"Z Machine" sets unexpected Earth temperature record:

[Earth_First]

Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record


Explanation: Why is this plasma so hot? Physicists aren't sure. What is known for sure is that the Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot. The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin, making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars. The Z Machine experiment, pictured above, purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field. Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name. During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world's entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second. Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060313.html

[soothsayer]

1. Future power source? When something releases more power

than you put into it, that's usually a good thing! (And also an horrible weapon of course)

[Earth_First]

2. Unfortunately it's most likely the latter that is being explored...n/t

[KyuzoGator]

3. Nothing releases more energy than you put into it.

That violates Newtonian physics.

[benburch]

4. Newton never considered atomic energy...

I suspect that we are seeing the thermonuclear burning of something here. It remains to be seen what.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. Ahem, Newton was wrong. Einstein proved that a century ago.

[KyuzoGator]

8. Einstein never disproved Conservation of Energy nt

[DrGonzoLives]

11. No

The energy being released is still stored within the atom. You cannot create energy.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. you never heard my ex lecture me, did you?

[unblock]

9. actually, it wasn't newton, it's the 1st law of thermodynamics

[KyuzoGator]

12. But kinetic + potential must net zero.

That's Newton.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

15. when you deal with a quantum soup in a multiverse, all sorts of weird shit

begins to happen. As much as I study it, my meager mental resources still seize up and misfire. However, virtual particles can be generated in a vacuum, in fact, a 10 or 11 dimensional universe demands them to. If particles can appear, they have mass. If mass can be described as energy, then what we perceive as excess energy creation can also occur. What actually happens in the quantum soup is quite different, however, our perceptions are what we report.

[DrGonzoLives]

18. There is more than just kinetic and potential energy

There is also internal energy, the release of which is keeping you warm right now and running your computer.

[unblock]

6. where did it say more energy came out than was put in???

:shrug:

[Taverner]

5. Cold Fusion here we come

I still hold out hope...

[stop the bleeding]

10. Plasma - hot or cold it is the energy of the future, also can be used for

almost any application in everyday life.

Plasma is huge

[AngryAmish]

14. I wrote a paper about fusion in my early teens

the thesis of the paper (based on contemporary sources) that usable fusion was 5-10 years away. I am 37. They have been talking about fusion for energy since the 50s but the physics are really hard.

I think the only workable fusion device will remain the thermonuclear bomb.

[Arger68]

16. Did Kelly LeBrock come rising up

out of that thing when they were done??

[KansDem]

17. Two billion Kelvin?

Still not hot enough to get my wife's steak done to her liking :eyes: