4 ms·
> I don't think it's fair to lump those two together. Heh, I disagree. I hold almost the exact opposite view and believe it is perfectly fair to lump those two
by mahranch 11y ago
> I don't think it's fair to lump those two together.
Heh, I disagree. I hold almost the exact opposite view and believe it is perfectly fair to lump those two together. Cold fusion requires overcoming the Coulomb barrier at room temperature. Do you have any idea how impossible that is? It's just as impossible as accelerating an object faster than light, or me spontaneously quantum tunneling through my floor into my basement. So yes, perpetual motion machines, unicorns and cold fusion all belong to the same area of science and deserved to be lumped together.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb_barrier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulomb_barrier
- ZenoArrow 11y agoYou mentioned the Coulomb barrier makes this impossible. Can you comment on this story about Edward Teller? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10780632 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10780632 Seems to me it's not proven beyond doubt that it's impossible. Furthermore, even if it does prove to be impossible it could turn out to be a 'useful mistake' if new science needs to be developed to explain the phenomena that were once labelled as 'cold fusion', that's what interests me more, I don't really mind what it's called.
- mahranch 11y ago> Can you comment on this story about Edward Teller? It's an anecdote of an anecdote. It's literally third person hearsay, with Teller saying "Oh, it "might" be possible". We don't even know he said that. Even on the off-chance he did, it means practically nothing. There are similar wordings and phrasing done about breaking light speed from respected physicists. You could probably get one to say "might" as well. It doesn't mean there's any validity behind it. The point and facts still stand - you're not going to break the Coulomb barrier at room temp. It's an impossibility.