Naked Science Forum

General Science => General Science => Topic started by: sharkeyandgeorge on 07/03/2005 12:58:00

Title: nuclear power
Post by: sharkeyandgeorge on 07/03/2005 12:58:00

I recently watched a documentry on the possibilty of crating nuclear fission using the star in a jar effect does anyone know more about this and could explain it simply so i can understand it?

Title: Re: nuclear power
Post by: DrPhil on 07/03/2005 14:39:53

You asked about fission, did you mean fusion?

Basically you bombard a liquid with high frequency sound waves. The sound waves make pressure at any one point oscillate between high and low extremes. Bubbles in the liquid expand at the low pressure and are compressed by the high pressure. The change in pressure is so fast that the bubbles implode with enough force to generate a lot of heat. They say that they can reach temperatures of about 10-15,000°C. Whether or not they can achieve temperatures high enough for fusion, i.e. millions of degrees, is still debatable.

Title: Re: nuclear power
Post by: sharkeyandgeorge on 07/03/2005 19:56:43

Thanks and your right i did mean fusion

Interesting, no the other thing... tedious.
The philosopher Bender

Title: Re: nuclear power
Post by: sharkeyandgeorge on 08/03/2005 10:50:06

actually im not sure the diffrence between the two is it something to do with splitting vs compression?

Title: Re: nuclear power
Post by: Ultima on 08/03/2005 12:56:43

Fission is the breaking apart of atoms releasing energy, similar to an exothermal reaction in chemistry. Fusion is the combining of two nuclei that when combined have less total mass than before, where the missing mass is converted to pure energy in the fusion process. E=mc^2 so if the mass is less than the previous two masses combined, Energy must be more than what was put in to the system.

wOw the world spins?

Title: Re: nuclear power
Post by: sharkeyandgeorge on 08/03/2005 20:54:06

thanks for the answer ultima