Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Isngrim]

not to mention the bigger it is,the more famous it is,which makes it a bigger target for nut job/criminal/terrorist.

and,then there's the effects of weather on the structure,taller a building is the more area for the wind to act on,i think orbital "Taxi's" would be a better idea.

Question:

Isn't the majority of the US's trains Diesel?

if so,wouldn't it be possible to turn the train system into a large linear generator?

[Bumber]

... I have to admit, there's something to the thought of Hindenburg, the Space Elevator. Twenty kilometers of high pressure hydrogen -- surely nothing can go wrong :V

_{Yes, I know they could use helium instead. Not nearly as amusing.}

Must... resist... Archer... references...!

Sounds like the area, or zone if you will, around that hydrogen filled space elevator would be kind of... dangerous.

Danger zone~♪

[Il Palazzo]

Question:

Isn't the majority of the US's trains Diesel?

if so,wouldn't it be possible to turn the train system into a large linear generator?

That would burn more fuel and put a strain on engines. You're better off with dedicated generators, efficiency-wise.

Most 'diesel' locomotives are actually diesel-electric: a diesel engine powers a generator that in turn powers electric motors in the bogies. That is, it's already a generator, but it uses all the electricity for motive power.

[Sheb]

What do you mean by linear generator in this case?

Also, isn't Helium getting more expensive simply because there was that big-ass reserve the government had made in the 30's for blimp that was being sold and that since it was there there was little production capacity?

[Helgoland]

I wonder how difficult it would be to replace helium with hydrogen.

Spoiler: Only for cryogenic applications, of course (click to show/hide)

[Il Palazzo]

I wonder how difficult it would be to replace helium with hydrogen.

Spoiler: Only for cryogenic applications, of course (click to show/hide)

It's not a good replacement for cryogenics. Turns solid at relatively high temp (~13 K).
That it leaks more easily and is hazardous is a secondary issue.

[Dutrius]

I'm pretty sure helium leaks more easily than hydrogen does.

[Il Palazzo]

Hydrogen is a smaller molecule.

[Il Palazzo]

I'm pretty sure helium leaks more easily than hydrogen does.

Hydrogen is a smaller molecule.

Hold on now, Palazzo. This can't be right.
I remember a conversation I had with a technician testing vacuum-insulated pipes in one of my previous workplaces. We talked about the reasons for using expensive helium instead of cheap nitrogen (what you do is spray the gas over welds, and see if the mass spectrometer connected to the pipe registers counts).
I asked 'why not hydrogen' ('cause I thought it was even smaller and also cheap), to which we both ended up laughing at the absurdity of spraying an explosive gas around.
That's what I remembered from the conversation - that explosiveness is the only objection.

But the correct reason should be that hydrogen is NOT a smaller molecule! After all, you're not spraying ions, but H2 molecules, and that's bound to be larger than a single He atom. So not only hazardous, but also worse for the job.

So yeah, now that I think about it, you seem to be correct, Dutrius.

[Telgin]

I think a single helium atom is smaller than a single hydrogen atom too for that matter.  It still has only a single S orbital, but because there are two charges in the nucleus and orbital attracting, the orbital is smaller than in hydrogen.

I think that's the explanation I've heard anyway.

[redwallzyl]

apparently new Zealand has lots of gold and silver. who knew?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/millions-dollars%E2%80%99-worth-gold-and-silver-found-beneath-volcanoes?tgt=nr

[forsaken1111]

apparently new Zealand has lots of gold and silver. who knew?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/millions-dollars%E2%80%99-worth-gold-and-silver-found-beneath-volcanoes?tgt=nr

Soon: Tourists and would-be gold miners flock to new zealand, steal all the water

[Starver]

(Been trying to catch up in this thread that I left unread for far too long... At least I'm in the same month now, but I may have a couple more replies that I've been saving that are far more necro-ish.  They may follow below, and this is the explanation as to why.)

If you want to cause damage to a vehicle using acid, you would be better off producing an acid fume grenade, so that the vehicle sucks in corrosive vapor into its air intake system.

And then you fire it(/them!) using this (or this).

Alternately, I'm surprised nobody's suggested using frozen acid (after assuming frozen mercury).  Nitrogen-cooling might even be overkill for Hydrochloric Acid or Aqua regia.

In fact, for the latter, a tungsten bullet (usefully 'standard' as a working metal for bullets, and itself resistant to the mix) with penetrating tip and thin-walled chambers/multiple cells containing appropriate amounts of HNO₃ and HCl could be made to work correctly.  If 'honeycombed' with thin enough walls between the internal cells then perhaps it could safely carry the two liquids (separately) prior to firing, but the firing of the bullet itself initiates the necessary mixing (within still structurally sound external walls) such that when the penetrating tip does what it can to overcome the armour and the remaining side-walls fail during impact to send the newly-mixed super-acid into the internal cavity of the target, with various effects against what is inside according to what it hits, even if (by now) there's significant nitrosyl chloride mixture due to the premature blending and then decomposition of the mix (that'd depend on actual internal design).

(The ability to dissolve the gold in electronics would be interesting, even above other methods that were impotent against gold but could disrupt the non-gold substrates and housings.  But mechanical and biological contents of the fired-upon tin can... and possibly the external armour itself if not actually penetrated on the first shot... could be... tactically advantageous.  If quite likely a war-crime.)

[Starver]

(As noted above, a bit of a necro-reply, this.)

What you might be able to do with a shield generator is to totally interlace the entirety of your body at the molecular level with shields (which would probably kill you outright). If you did so your flesh body would essentially be a "totally rigid body" during the course of the impact, which would mean that instead of splatting on the surface you would sink into the surface until your energy had been spent but you would be ok. End result is that rather then cracking the pavement in a dramatic landing you'd essentially sink into the ground up to your chest and be trapped, but you would survive the impact.

Two literary works come to mind:

First there is "Dayworld" and its sequels, by Philip J. Farmer, has a thing called "Stoning", which is a(n unexplained?) process of putting even living things into a (nearly?) indestructible form of suspended animation.  Either in their own private pods, or similar, for which the entire population of the world spends six days a week (i.e., each day only one seventh of the population are out and about... at least theoretically) or for long distance travel purposes, where they're treated as cargo (and not always too gently so, but to no ill effect) to end up being woken up at their intended destination (on their assigned day).

Secondly, "Ringworld" (and sequels), by David Niven.  The emergency Slaver Stasis Field device fitted to the nigh-on-indestructible starship hulls to make occupants similarly immune to any danger, for the duration of said dangers.

The former is done in a manner that suggests (although it's mostly applied within 'pods', that just seems to contain the 'effect') that it can be applied to a lump of matter (including a living person) in a manner you could consider similar to the mythically petrifying gaze of a gorgon, and then later "unapplied" to return everything (including biochemical and bioelectrical activity) to whatever transitioning state it was in a (subjective) blink of the eye earlier.  I'm not sure that anything factual could be considered as an analogue (the closest would be cryogenic freezing, but this thing is far more 'elemental', and doesn't have any of the disadvantages either to the subject or in how one need handle the 'frozen' subject.)  It's basically a conceit to the world-setting, without (so far as I can recall) any justification as to its availability.

The latter has a "while the area effect is operational" manner to it, and (coupled with the "indestructible spaceship hull" technology) hints at some 'greater physics' being used, as is a lot of the setting's alien-tech (Scrith, hyperspace shunts, etc), so is (in this regard) best considered as typical soft-SF or "there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

Neither is an answer to the original problem (surviving a lithobraking manoever in heavy powered-armour)... but it'd be interesting if they could be.

(I vote for an alientech-derived 'mass-mitigation' process, such that the inertial change on impact is less "half tonne armoured suit hitting the ground" and more that of something that behaves as if far lighter.)

[Starver]

(And here's the final one I actually felt the need to store up until I was actually posting here again.)

Talking about steampunk, now I want a carbonpunk where everything fucking thing is made out of carbons.

I'd point you in the direction of Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.  Basically the world has prolific nanotech/nanoassembly "Diamond Age" being a reference to the continuation of the prior Stone/Bronze/Iron/.../Industrial/Silicon/Information Ages.

It's arguably what you describe.