From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Wed Apr 09 2003 - 09:41:44 MDT
[I fwd this msg, it seems interesting. s.]
The big news out of the April APS Meeting in Philadelphia this week
(as reported by ScienceNow) is the report out of Sandia National Lab
of the first ever hydrogen fusion using the Z pinch machine.
Supposedly, they managed to compress the fuel pallet "... by a factor
of 10, heated it up to over 2 million degrees kelvin, and created a
microscopic hydrogen bomb in a bottle". Such a device, of course, is
being considered as one viable technique in generating fusion energy
source.
Until such results are published, we don't have anymore details on
this. You may read the details of the Z pinch machine at the link
below:
http://www.sandia.gov/pulspowr/facilities/zaccelerator.html
On a personal note related to this, when I was an undergraduate, we
made this contraption for an engineering Expo that we call the Theta
Pinch (there was another unofficial name for it but it is too vulgar
to put on here :)). It consisted basically of a very large capacitor
that we can get a very high current from when we discharge it,
connected to a solenoid surrounding a hollow tube that can fit a
typical aluminum drinks can. When you discharge the capacitor through
the solenoid, the large, time-varying current flowing through it
causes a big axial magnetic field in the solenoid. Since this field
is also time varying, via Lenz's Law, it will induce a separate
current in the metallic can. The combination of this current in the
can and the magnetic field causes a Lorentz force large enough to
crush the can inwards (radially) in one single shot! This also caused
a loud "POP".
We were a big hit, to say the least, especially with the kids who
liked the "sound effect" and seeing the cans being squashed without
any visible physical contact. We went through at least 400 aluminum
cans during the 2-day Expo. Most of us were also on a sugar high from
having to drink all those sugary sodas.
Zz.
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