hal@rain.org writes:
> Michael S. Lorrey, <retroman@together.net>, writes:
> > Well, yeah, but I've already got a solution for that too. Thermal superconductors
> > built into the sturcutre of sky-hooks will conduct excess heat out of the
> > atmosphere and allow it to be radiated away in space.
>
> Is there such a thing as a thermal superconductor? I've seen references
> in SF but I don't know if such things really exist.
I think they are a myth, caused by Larry Niven in _Ringworld Engineers_. He seemed to assume that electrical superconduction imples thermal superconduction (and did some fun stuff with that idea), but I'm fairly sure he is wrong.
I wonder if there are thermodynamic problems with thermal superconductors? Somehow I get the feeling that disordered phonons cannot be transferred without causing secondary phonons in the material. But it is not obvious to me.
> I suppose you could
> use a heat pump, in any case. How much heat could you really pump out
> in this way though? A sky hook is pretty small compared to an atmosphere.
Actually, waste heat might be a small problem since the increased temperature will cause more radiation to escape into space. The reason the greenhouse effect is so important is that it alters the amount of IR-energy retained within the atmosphere; more heating will likely just be a local problem.
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