A giant leap to the future - re energy

[whosinpower]

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060308_sandia_z.html

anyone hear of the Z machine?

snip - The Z machine is the largest X-ray generator in the world. It’s designed to test materials under extreme temperatures and pressures. It works by releasing 20 million amps of electricity into a vertical array of very fine tungsten wires. The wires dissolve into a cloud of charged particles, a superheated gas called plasma.

A very strong magnetic field compresses the plasma into the thickness of a pencil lead. This causes the plasma to release energy in the form of X-rays, but the X-rays are usually only several million degrees.

MOST IMPORTANT SNIP -

One thing that puzzles scientists is that the high temperature was achieved after the plasma’s ions should have been losing energy and cooling. Also, when the high temperature was achieved, the Z machine was releasing more energy than was originally put in, something that usually occurs only in nuclear reactions.

Sandia consultant Malcolm Haines theorizes that some unknown energy source is involved, which is providing the machine with an extra jolt of energy just as the plasma ions are beginning to slow down.

Sandia National Laboratories is located by Albuquerque New Mexico and is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Could this be the future for mankind....an unknown energy source......not founded by fossil fuels......wonder how long they will sit on the technology.........

[Pharaoh]

1. Unfortunately I fear the world has run out of Time

[ThomWV]

2. First Rule: There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Back to the drawing board .....

[SnowGoose]

5. You're right about that of course,

but the actual researchers don't make that claim. I checked out Sandia's own page, and found the news item here: http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2006/physics-astron/hottest-z-output.html

The physicists who did the work say, "First, the radiated x-ray output was as much as four times the expected kinetic energy input." Not "more energy came out than went in" as the LiveScience.com article seems to imply.

It is still cool, because this is a new record temperature, and it looks like there'll be some interesting physics to come out of it, and it actually may have some energy applications down the road.

Cool picture, too.

[meisje]

3. How long did it last? .00000002 nanoseconds?

[SnowGoose]

4. 10 nanoseconds

And hey, .00000002 nanoseconds? That's not very long, but TEN nanoseconds? Dang, that's like, *forever*.