4 ms·

You make excellent points. Here's my problem: "The exact design has changed repeatedly; originally the one-megawatt generator was to be composed of three hund

You make excellent points. Here's my problem: "The exact design has changed repeatedly; originally the one-megawatt generator was to be composed of three hundred small E-Cats, then it was 52 larger "fat cats", now the number seems to be 43." Why do we have to build 43 of something, to find out if it produces more electricity than it consumes? Either it does, or it doesn't. The third possibility is that there's some cross-talk or multiplicative effect of having more than 1, but I doubt it.

mechanical_fish 15y ago
I could make up a very plausible reason. Handwaving is a key job skill for physicists and con men alike. Example: It's about the surface area of the catalyst. You can't just use one big cylinder of catalyst because that doesn't have enough surface. You need 40 or 50 little cylinders. And then you can't put all of those in one tank because then the flow of reactant past the surfaces of the cylinders isn't properly laminar, so you put each one in its individual cell. Then you build each cell with a separate housing and so forth, to contain the damage from the occasional explosions. As for why the magic number "43": We built 52, but 9 of them have, um, failed, so now we have 43. Soon there will only be 42. By the way, I hope you are wearing your safety goggles? ;) [REITERATION OF DISCLAIMER: I am not describing a real experiment. I am describing a figment of my imagination. Please do not send money.]
egypturnash 15y ago
Maybe 'cause the company with the money was all "we are only interested if it can output one megawatt" and the guy making it was all "huh, looks like I can get one of these units to put out about 1/43 of a megawatt apiece"? The shrinking number would jibe with him having a few improvements over the process of developing the thing and scaling it up.

4 ms·

You make excellent points. Here's my problem: "The exact design has changed repeatedly; originally the one-megawatt generator was to be composed of three hund

by VikingCoder 15y ago

mechanical_fish 15y ago
I could make up a very plausible reason. Handwaving is a key job skill for physicists and con men alike. Example: It's about the surface area of the catalyst. You can't just use one big cylinder of catalyst because that doesn't have enough surface. You need 40 or 50 little cylinders. And then you can't put all of those in one tank because then the flow of reactant past the surfaces of the cylinders isn't properly laminar, so you put each one in its individual cell. Then you build each cell with a separate housing and so forth, to contain the damage from the occasional explosions. As for why the magic number "43": We built 52, but 9 of them have, um, failed, so now we have 43. Soon there will only be 42. By the way, I hope you are wearing your safety goggles? ;) [REITERATION OF DISCLAIMER: I am not describing a real experiment. I am describing a figment of my imagination. Please do not send money.]
egypturnash 15y ago
Maybe 'cause the company with the money was all "we are only interested if it can output one megawatt" and the guy making it was all "huh, looks like I can get one of these units to put out about 1/43 of a megawatt apiece"? The shrinking number would jibe with him having a few improvements over the process of developing the thing and scaling it up.