Harnessing cosmic energy

[richard]

Have you tried holding up a sword and shouting " by the power of greyyy skulllll ". Always worked for He Man.

[Jean Maxwell]

No debate here, I agree. Talking about heat in terms of motion continues to work even in respect to radiation other than thermal, and is not invalid regardless of semantics. (even as the "process" of transfer) this is not a fundamental difference in definitional at all.

 

I understand your point that in Physics to clarify what is ment by saying heat you define it as the process. But when discussing a topic you want to make clear what is occuring. What is occuring with-in the light radiation?

 

Even in your microwave example. How is the "heat" of a microwave determined? (frequency -- hmm makes me think motion again)

 

How is the Energy of a Microwave Expressed? Compare two different waves? If a wave travels with high frequency giving it greater energy what does that look like side by side with a low energy wave . . .

 

It all comes back to motion. I used the example of molecular motion becuase I thought thats what we where talking about in the example of a station in the antartic making use of a change in temp.

 

Question?

In physics, heat is a process, not a property.

 

At what point does the motion of atoms become a property? At what point does the Frequncy of radiation become a property? This is nonsense. So again I miss your point, and do not see where I made such a statement when describing the enteractions of atoms as giving rise to heat, and the felt nature of temp.

 

Breaking down things into process is how understanding occurs, that was my only point . . .

[Klaynos]

Discussing heat and temperature ONLY in terms of motion, (a very very small subset for heat). The internal energy of the atoms, the vibration, is a temperature dependent term, this is not heat. The flow of this vibration across a region IS heat, it is the flow of energy, not the energy itself.

[Jean Maxwell]

Ok, so temp is a measure of thermal energy, and heat is the transfer of energy?

 

So heat is not the same as temp. Gotcha.

 

Kinda subtle.

 

Motion = energy is probably more in line with the observation I wanted to express in that regard.

Im starting to see the limitations of that statement the more I research this also. ; - )

 

Bear with me guys im new to this, but I am thoroughly addicted and begin classes in the fall.

[akashgenius]

of course there is a way of harnessing energy from cosmic radiation though it's not cost-effective so definitely not worth it. plus this cant be done on earth(except at the poles).

one way is a plasma drive

The solar wind could offer a practical way to travel long distances through space. it is a spacecraft engine that could be powered by this irregular stream of particles from the sun. Inside the spacecraft is a ball of plasma. Powerful magnets keep the plasma in place. When the solar wind comes close to this plasma, it repels it, thus pushing the spacecraft along. This can be useful for long-distance navigation. similarly we can also use a gigantic turbine with balls of plasma for the spokes. this, connected to a generator can produce electricity. since cosmic rays contain upto 50 J per paticle energy, this would be relatively less when u compare it to harnessing solar energy.

[igosaur]

I think the heat generated from this thread would be sufficient to supply energy to a medium sized town!

 

I seem to remember a special episode of 'Beyond 2000' (ahh, those were the days) where they were looking into the practicality of constructing huge orbiting solar power stations that could convert electrical energy into microwave then beam that at a base station on Earth where it could be converted back to electricity with an efficiency of 85%