-
Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
Ask a physicist anything. (6)
- Thread starter Maxwell511
- Start date
- Status
Davian
fallible
- May 30, 2011
- 14,100
- 1,181
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Ignostic
- Marital Status
- Married
DU is 68.4% denser than lead, hence its use in both armor plating and armor-piercing projectiles.
Depleted uranium- Ammunition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Upvote
0
As far as I understand, it doesn't work theoretically, and only "worked" experimentally for a couple of guys. Either they made some mistake, or made up a story. Atoms need a lot of energy input to move close enough to fuse.
To add to what Wiccan_child said, the fusion process results in light atoms that are not radioactive, though depending on your starting materials you probably get a lot of neutrons emitted, which could make your fusion contraption itself radioactive. But in theory you can capture the neutrons on certain kinds of material to get something that is not radioactive and potentially beneficial.
As for nuclear fission, it splits heavy elements into lighter atoms. The number of neutrons a stable isotope has increases as the atom gets heavier, and so the heavy atoms split into smaller atoms which contain a large excess of neutrons, and are therefore radioactive. Furthermore, the split is not any specific split but it could break into many different kinds of fragments. Add to that the number of intermediates produced by the chain of decay, and you get so many different isotopes of so many elements that it's a real mess and you can't really isolate them. Even so, nuclear power plants produce less nuclear material than coal power plants release, due to the small quantity of radioactive stuff in coal ash and the large amount of coal burnt per unit of energy. But that's OK, we can use it to make construction materials.
Upvote
0
Depleted uranium is denser than lead, and I've also heard that it's self-sharpening. As such it makes a great armor piercing projectile. Uranium can also burn into uranium oxide under certain conditions. Breathing any kind of dust is bad for you, and being in an enclosed area such as an armored vehicle means you get to breathe any dust or smoke produced there. Plus, as a heavy metal uranium is toxic and has no decent mechanism for removal from the body. As I understand it, any radioactivity it might have is nothing compared to the chemical toxicity.
Upvote
0
Steffenfield
Well-Known Member
Approximately how much physical resistance does the average human body have with weight placed against it?
Like how many pounds of weight would it take to completely squish a person?
Thanks!
Like how many pounds of weight would it take to completely squish a person?
Thanks!
Upvote
0
- Jun 18, 2006
- 3,855,597
- 52,508
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Baptist
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Republican
Upvote
0
Chalnoth
Senior Contributor
Well, in a sense, I suppose.
Basically, mathematics is about the development and investigation of self-consistent symbolic structures. That is, mathematics is a set of descriptions of these self-consistent entities which we describe through the use of a set of symbols of some sort or other.
And it seems very likely that our own universe is one particular self-consistent structure, because a universe that isn't self-consistent would be nonsensical. Therefore, our universe very likely is a mathematical structure. We don't yet know which one, and we may never know. But we'll see.
Upvote
0
- Jun 12, 2005
- 6,073
- 260
- 41
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Engaged
- Politics
- UK-Liberal-Democrats
Upvote
0
N
Nabobalis
Guest
Neutrinos work in very strange ways. Either the discovery of the century or some large error is hidden. Personally, would prefer it the speed of light could be violated, makes life a bit more interesting
Upvote
0
razeontherock
Well-Known Member
Upvote
0
razeontherock
Well-Known Member
Approximately how much physical resistance does the average human body have with weight placed against it?
Like how many pounds of weight would it take to completely squish a person?
Thanks!
I've been inside the ram of a punch press that could reduce any one of us to a puddle and a little white powder. (Except I was in the crush zone while it was coming down, defying every safety protocol
So the answer is, less than 550 tons.
Upvote
0
- Jun 18, 2006
- 3,855,597
- 52,508
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Baptist
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Republican
Look past that minimoog at the [pun] tail end [/pun] of that video.
-- Is that a rabbit from the Precambrian?
Upvote
0
Chalnoth
Senior Contributor
Here's a nice critique:
Faster-than-light travel discovered? Slow down, folks | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Basically, the smart money is it on being a measurement error, such as getting the distance between the Italian neutrino detector and CERN off by a few meters.
Upvote
0
Neutrinos work in very strange ways. Either the discovery of the century or some large error is hidden. Personally, would prefer it the speed of light could be violated, makes life a bit more interesting
I agree that it would be the discovery of the century if confirmed, and it would be really exciting to shake things up. However, I don't believe it -- it almost has to be a mistake.
On a different note, "neutrino beam"? I'm pretty sure neutrinos don't get put into a beam.
Upvote
0
- Jun 18, 2006
- 3,855,597
- 52,508
- Country
- United States
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Baptist
- Marital Status
- Married
- Politics
- US-Republican
Upvote
0
- Status
Similar threads
