College Freshman's fusion reactor

[blike]

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510054502,00.html

 

pretty spiffy.

 

LOGAN — A widespread belief among physicists nowadays is that modern science requires squadrons of scientists and wildly expensive equipment.

Craig Wallace and Philo T. Farnsworth are putting the lie to all that. Wallace, a baby-faced tennis player fresh out of Spanish Fork High School, had almost the entire physics faculty of Utah State University hovering (and arguing) over an apparatus he had cobbled together from parts salvaged from junk yards and charity drops.

[atinymonkey]

Spiffy indeed!

 

I wonder what the output is, if the background radiation is so low?

[Skye]

"Wallace's detector measures 36 neutrons per minute just in background radiation from space, and the device's usual output adds only four neutrons per minute."

 

You mean that?

[fafalone]

Bah, his accomplishments pale in comparison to the amazing feats of the emanant Fafalone!!!!

[Glider]

...his 'accomplishes'...?

 

Sorry, couldn't resist

[aman]

When I worked at Rockwell for defense crap, the surplus area was full of neat equipment for sale. With a little cash you could build a nice lab. I bought lots of early instruments from the 40's and 50's in leather boxes and recent equipment was available also. It's amazing what you can get for 2 dollars when a company can't store it anymore.

Just aman

[atinymonkey]

Ohh, there's a nice shop near where I live that sells surplus and redundant electrical equipment. It's quite expensive, but fun to wander round the big piles of junk. I forgot all about it until that reminded me, it's nice decoration for 'the house' tm

 

Skye said in post #3 :

You mean that?

 

No, what power it produces

[blike]

probably next to nothing, considering only a few neutrons are released / minute.

 

 

still, the kid is fusing atoms in his room :/

[Glider]

Yeah...different league from building model aircraft, innit?

[YT2095]

I may be wrong here, but I was under the impression that Neurtons didn`t yeild any usable energy?

I`ve heard about Neutron Bombs that leave a crater maybe 100-200 yards across but kill everything within 10 miles or so. (effecting the calcuim in our bones etc...)

His project looks WELL C00L! don`t get me wrong, and I`de love to have one to play with in the lab be sure

but... is it usable in a practical sense? maybe it isn`t YET but could be?

he sure gets a good 10 outa 10 from me for balls

[NavajoEverclear]

Wow this is awesome, i wonder if i could go check out his reactor, wherever they keep it now. I am a Utan, i've taken a summer band camp course, and had a youth conference at that very university (its not much more than an hour away). Thats a majorly radical acomplishment. Also really cool that we live in the same state--- the funny thing is i think spanish fork is the town that gets made fun of for being full of hicks. But then you also got the rocket boys (true story made into a movie called october sky), who were also 'hicks'.

[alt_f13]

I was under the impression that we didn't have working fusion reactors yet... And he built one in his spare time? What did I miss?

 

That guy is pure Co_OL!

[Glider]

We don't have any that produced the abundant 'free energy' that fusion promises (though apparently, we are close; we just have to stabilize and maintain the reaction for more than a couple of seconds). We have some that spit out a few nutrons now and again.

[BigGiantHead]

blike said in post #1 :

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,510054502,00.html

 

pretty spiffy.

 

LOGAN — A widespread belief among physicists nowadays is that modern science requires squadrons of scientists and wildly expensive equipment.

Craig Wallace and Philo T. Farnsworth are putting the lie to all that. Wallace, a baby-faced tennis player fresh out of Spanish Fork High School, had almost the entire physics faculty of Utah State University hovering (and arguing) over an apparatus he had cobbled together from parts salvaged from junk yards and charity drops.

 

Apparently this is not a breakthrough, but an interesting though minor aplication of an old process that does not yield useful amounts of energy.

 

See the short news story here;

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1048639,00.html

[YT2095]

Do a search for either "Tokamak" or "Tokomak"

yeah, it`s spelled both ways according to the God of Google

it should provide some interesting reading

[blike]

BigGiantHead said in post #14 :

 

Apparently this is not a breakthrough, but an interesting though minor aplication of an old process that does not yield useful amounts of energy.

 

See the short news story here;

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/thisweek/story/0,12977,1048639,00.html

 

True, its not a breakthrough. He used plans he found on the internet. And no, this does not yield useful amounts of energy. But it DOES fuse atoms, and does require a great deal of engineering/knowledge of physics and physical chemistry. I'd say its just a little more advanced than my "measuring light speed" experiment.

[BigGiantHead]

blike said in post #16 :

But it DOES fuse atoms, and does require a great deal of engineering/knowledge of physics and physical chemistry. I'd say its just a little more advanced than my "measuring light speed" experiment.

 

I didn't say it was easy, but any practical science is difficult when you're just a big giant head bobbing about in an atmosphere suit. This 9.8m/s^2 gravity really sucks too. Give me the cool dark of intergalactic space where a guy can get some real thinking done

[aman]

I woulda traded my first wife for a garage to work in, time to fiddle, and access to great junk when I was a pup. Because I didn't have it I hurt for how much the world was denied. I think you all know how I feel. I gotta appreciate what was accomplished under ones own roof. Five stars.

Gotta appreciate blowin up microwave ovens too.

It's surprising with all the metalworkers we don't seem to have incredible new garage alloys, or chemists creating something spectacular in their back rooms.

I guess all the easy stuff's been discovered and we're getting in a rut. Still if yer in a rut aim high , like to the edges of the rut, even though somebodies already rode there.

Just aman

[Dudde]

I'd gladly sit inside all day doing metalwork or chemical studies, but you need money and space to do that...I'm plumb done with either, got none to speak of^_^

 

probably the way it is with other scientists too we're an oppressed bunch we are.

 

DAMN all people who are not science lovers!!!

...well...maybe not all..

[YT2095]

I mess with chems too, but not really the things many here would be all that interested in, so I don`t post about it. but I have a fairly comprehensive set of equipment and chem supplies

Science Roolz!!!

[aman]

I used to putz with chemistry back when I was 10 and would be able to get all sorts of chemicals in the early 60's you can't get today. I had a bunch of formulas I sent away for in the back of a comic book. It cost me a dime for about five pages.

My favorite was pouring pure iodine crystals into a jar of concentrated ammonia and then collecting the sediment. We would fill gelatin capsules with flour and put a dab about the size of a pencil tip of the sediment in the middle of the capsule and close it up. After 24 hours the sediment was dry enough that if you tossed the capsule it would explode in a cloud of flour dust. If you waited 48 hours you couldn't jiggle them without them going off. Also you could paint the sediment on a doorknob or shed lock or rarely used outhouse seat. After it dried, anybody touching it would get a nice flash and nasty purple stain.

I never shared the formula and wondered then why the hell they let us kids know this.

Good thing it was only in my hands cus I was mature enough to know how to abuse it wisely.

Just aman

[YT2095]

hehehe yeah, the Ammonium Triiodide exploding paint, darn messy stuff too!

Silver Fulminate`s very similar too, alot more sensitive though and almost impossible to store, with just over half a gram being lethal within a few feet, dissolved in Ammonia then painted on quickly, even blowing on it can set it off, Nice and Loud though

[AnguillaEel1]

The one thing missing in all these equations is the source of fuel. The amount of deuterium or tritium existing on this planet is closely guarded by the U.S. government. It's also prohibitively expensive to buy.

[insane_alien]

Anguilla - it comes from seawater how can you monitor it you can get it from you taps as well. its only a matter of separating it. you can even buy keyrings with tritium in it. its really not too hard to get just time consuming on a small scale such as garden shed.