3 ms·

Sorry folks, the blogger doesn't know what he is talking about. Helium production to fill balloons come from reactions large enough to lay waste to laboratorie

by russell 18y ago

Sorry folks, the blogger doesn't know what he is talking about. Helium production to fill balloons come from reactions large enough to lay waste to laboratories maybe even cities. If there is fusion the by product is low energy neutrons, damned hard to detect, certainly not by Geiger counters.

timr 18y ago
That's assuming that what's going on is fusion at all -- which isn't a given. "Cold fusion" was a marketing term, not a scientific one.
jws 18y ago
I'm way out of my knowledge here, but google tells me: - a Deuterium-Tritium fusion event releases 4.03 MeV - 1eV = 1.602 x 10^-19 joules. - That means each helium produced comes with 6.5 x 10^-13 joules of energy. - One liter of gas where humans live has 2.6 x 10^22 molecules. - A small balloon contains about a liter of gas. (ok, I made this one up.) - I think gaseous helium is just single atoms. - One liter of helium produced by fusion came with 6.5x10^-13 * 2.6x10^22 joules of energy, call it 1.6 gigajoules. - 1 joule = .24 calories ... 384 megacalories. - Figure the thermal mass of the experiment was about like 1kg of water (desktop scale)... the experimental apparatus would be 384000 degrees celsius (not recommended for desktop scale). I'm guessing I can detect the temperature first. (Bonus calculation, 1 liter of helium production also matches the energy released by 382 kg of TNT.)
- miked 18y ago
  >> 6.5x10^-13 * 2.6x10^22 joules of energy, call it 1.6 gigajoules. = 16 x 10^9 = 16 gigajoules, not 1.6 gigajoules. Suddenly, I feel like taking off my sweater.
  - jws 18y ago
    Nuts, now I need a thermometer that goes up to 4 million degrees and another 3500kg of TNT to complete the experiment.
mattmaroon 18y ago
If there's 0 helium going in, and >0 coming out, there's fusion, no matter how little. There's no other way to get helium from hydrogen. Also, hydrogen gas would float a balloon even better than helium, so that wouldn't be much of a test.

by russell 18y ago

timr 18y ago

That's assuming that what's going on is fusion at all -- which isn't a given. "Cold fusion" was a marketing term, not a scientific one.

jws 18y ago

I'm way out of my knowledge here, but google tells me: - a Deuterium-Tritium fusion event releases 4.03 MeV - 1eV = 1.602 x 10^-19 joules. - That means each helium produced comes with 6.5 x 10^-13 joules of energy. - One liter of gas where humans live has 2.6 x 10^22 molecules. - A small balloon contains about a liter of gas. (ok, I made this one up.) - I think gaseous helium is just single atoms. - One liter of helium produced by fusion came with 6.5x10^-13 * 2.6x10^22 joules of energy, call it 1.6 gigajoules. - 1 joule = .24 calories ... 384 megacalories. - Figure the thermal mass of the experiment was about like 1kg of water (desktop scale)... the experimental apparatus would be 384000 degrees celsius (not recommended for desktop scale). I'm guessing I can detect the temperature first. (Bonus calculation, 1 liter of helium production also matches the energy released by 382 kg of TNT.)

miked 18y ago
>> 6.5x10^-13 * 2.6x10^22 joules of energy, call it 1.6 gigajoules. = 16 x 10^9 = 16 gigajoules, not 1.6 gigajoules. Suddenly, I feel like taking off my sweater.
- jws 18y ago
  Nuts, now I need a thermometer that goes up to 4 million degrees and another 3500kg of TNT to complete the experiment.

mattmaroon 18y ago

If there's 0 helium going in, and >0 coming out, there's fusion, no matter how little. There's no other way to get helium from hydrogen. Also, hydrogen gas would float a balloon even better than helium, so that wouldn't be much of a test.