The author didn't know her units, and neither did the editor. Not that I'd expect much from popsci, but
sheesh.
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:14 pm
by Aero
JohnP wrote:Snippet from article:
He used the system to measure what happened when he charged an ammonium chloride solution, and found that it formed nitrogen trichloride and 50 megawatts of excess power.
The author didn't know her units, and neither did the editor. Not that I'd expect much from popsci, but
sheesh.
How much solution did he charge up? A pint is one thing, 20 gallons is quite another. At 50 MW, how much solution would vaporize?
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:23 pm
by Mike Holmes
Science Daily covered the conference as well. Mega or Mili aside, it looks like there's some interesting research being done:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 182909.htm
The article lists presentations at the bottom, some of which might be searched up to find out more specific actual details.
Mike
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:25 pm
by rcain
Aero wrote:How much solution did he charge up? A pint is one thing, 20 gallons is quite another. At 50 MW, how much solution would vaporize?
.. all of it, along with most of the lab, i should imagine.
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:33 pm
by MSimon
rcain wrote:Aero wrote:How much solution did he charge up? A pint is one thing, 20 gallons is quite another. At 50 MW, how much solution would vaporize?
.. all of it, along with most of the lab, i should imagine.
You beat me to it.
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:42 pm
by rcain
... though to be fair, no one said anything about the time period involved...
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:04 pm
by D Tibbets
MSimon wrote:rcain wrote:Aero wrote:How much solution did he charge up? A pint is one thing, 20 gallons is quite another. At 50 MW, how much solution would vaporize?
.. all of it, along with most of the lab, i should imagine.
You beat me to it.
Lets see... 50 MegaWatts.
That would power a 1000 W space heater for 50,000 seconds, or ~15 hrs.,
or a ~70,000 HP jet engine for ~ 1 second. Turn that on in a lab and things would get exciting.
http://www.ocean.washington.edu/courses ... umbers.pdf
Dan Tibbets
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:57 pm
by MSimon
Uh. MW is a rate.
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 7:11 pm
by pfrit
MSimon wrote:Uh. MW is a rate.
He could have used a swimming pool for his experiment...
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:08 pm
by Skipjack
Lets see... 50 MegaWatts.
That would power a 1000 W space heater for 50,000 seconds, or ~15 hrs.,
or a ~70,000 HP jet engine for ~ 1 second. Turn that on in a lab and things would get exciting.
This calculation confuses me. Those 50 MegaWatts up there are missing a time component in there, or am I missing something. 50MW for a picosecond is a lot less energy than 50MW for an hour... I dont think you can take the 50MW and turn them into Watts/hour just like that...
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:23 pm
by Aero
Skipjack wrote:Lets see... 50 MegaWatts.
That would power a 1000 W space heater for 50,000 seconds, or ~15 hrs.,
or a ~70,000 HP jet engine for ~ 1 second. Turn that on in a lab and things would get exciting.
This calculation confuses me. Those 50 MegaWatts up there are missing a time component in there, or am I missing something. 50MW for a picosecond is a lot less energy than 50MW for an hour... I dont think you can take the 50MW and turn them into Watts/hour just like that...
50 megawatt = 180 000 000 000 joule/hour,
50 megawatt = 50 000 000 joule/second
by my online units converter.
From this I suspect that the experimental measurement was on the order of seconds to minutes and that those who posit a typo (mW vs MW) are correct.
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:24 pm
by KitemanSA
Aero wrote: 50 megawatt = 180 000 000 000 joule/hour,
50 megawatt = 50 000 000 joule/second
50 joule/usec
0.000 05 joule/psec
How long?
Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2010 9:35 pm
by Skipjack
Well I do my numbers with MWh, KWh, etc. Not MW and KW.
If you had said it had produced so and so many MWh and then gone on with your calculation, I would have understood.
A gallon of gas produces so and so many KWh not KW.