insane_alien

well boron is used as a neutron absorber in nuclear reactors anyway. but for spacecraft there is a much much easier solution than heavy shielding. put the reactor out on a large truss away from the habitation section. that way you only need shielding to allow a shadow to encompass the rest of the ship. cuts your shielding weight to a 6th instantly.

it doesn't matter that there are only two possibilities. it is still far more likely that it will not be a one than it landing on a one. probabilities like 50:50 are not based on a set of outcomes but the likely hood of that outcome happening. flipping a coin is 50:50. there are two outcomes, each with equal probability. rolling a dice is not. to have it land on a one you have a 1:6 chance. for it to not land on a one you have 5:6. so putting these together properly for a dice to land on a one you have a 1:6 chance. two outcomes, not 50:50 also, there is no evidence for alternate realities. if you want to include them you are going to have to find some evidence for them. not that they are even relevant anyway.

well all the claims they seem to be passing about (that it's healthier) are complete crap. not that ions(H+ and OH- assuming no extra ions are added in the form of a solute) will stick around long anyway. they'll quickly go back to their usual levels in a matter of seconds if not milliseconds. if you want pure water(no microboes or minerals) then just distill it.

eh just make the reactor casing out of boron.

blackholes require a certain density for the mass(or even just energy.) this density must be sufficient that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. the LHC should be capable of creating those conditions by putting many many particles and a lot of energy in the one spot at the same time. big things and small things don't work the same, but we kno ho both big things and small things work. so its cool.

Zolar, thats some crap advice right there. that may work fine at high school level but it doesn't work at all at the level ajb is at. the only bit of good advice you gave is to try and stay relaxed.

ethanol toxins ARE harmful to humans.

somehow not as pretty as i was expecting. needs more resolution. CRANK IT UP CERN! WOOO!

particularly in giving us funny molecule names like 'Arsole' i feel i need to justify that one so here's a paper on it with a suggestive name(if you have a dirty mind) http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/arsole2.pdf and the wiki entry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsole

lets look at mercury, at and below 4.2K the resistance is exactly 0, its super conductive. as we warm it up it loses super conductivity and has a non-zero resistance. as we warm it up this resistance gradually increases until you reach its boiling point where it shoots up abruptly becoming so high as to classify it as an insulator, there would be dielectric break down beforce conduction occured. this is what happens. you cannot change this. gasses are absolutely crap at conducting electricity. also, your ideas behind gasses and solids are very very confused. if the molecules of a substance remain rigidly ordered then it is a SOLID. if they are far appart and flying free in an essentially random fashion then it is a GAS. it can not be one while having all the properties of the other. its like saying the sun is actually navy blue but it just has all the properties of yellow. tokamaks(i assume this is what you meant) use plasma, now plasma is conductive as it has free charge carriers but it is NOT a gas. the only properties it shares with gas is that its constituent components are whizzing around freely in a random manner without being bound to an ordered structure. gaseous materials whether metal atoms or not are not conductive.

umm what? if anything large areas of mass blocking waves are disappearing so your the point seems doomed from the start. but adding a dense material to a plate of water doesn't influence the size of waves too much. if i put a stack of pennies inthe plate(about 9 times denser) the water just flows round it. if anything the size of wave decreases.

yes, even keeping it a solid, the resistance will rise with temperature(although plasmas tend to be a bit strange with resistance.) as always there are one or two exceptions to the rule(compounds that experience greater conductivity with rising temperatures) but they tend to only be over a particular temperature range.

if the atoms are that close and bound in a way that allows normal conduction mechanisms then it is a solid(or a liquid depending on temperature and pressure.) as i said before, there isn't a limit to how much current can be put through something. it only depends on the voltage applied. if you want more current then apply more voltage.

just because a mineral is found in abundance somehwere doesn't mean that there will be and large scale formations. for diamonds which are formed quite deep down with lots of temperature and pressure and then brought relatively close to the surface, this means that there will be lots of shearing forces applied as they rocks they're in get moced towards the surface ruining any larrge structures that form. also, the carbon remains in a solid phase while all crystal cavern formations have the crystaline mineral being in a liquid or aqueous phase and then deposited.

well, a metal atom in the gas state is non conductive. this is because there is no longer a sea of delocalised electrons to provide conductivity. the only way to induce conductivity is to ionize it and then its not a gas any more but a plasma and will follow the same set of rules as any plasma. i don't know what you mean by 'potential current' there isn't really a maximum current for anything, it just depends on how much voltage you apply.

well, the larger they get, the more chance there is that it collapses from external shear forces. its not a surprise at all that large caves of crystaline material form at all. its just that seeing a giant cave full of crystals is a jawdropping experience even if you have seen a fair number of them before. also, gypsum crystals form evapouratively. they do not require a magma chamber. as for ruby, emerald and diamond caves, well. there is a reason they are so valuable. they're quite rare so the concentration would be too low for large structures to form. gypsum on the otherhand is all over the shot.

actually, there isn't a buoyancy issue. the gas is in a rigid container so the overall volume of the system doesn't change, you are just decreasing the liquid volume slightly and increasing the pressure. of the gaseous component. but anyway, the hydrogen can just be vented out the side or used for expelling ballast water.

fine, here's a list: Energy, Force, electromagnetism, mass etc. etc. really, just go look up the general terms

i'd probably like living in a more socialistic society.(cue cries of outrage from FOX viewers). obviously not pure socialistic because any society that aspires to a 'pure' ideal tends to be unstable. add in a heap of communism,capitalism and anarchism and you'll probably be somewhere close. oh and a heavy slant towards meritocracy. with lots of encouragement and incentives to increase the intelligence of the general populace.

oh i know you weren't suggesting that. i was just saying it for the benefit of the people who do believe in this crap who may be reading the thread.

depends on what you need. we are not mind readers, please provide as much information as you can so we can give you a better answer.

seriously guys, the OP joined and left in 2002. he ain't going to find any of this useful. lets take a shotgun to the brain of this zombie thread and put it back in the ground where it belongs.

well the ancient cultures did believe mercury had magical properties. they also believed certain animals had magical properties as well. you don't see the egyptians building antigravity devices out of cats or the hindus(? might be wrong on this one, apologies if i am, could be sikhs perhaps?) building antigravity devices out of cows. just because some ancient civilizations believe it's true doesn't mean its actually true. aafter all we do know more than them however attractive it is to think of a lost civilization that was far more advanced than us. heck, 99% of the civilizations people claim have invented antigravity hadn't even discovered the joys of indoor toilets or that eating poison was bad for you.

walkntune, i suggest you go learn the scientific definitions of the words you are using. because what you are saying now in a scientific context makes less sense than an inebriated welshman.

laws aren't really part of the progression. they are mainly leftovers from the early days of science.