rkyeun
Cabbitus Maximus
- Location
- ◕ ‿‿ ◕
Good evening. Before I go to bed, I came to read the update, and found a discussion on nukes and railguns and such. So let me tell you some fun facts about one of my favorite things.
Cold fusion.
What, you say? Cold fusion isn't real?
Oh, but it is. It's just not energy profitable. But we don't care about that. So let's talk about it.
First, you need to know what a muon is.
A muon is an elementary particle. It is like an electron, but it has higher mass.
This higher mass means its orbitals are much much closer to the atomic nucleus.
This smaller orbital distance means that when atoms combine into molecules using muons instead of electrons, their nucleii are much closer than normal.
Much, much closer. And sometimes, that means they hit each other.
A single muon can trigger the conversion of about 100-150 heavy hydrogen molecules into helium before the muon decays.
Where do muons come from? They come from cyclotrons in the 100-120 MeV range.
Making muons is about 2% efficient with our best technology right now, and the break-even point for using it as a self-sustaining cold fusion reactor is about 15%.
It's a beam. We fire a beam of muons at Walpurgisnacht, and it, or at least everything around it, erupts into a continuous stream of fusion for as long as we care to hold down the trigger.
With surprisingly little collateral damage. Sure, some of the air in the path of the beam might explosively turn to carbon or iron or silicon.
But the real fun only starts when the muon beam hits something heavier. Heavy things tend to have a proton capture the muon.
That turns the proton into a neutron, and changes the atom to one that's an element lighter, and the wrong isotope to be stable, so it explodes.
And we can yell, "STOP BEING MADE OF THINGS!" while we fire it.
Cold fusion.
What, you say? Cold fusion isn't real?
Oh, but it is. It's just not energy profitable. But we don't care about that. So let's talk about it.
First, you need to know what a muon is.
A muon is an elementary particle. It is like an electron, but it has higher mass.
This higher mass means its orbitals are much much closer to the atomic nucleus.
This smaller orbital distance means that when atoms combine into molecules using muons instead of electrons, their nucleii are much closer than normal.
Much, much closer. And sometimes, that means they hit each other.
A single muon can trigger the conversion of about 100-150 heavy hydrogen molecules into helium before the muon decays.
Where do muons come from? They come from cyclotrons in the 100-120 MeV range.
Making muons is about 2% efficient with our best technology right now, and the break-even point for using it as a self-sustaining cold fusion reactor is about 15%.
It's a beam. We fire a beam of muons at Walpurgisnacht, and it, or at least everything around it, erupts into a continuous stream of fusion for as long as we care to hold down the trigger.
With surprisingly little collateral damage. Sure, some of the air in the path of the beam might explosively turn to carbon or iron or silicon.
But the real fun only starts when the muon beam hits something heavier. Heavy things tend to have a proton capture the muon.
That turns the proton into a neutron, and changes the atom to one that's an element lighter, and the wrong isotope to be stable, so it explodes.
And we can yell, "STOP BEING MADE OF THINGS!" while we fire it.
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