kitchen nuclear reactor

FT


what happens to the neutron after 15 mins?

Occam

 

It decays into an electron, a proton and a neutrino. The mechanism by which neutrons are maintained in the nucleus is somewhat complex to put it mildly. Put simply the constant interaction with the neighboring protons and neutrons keeps them together.

 

FT

Wow.. learnt something today.. a day not wasted.
Had no idea that neutrons decayed.
Stabillity within atom
Fall apart when free.

The neutrino?
Is this why sun generates such a swarm?

Occam

 

I said neutrino I actually meant anti-neutrino. The solar neutrinos don't come from this process but there are similarities. There of course many reactions that occur in the sun a number of which release electrons and when electrons are released theres often an associated anti-neutrino or if its an anti-electron then a neutrino. There are good reasons for these pairs usually coming together, im sure the all knowing wiki will have an entry on it, search for 'Lepton number'.

 

Tony - for that boyscout to have got as far as he did in his experiments - do you think he would have to be dealing in concepts MOST people would not understand considering he built the thing from scratch and reading manuals etc? - I mean would he have been somewhere near to the understanding of a genius to do what he did even if he was not all that clever about safety?

 

Personally -though the question wasn't directed at me - I'm not sure about 'genius' per-se. Though IMO he's of a much higher than average intelligence.

More importantly I think is the fact that he had the drive to explore, experiment, and understand things in the world for understanding's sake. A personality component that is seriously lacking these days. Consider the decline in amature experimentalism these days compared to even 50 years ago, the ominous fear in the general population of "science" and that which we don't personally understand; Rather than the sense of wonderment it so obviously deserves and should provoke.

and Colombo - if you're looking for something more practical to power your house with check out Farnsworth's Fusor,(http://fusor.net) (incidentally Farsworth (arguably) essentially single handedly invented the technology that spawned television and CRT's as we know them) A true genius IMHO

That approach to IEC fusion is pretty promising. Interestingly as well, to contradict myself a bit, what has evolved from his Fusor has a pretty lively and intelligent 'amature' scene in addition to a sound scientific basis unlike many other wild alternative energy research.*cough*ZPE*cough*

 

How's this for synchronicity - i posted that and I just go read slashdot and there's a posting on there linking to this story... http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061119/NEWS03/611190639


that shit been happening to me alot lately...

 

We should be more concerned with Proton Decay if GUT is right - eventually we'll all be toast :leaving:





Hotwater

 

Cool stuff Eeso thanks - I am actually thinking of making my house more green in terms of energy - have been thinking solar panels and turbines are too expensive and turbines arent that efficient as yet - well I couldnt power an entire house in Britain with the size thats practical in suburbia - but yeah - I am going that way toward releasing us from the grip of the electric company - all the way if that ever becomes possible
Thanks a lot for the links. Hopefully someone will perfect something that means we are all our own energy providers - British Gas is ridicuous and so are their leccy prices

 

I guess to do that he must have been fairly smart, but then again you have to offset that against trying to do it in your garden without any kind of shielding. He obviously got to grips with it on a qualitative level which in itself is an achievement for a teenager. Though it doesn't sound like he got to grips with the subtleties, he had a lot of help with things like neutron generation and moderation. Getting hold of the materials was the more impressive part I thought. If he really understood it he wouldn't have tried it, generally im in favour of people messing around, I did. But there are somethings that are best not done at home, things that need to be shielded in large amount of lead strike me as a good example.

Protons if they do decay, have such a long half life its unlikely to be a huge issue. The proton half life is up to about 100000000000000000000000000000000 years as its unlikely to be found tomorrow its probably higher. My feeling is we won't simply because it'll be fun trying to explain it.

 

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http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jcv/imb/imbp3.html
Shaggie - wow thats a great link - I dont know what it all means yet but I'm going to spend a week working it out !
When they talk about that particle going upwards from the earth and not downwards from the atmosphere - why do I get the impression thats significant?
what are they implying there and why is it important?

 

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How many muons can dance on the head of a pin?



Occam

 

The sun generates lots of neutrinos so when its night where these detectors are are you tend to get tracks going upwards.

 

some fellah collected a heap of smoke detectors dug out the radioactive element and made a reactor. he freaked out when he could still detect the radiation down the block (got out of control), called the government and they came and disposed of it for him.