Cold Fusion 2

[jpl458]

Just read this:

Nature, one of the most prestigious journals in scientific publishing, on Tuesday retracted a high-profile paper it had published in March that claimed the discovery of a superconductor that worked at everyday temperatures.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Straight-forward enough. They are questioning methodology, computational treatment, and factual results. Off-hand, I would say that means that THEY didn't find a room-temperature superconductor.

However, their objections DO NOT RULE OUT that such a thing COULD exist. Only that the article saying one had been found was incorrect.

 

[jpl458]

I took some physics, but I am not a physicist, but I can't see how you can have cold fusion because of the energy involved in slamming crap together. Just an opinion,

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I took some physics, but I am not a physicist, but I can't see how you can have cold fusion because of the energy involved in slamming crap together. Just an opinion,

It will always depend on how hard you slam the crap together. Momentum (as in "being slammed together") is ALSO a type of energy that is not necessarily thermal - at first.

 

[Galaxiom]

I took some physics, but I am not a physicist, but I can't see how you can have cold fusion because of the energy involved in slamming crap together. Just an opinion,

Cold Fusion does exist. Muon Catalysed Cold Fusion was demonstrated in the late 1940s. Interestingly the maximum efficiency of the reaction is at around 1000 Kelvin (~700 C) making it perfect for boilers.

A muon is a heavy particle with a charge of -1, the same as an electron. Hence It can behave like an electron, so when interacting with a couple of heavy hydrogen nuclei it can bind them just like an electron binds a hydrogen molecule, except much more tightly because the muon is much heavier. In fact it brings the nuclei together close enough to fuse.

As a catalyst, the muon is not consumed in the process and is released where it can go on to catalyse another reaction. Despite its short two microsecond lifetime, a single muon can catalyse hundreds of fusion reactions.

Unfortunately it takes a lot of energy to create a muon in a particle accelerator, more than is released in the fusion reactions by a couple of orders of magnitude. If an efficient way to create muons were to be found it would truly be the holy grail of energy production.

 

[Galaxiom]

Momentum (as in "being slammed together") is ALSO a type of energy that is not necessarily thermal - at first.

Though related, momentum is not the same as energy. Any kinetic energy can be considered to be thermal energy because that is exactly what thermal energy is. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Wasn't going to get into the technical side, G, but my parenthetical comment meant it was an energy of motion, namely kinetic energy. Thermal energy is basically kinetic energy, but kinetic energy is not ALWAYS purely thermal energy.

 

[Galaxiom]

but kinetic energy is not ALWAYS purely thermal energy

An accelerator pumping energy into a a bunch of particles is adding thermal energy to them because the kinetic energy of any particle is exactly the same as its heat. The only difference is the heated plasma is in coherence of movement due to the presence of external magnetic fields.