calbiterol

It doesn't wreck your socks. It leaves them perfectly intact. Jdurg, no offense, but you're obsessed . I've only done it a couple times.

Glad to help.

I'd have to agree with you all, some pictures would be nice...

A Halbach array is probably your best option. It uses normal magnets, so it can be (more or less) as expensive or inexpensive as you want, according to your power needs, and it augments the field on one side, and pretty much cancels out the field on the other. The link is wikipedia's article on it, and the article also has some good links.

Are you trying to get a one-sided magnet?

C'mon guys, no ideas? I was actually incorrect about needing both IR and UV transparency. For the moment, I only need something transparent to UV photons with energies of ~3.47 eV and ~10.2 eV .

There's worse, much, much worse. Like the guy who replaced a blown fuse with a bullet to restore power. He had a couple minutes of power... And then was shot when the bullet heated to such a temperature that the primer inside ignited. The Darwin Awards, which I referred to in a previous post, are given out to people who kill themselves (unintentionally) in the most stupid of ways. Quite entertaining. And rather pathetic. Oh, and you spelled Arkansas correctly, insane_alien. As far as the house not igniting, it's quite believable that it didn't. A hydrogen explosion like that (with a lot of diffused gas around) would take place extremely quickly - albeit at a very high temperature - and the chances of catching something else on fire aren't that great, especially if everything nearby that was flammable was destroyed by the explosion. Have you ever lit a sock on fire? There's a very quick flashburn as all of the "fuzzies" burn, and then the fire goes out. There simply isn't enough oomph in the burning of the fuzzies to catch the rest of the sock on fire. I would think it would work in the same way, although he never actually said that other stuff didn't catch on fire. How's that for scientific wording?

I believe the main advantage to pumping the blood out is to prevent cell damage during the freezing and thawing processes (throughout the entire body, not just the blood itself) by cooling from the inside out, or something like that. I remember reading something about that, but who knows. Anyway, there's also significant research into using H2S gas at room temperature for suspended animation / induced hibernation. They have already succeeded in inducing hibernation in mice with this technique.

Who knows. The only way that we could ever know for sure if he did or now would be a picture, and even those are getting unreliable these days. *Shifty eyes* And if we don't see a picture, we won't know one way or the other for sure.

You got me there.

Not to get off topic' date=' but that's a lot of rain. Is it usually like that? 15's not that bad, nothin' like winter in Chicago - negative temps [i']farenheit[/i]... Around -20 celcius, I guesstimate. But we do get a fair amount of snow. Brisbane is around 20 or so, right? Back on topic, I too tend to give people benefit of the doubt. I've seen plenty of unbelievable things in my short lifetime, and one of my mottoes is to never underestimate the stupidity of the general American public. Not saying that JWalker is incredibly stupid, he just didn't know how powerful hydrogen was... And, well, he was a bit of an idiot when he didn't think about saftey. Glad you aren't seriously hurt, though. And it's feasible, with 2 weeks or so, even with that much hydrogen, there's going to be a lot of leakage. So from now on, play with the fiery things outside the house, and in much smaller quantities. Get some rest, too.

No kidding. WOW. You really should make a run to the doctor. And burns that bleed are generally pretty bad. Make sure you don't take the bandages off, just put new ones on top. And seriously, even if you'll feel really weird explaining it to a doctor, you really should consider going. The number of things that could seriously go wrong... Sorry 'bout the monitor. Sorry bout the house! You know, in some ways, you're one of the luckiest people I've ever talked to. I should have said, "at least you still have a computer." Hey BenSon, what's the weather like right now in the land down under? About 17 degrees or so? More importantly, what's it usually like during July? Anyways, JWalker, you really should go to the doctor's. Just in case. You could have some freak internal injury, or you could have something in your eye(s). It'd just be good measure. Good luck, and we'll all be hoping for a quick and complete recovery. Oh, and it's probably best not to put any ointment or cream on any of your burns. One more reason to go to the doctor's or a clinic: if you faint, no worries.

Well, not stable, but it isn't going to spontaeneously combine with oxygen unless given a reason - like a heat source (ie a spark). JWalker, how bad's your arm burnt? You might want to go see a doctor. And I'm serious when I say you should check yourself for shrapnel wounds.

Out of curiosity, what kind of garbage bags did you use? More appropriately, what size? Don't take this the wrong way, but I think there's a "stupidest things I've ever done" thread around here somewhere ;-) Just take it easy, and don't worry too much about the costs. There's always a way to scratch up a buck or quid or two. Oh, and not to state the obvious, but you might want to board up your windows. You can always look at the bright side, though - your computer wasn't destroyed!

Although there really isn't much that could be said, don't be too down on yourself. What's done is done; you can't change it, and moping about and regretting it isn't going to do anything about it. The only thing one can ever ask is to learn from one's own mistakes. Pat, no, it would leak the hydrogen out of the bags, diffusing in the air (mixing with oxygen... not combining) and the surrounding areas. Any water formed would be vaporous. The leaking is, in effect, the same thing that happens when a balloon filled with helium deflates over time.

The point is he shouldn't shoot a bottle rocket at a bunch of hydrogen! I understand it disperses quickly, but who knows, maybe his garbage bags are made of very fine latex...

Yes, well, that means the hydrogen will be dispersed throughout his basement/house/area around house mixed with an excess of oxygen. Loads better. Either way, they should be treated as if full of hydrogen.

DON'T DO IT! YOU WILL LIKELY EXPLODE YOUR ENTIRE HOUSE, KILLING YOURSELF IN THE PROCESS! This is a VERY, VERY bad idea! Hydrogen is extremely powerful stuff. It's the same fuel used in most space ships, the space shuttle included. Eight garbage bags of hydrogen will easily destroy an entire building. I'm assuming these are the rather large kind, in which case you are risking more than just your house, but possibly your neighbors' houses as well. BAD, BAD, BAD IDEA! And you're not storing the hydrogen with the oxygen produced from the electrolysis, are you? If so, consider yourself very, VERY lucky to be alive.

Sounds a lot like a lightsaber to me Unfortunately, I don't think that's how it works, but I don't really know for sure.

An Israeli engineer, Alon Bodner, has developed a device that allows divers to extract dissolved air from water, replacing conventional scuba tanks and/or rebreathers. It works using the "Henry Law," which states that as the pressure of a liquid is released, the amount of gas able to be dissolved within the liquid decreases. The device uses a centrifuge to lower the pressure of some seawater, thereby liberating dissolved air. Note that this is different from electrolysis and does not result in pure oxygen, but rather in breathable, non-toxic air containing nitrogen, hydrogen, etc in addition to oxygen. It promises to be a revolutionary technology. Bodner hopes to have a fully-functional prototype developed within about 2 years, with a commercial version following soon afterwards. Information sources: http://www.livescience.com/scienceoffiction/050606_breathe_underwater.html http://www.isracast.com/tech_news/310505_tech.htm (includes an interview with the inventor)

Or the base to the top, depending on how you light it.

I'm starting (or attempting to ) an optics project, but I have run into a rather interesting materials problem. I need something that is fairly (the more the better) transparent to the UV and IR spectrums, but at the same time, is mostly reflective to the visible spectrum (again, the more the better). I have been quite unable to find such a material. I would also prefer it to be cheap, but that is not a requirement. Is anyone aware of such a material? Any help would be greatly appreciated. P.S.: As far as specific wavelengths, I do not know at the moment. I'll try and find that out and get back to you.

IIRC, this is untrue. You can levitate a magnet, yes, but this doesn't disprove Earnshaw's Law. IIRC. This is because the law is based on a bunch of assumptions, and that breaks some of the assumptions of the law. If the conditions upop which the law is based are false, then the law does not necessarily apply. This is one of those cases. Again, emphasis on the "if I remember correctly" part. But I'm pretty sure that's the case.

June 2005 Scientific American, article title "Making Cold Antimatter," page 78. The traps were created to slow down the antihydrogen atoms in order to study them.