Unfortunately, no...

Space/Science » in reply to Wearing out the hammer

Unfortunately, no...

nick hoffman — 3/27/2007 1:58:27 PM (archived)

You only get to win when the "other guy" admits that he has lost.

You can lead this horse to water, but you can't make him think...

Anyone with a basic scientific or mathematical education can work out the detonation velocity of a cube of TNT and hence the DURATION of the explosion. From this comes POWER (rate of doing work) not ENERGY (Amount of work done [or technically, do-able - but now we're into thermodynamics which gets messy...])

Whether this same person can cope with a nuclear-based process yelding slow power over long time versus thermal burning of chemical energy giving higher poer over drastically shorter timescales is a moot point.

People think that nuclear explosions are impressive, but they waste So much of the available energy. So too do "traditional" Uranium reactors. There are MUCH more fuel-efficient designs available that produce less radioactive waste, but unfortunately are ideal for breeding weapons-grade plutonium.

Politics does get in the way of science...

While we're at it, Johannes, why is it so much more difficult to build an Uranium bomb than a plutonium bomb?

And which one will heat the Earth's atmosphere more?

The whole thread (63 posts)

More information on Dual-Stage 4-Grid (DS4G) thrusters - Lee - 3/23/2007 6:18:42 AM
- Could these thrusters be used for lunar landing/ascent? - Lee - 3/24/2007 4:22:23 AM
  - Now Lee - do not use these thrusters on deer. Please. (n/t) - Bowser - 3/24/2007 5:10:49 PM
    - How do you think Santa gets his to fly? ;) (n/t) - Lee - 3/24/2007 5:51:33 PM
  - A few issues - Adam - 3/24/2007 12:06:04 PM
    - re. Correct me if I'm wrong but it - Johannes - 3/25/2007 1:28:20 AM
      - re: re. Correct me if I'm wrong but it - Keermalec - 4/12/2007 9:03:02 PM
      - Common sense. - TB - 3/25/2007 4:36:01 PM
      - Exercise for the student - R.L. - 3/25/2007 4:26:04 PM
        
        All units are metric in the numbers I gave (n/t) - R.L. - 3/25/2007 5:03:00 PM
        
        Its quite simple to calculate- I am sure several here can do the math, but dont post the answer- lets wait for super genius, 'better than Einstein' Johannes to share his answer first... - R.L. - 3/25/2007 5:00:49 PM
        
        re: My curiosity was directed at â€œ Adam, posted on 3/24/2007 5:06:04 AM,â€œ he - Johannes - 3/25/2007 7:30:30 PM
        
        Giggle- still havent learned the difference between energy and power - R.L. - 3/25/2007 9:10:57 PM
        
        Okay, now you're just poking it with a stick. Let it lie. (n/t) - TB - 3/26/2007 12:43:15 AM
        
        No - R.L. - 3/26/2007 5:00:48 AM
        
        Wearing out the hammer - TB - 3/26/2007 3:30:18 PM
        
        Unfortunately, no... - nick hoffman - 3/27/2007 1:58:27 PM
        
        re: Your post makes sense. - Johannes - 3/31/2007 4:46:06 AM
        
        Oh Dear... - nick hoffman - 4/1/2007 4:29:41 PM
        
        re: Interesting questions, Iâ€™ll answer when I have some time. (n/t) - Johannes - 3/30/2007 2:33:29 AM
        
        No, TB... - R.L. - 3/26/2007 3:40:51 PM
        
        re: No - TB - 3/26/2007 3:45:21 PM
        
        Good, now you do the calculation.... (n/t) - R.L. - 3/26/2007 3:47:09 PM
        
        Sure. - TB - 3/26/2007 3:54:54 PM
        
        That was not an answer - R.L. - 3/26/2007 5:19:30 PM
        
        Was the number wrong? Was my analysis? (n/t) - TB - 3/26/2007 7:17:13 PM
        
        You didnt give a number (n/t) - R.L. - 3/26/2007 7:29:27 PM
        
        re: You didnt give a number - gbaikie - 3/26/2007 10:24:34 PM
        
        I GAVE you the numbers - R.L. - 3/27/2007 9:32:45 PM
        
        re: I GAVE you the numbers - gbaikie - 3/28/2007 2:53:40 AM
        
        VERY good - R.L. - 3/28/2007 6:54:52 AM
        
        GBAIKIE OFFICIALLY KNOWS PHYSICS BETTER THAN JOHANNES (n/t) - R.L. - 3/28/2007 7:14:04 AM
        
        Wow, now I have to best SDAI-Tech1 (n/t) - gbaikie - 3/29/2007 12:05:29 AM
        
        Dude- you just won "slightly not dumber than a post award" - ARRELL - 3/30/2007 12:09:03 PM
        
        :) (n/t) - gbaikie - 3/31/2007 4:26:05 AM
        
        If anyone scrolls out this far... - TB - 3/31/2007 4:16:33 PM
        
        re: If anyone scrolls out this far... - Jody - 4/11/2007 7:50:09 PM
        
        You get an 'F' (n/t) - R.L. - 3/27/2007 9:05:33 PM
        
        why does density matter? - nick hoffman - 3/27/2007 2:05:14 PM
        
        A 1 kg cube of TNT is ~8.5 cm on a side (n/t) - R.L. - 3/27/2007 8:25:39 PM
        
        re: You didnt give a number - TB - 3/26/2007 9:10:43 PM
        
        In case you're wondering... - TB - 3/26/2007 9:15:27 PM
        
        I actually chose it because it CANT be looked up - R.L. - 3/27/2007 2:41:47 AM
        
        Whoops. - TB - 3/27/2007 4:15:02 AM
        
        The point.... - R.L. - 3/27/2007 2:50:31 AM
        
        SHOW your work... - R.L. - 3/25/2007 9:06:24 PM
        
        "One watt of power is 1 Joule of energy, at least according to my understanding of the math formulas. " - R.L. - 3/25/2007 8:59:41 PM
        
        re: "One watt of power is 1 Joule of energy, at least according to my understanding of the math formulas. " - ROHAN - 4/11/2007 1:59:22 PM
        
        re:Your question was: - Johannes - 3/26/2007 12:46:56 AM
        
        re:Correction to re:Your question was: - Johannes - 3/26/2007 1:06:02 AM
        
        Off by MANY orders of magnitude - R.L. - 3/26/2007 4:54:35 AM
        
        re: O Great One, tell us how your universe works:-) - Johannes - 3/26/2007 6:46:35 PM
        
        When you learn the difference between power and energy maybe we can talk - R.L. - 3/27/2007 8:49:02 PM
        
        You seriously want to do this? - R.L. - 3/26/2007 7:10:52 PM
        
        Guys - please take it to flame, this is not space science any more. (n/t) - Doug Ellison - 3/26/2007 9:31:24 PM
        
        re: I think that what makes him crazy is that he - Johannes - 3/27/2007 5:19:37 PM
        
        Anybody else starting to get an "Andy Kaufman" whiff here? (n/t) - TB - 3/27/2007 8:29:50 PM
        
        "Secret Lives of Walter Mitty" came to my mind, actually. (n/t) - Yeti - 3/29/2007 3:09:50 AM
      - You are wrong - ARRELL - 3/25/2007 10:39:10 AM
    - Ok, what I figured. - Lee - 3/24/2007 5:12:17 PM
      - There's the rub... - Adam - 3/26/2007 5:51:42 PM
        
        That's what I was thinking. - Lee - 3/27/2007 10:02:09 PM
        
        re: There's the rub... - nick hoffman - 3/27/2007 2:15:13 PM

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