Other x

That's probably doing E=mc^2, so yeah, 900g will give you a shedload of energy.

 

I thought it was mutated seabass?


I wonder who the scientist was that decided something like this is necessary? Don't get me wrong I am all for it and think it's cool as hell, but who thought to themselves:


I should make a huge frickin' laser. That would be awesome.

 

Who hasn't thought that?

 

Its to make nuclear fusion. Horizon did a programme called 'Can we make a star on earth' which featured this laser and several other experiments. If you can find the vid online its well worth a watch.

 

+1 i watched that show was cool.

and showed just how much we need this. fossils fuels and nuclear and renewable are just not gunna cut it.

 

Fusion is nuclear.

 

Fixed that for the physicists.

2 C₇H₅N₃O₆ -> 3 N₂ + 5 H₂O + 7 CO + 7 C

The chemists can do their own Hess cycle!

(1g of 2,4,6-trinitro-1-methylbenzene should release 4200J by my reckoning)

 

Chemist here also, so yeah, 1g = 4200 (give/take), so takes around 900Kg to get to the 4MJ region.

 

lol true nuclear is was been lazy i guess since thats what most people know it as.

thankyou dr. corrector.

is fission better for you ?

 

Actually fusion would be ideal; fission leaves nasty radioactive by-products, but fusing deuterium and tritium (heavy water) ions only creates helium nuclei (alpha particles) which, although strongly ionising radiation, are easy to shield and absorb (unlike gamma photons!).

But fusion is still a long way off being possible (i.e. getting more energy out than you put in) for generating energy.

Does it seem odd to anyone else that although we're splitting/fusing nuclei together we still harness the heat via hot water?

 

I want one.

'Nuff said tbh

 

Exactly. I mean, how long have you been here?

Steampunk. Can't beat it.

 

DIY Deathstar:

Hollow out Earth's moon (the main one or other), mount laser.

Cue "that's no moon...oh wait" jokes.

 

Thankyou! People just love getting worried about anything they don't understand. "It's science and it involves big numbers, so it will explode and kill us all!" Blame Hollywood - too many films wherein everything is made of Explodium. People can't fathom large amounts of energy doing anything else.

 

Good thing this cant fire around corners! Makes for lousy surface to surface use!

I guess I just want to see stuff cut in half really fast.....

"Nerds, doing crazy ass things to advance the human race for the past Nth years"

 

All you need is a strange alien device called a "mirror"... Preferably mounted to the head of a trained velociraptor.

 

so shielding tanks against this thing(if ever used as a weapon) involves mirror-polishing them?

 

It'd have to be an unbelievably expensive mirror...

 

If the alternative is suddenly finding several Megajoules of released energy inside your tank, I think it's worth the cost

 

EDIT: Ah, don't know how to embed videos... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73NTtRuMn3E