Tuesday 23 July 2013

The Energy Source

"Oh Am I late? Why does it matter? I'm always late."
Hey Guys I'm sorry I'm a bit late this time, well I've got a good excuse with me; I was flagged by some anonymous guy (turns out he was jealous) , and my account was suspended :c
But now I'm back!

So here comes the ultimate topic that all of you have been waiting for, since the beginning of time; THE ENERGY SOURCE! - Click on it, go on.

I assume you didn't like my previous blog since it was all about chemistry and who even likes Chemistry? Well at least I don't.

So lets get started!
The question that we must ask is:
                  i. What is his energy source?
                 ii. And how does he store it?

Since there are two questions I'll have to write a lot so I'm gonna split this post in to a few parts.

And you can click on the titles to go its Wikipedia page 

     Yes, he could be using something we've always had. Nuclear reactors or fussion chambers produce a lot of energy and power up almost 15% of Europe (in 2005).
So here's a bit of information about it :- 





And here's the GIF for the sake of it:

http://mediawiki.middlebury.edu/wikis/OpenSourceLearning/images/a/a6/Bwr.gif


Nuclear energy is produced using Uranium, and there are two types of uranium that can be found;

Uranium 238 (99.3% )
Uranium 235 (0.7%)

And yep, the scarcely found one is the most important one. Thats because under certain conditions it can be split,  yielding a lot of energy. It is therefore said to be 'fissile' and we use the expression 'nuclear fission'.

Uranium is just one of the elements that could be used, it was chosen over Thorium, which in fact produces a lot more energy than uranium, but however it was rejected as it did not have the power to create weapons and explosive which were required at the time of development (During world war II).

Well, so if he uses Nuclear energy, how in the name of Taco Bell does he store it? Well as I said, that's for another part :)


    2. Anti-matter
 I'll try to explain it as briefly as possible (I'm really bad at this). Here goes nothing. 
Antimatter is exactly what it says, like magnets and poles, everything has an opposite of itself (the opposite of electron would be positron),
and so does Anti-matter (Thus the prefix 'Anti'). The difference being that they have opposite charges but the characteristics are the same (such as the mass).  Perhaps the easiest way to understand them would be to think of a Ying-Yang, or look at this picture.

Useful part : When matter and anti-matter collide they annihilate (obliterate) to produce energy and very high radiation (Gamma rays). 


The scarcity of antimatter means that it is not readily available for use as fuel. Any antimatter propulsion would require engine construction so as to prevent the annihilation of all the fuel simultaneously. Anti-matter could be used as a fuel for interplanetary travel or interstellar travel as part of an antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion or other antimatter rocketry, such as the redshift rocket. Since the energy density of antimatter is higher than that of conventional fuels, an antimatter-fueled spacecraft would have a higher thrust-to-weight ratio than a conventional spacecraft. 
The biggest problem we face is,we don't know much about it, correction: we know almost nothing about it.

     But I'm sure tony could somehow figure it out. 


                          

And I'm sorry if you didn't get anything, that's the briefest I could be.



3. Chemical combustion of stuff

Okay I don't have much about this. But here's what Neil deGrasse Tyson said on star talk radio (Edited by me, because I don't remember what he actually said) :- 

"He could use some chemical reactions, such as gun powder, which could slowly burn producing energy slowly."


A piece of advice for anyone who meets Mr. Neil, take a diary or a note-pad or whatever you can find, because whatever this guy says is amazing and true. (And he might accidentally tell you where he hid his iron-man suit c: ).

An example of the combustion being that if steam trains that used coal, or a better more usable chemical would be gunpowder. Gunpowder is energy in a chemical form waiting to be used, and we could perhaps use by sending some small packs (or quanta) of it into the fusion chamber that would then explode then to produce energy.

The following table (constructed from the sources below) compares the energy content of gunpowder, TNT, and dynamite:


Gunpowder
3 MJ/kg

TNT
4.7 MJ/kg

Dynamite

3.7 MJ/kg

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder#Energy_content
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosive_material#Brisance

As you can see that there are many other chemical substances that could be used in order to produce energy, now all we need is a fusion and/or reaction chamber small enough to fit in a suit. [Next post ;)]

4. The tesseract

Hah, good luck on finding it.
And here is perhaps the most accurate image of the tesseract (mathematically).
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/186/1/6/tesseract__stock__by_sheridan_j-d561aek.jpg

It as said by Nick Fury has almost unlimited energy, and can create dimensions through space and time. Looks like T.A.R.D.I.S has found its opponent.



We don't have much knowledge of the energy sources that could be used and perhaps be powerful and efficient. However, we do know 'how' energy could be stored in different stages and containers. Read my next post to know.

And if I've misquoted or given wrong information or if you would like to share something to this series please let me know and all the links to the pictures can be found in the captions.

Thanks and I'll be back with more stuff to ponder upon soon. So stay tuned? Yeap that's right. :)


"If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars"

Tuesday 28 May 2013

A detailed analysis.

"Hold on tight, we're gonna have a rough flight!"

Hey! I'm back with more facts to pour. So a week ago I saw Iron Man 3 and yeah I was late, I had exams when it came out :(  but nevertheless I've watched it now. And if you haven't watched IM3 yet you should stop reading because, there will be some spoilers. Enough of talk lets cut to the awesome part!

Start with IM1

So the year is 2042 and man has turned evil... oh sorry wrong movie. After being threatened and bullied by the people of the ten rings, Tony is sad and crying, okay I'm exaggerating again, after Yinsen says him his Magical words again ( if you don't know what I'm talking about then you should read my first post) Tony is hyped and starts breaking up his missiles to get what is rarely found and is expensive as hell ; Palladium! 

http://periodictable.com/Samples/046.10/s9s.JPG
Nerd Alert! Skip to the next paragraph if you're not very good at chemistry.

Palladium is a very unique element as it has queer way of arranging its electrons, so it has less number shells than it actually should. It has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of the platinum group metals. It's also a very good oxidizing agent making it even more useful. And yep its radioactive. Since it has a strange electronic configuration (2, 8, 18, 18) it forms a layer structure like that of the graphite that makes it easily malleable and ductile making it even more useful, though the problem with it is we haven't yet learned much about it, as I said before it is rare and freaking expensive!
It's a transition metal so the level of conductivity on its part is quite good and its strong enough to hold up to its lattice at even really high temperatures 1828 kelvin! That's so high (literally), it can  even withstand Lava at its hottest which goes up to about 1473 kelvin! Now that's Hot (some puns intended). The furnaces at factories are more hotter and can melt it in seconds without a hitch, and to put in perspective Magma is 3033 kelvin.

If you've skipped the paragraph above then here's the summary: Palladium is freaking awesome! And its pretty strong.

So why did I give you short lecture on palladium? Because it is what tony uses to make the Arc Reactor. And most of the people out there think that its the palladium that powers up his suit which is precisely wrong. In fact it only diffuses the energy from the energy source to power up his armor, and it also lowers the radioactive emissions entering his body (well at least it tries to). Later it poisons his blood by entering it due to rapid use of his suits and large amounts of energy transfers and the opposing magnetic field just increases the palladium intake rate.


But Why Palladium?

Well because its AWESOME!!!! And also partly because it can take up high amounts of energy and use it efficiently. Yep that's the Tony we know and love.  

Oh and yeah Tony carries around the battery box which is outside of his body that powers up the electromagnets in his chest, since it needs to be always in his chest and he cannot take it out every time to change the battery, which I thought was the case last time when I was writing the blog, I'm sorry about that though.

So what do we know till now?

Mr. Stark has built a new electromagnet that is powerful and conducts electricity very efficiently and has good capacitance (good storage basically, not the precise definition). He calculates the energy output saying that it could power up something big for 50 mins assuming that his Math is right which he continues saying "It always is". Here's the important part, he says, " This is a miniaturized version of the Arc Reactor. We got a big one powering my office at home." 

Guys I'm not gonna spill the beans so easily, you can't make a bigger version of that, because:
  1. You'll need energy, and I mean hell lot of energy
  2. Electricity needs to be directed precisely with the most accurate math so that the palladium doesn't became an isotope of itself due to rapid oxidation and high power, which would make it radioactive and ... you know what happened in Japan and Chernobyl
  3. Electricity is expensive, unless you have your own source of energy that could be contained and its energy consumed without dying of doing all the boring Math.
  4. You haven't read my future blogs so you don't yet know much about the energy source.
  5. And the biggest obstacle, lets face it, your aren't so brilliant.
 So now he has a new lighted up electromagnet that looks elegant and is the mark of our hero, though in the third part he threw it away :( Now he's got a lot of power, it's not a lot to say, but it is surely is a bit more than what he could get in the cave from the scrapes, and still a hell lot more than any portable storage device, look at your phone, now imagine it having a battery life of a few months or so, yep that's exactly what tony had done with his chum. I bet Yinsen had no clue what tony was doing.
http://bit.ly/13ZbaE7

 Now with so much energy what will you do? Probably blow up your phone trying to charge it, such raw power would definitely blow up not only your phone but also almost your house! Maybe I exaggerated a bit too much. Anyways moving on, what does tony do with this tremendous amount of energy? Does what he usually does, makes a killing machine but this time its a suit that operates missiles and is the controlled by the orders of its master; Tony Stark.



Looks like I've covered up everything from the first movie, phew that was some good research, well looks like I'll have to end it here due to lack of space, But next time I'll be back. And for the record this is the Nerdiest I've ever been. 

In my next post I'll be discussing about the energy sources that might be what Tony uses.

And if I've misquoted or given wrong information or if you would like to share something to this series please let me know and all the links to the pictures can be found in the captions.

Thanks and I'll be back with more stuff to ponder upon soon. So stay tuned? Yeap that's right. :)


"I laugh when I think about the future, because it always changes."

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Introduction to my series.

Intro
I've been watching a lot of sci-fi movies and been playing a lot fantasy world games. I didn't quite find most of the parts interesting, but there was this one thing that I happen to see in every sci-fi/fantasy movie or comics or games that baffles me and makes me Ponder upon it. The Energy Sources. 

But why?
 Ah to know why first you must know a bit about me. I'm an awesome ( I mean really awesome) ideologist and a great nerd! Well not your typical type of nerd, but the one who is turning ideas into reality. I've always had an interest in Physics and Math, mainly quantum mechanics is what interests me. But enough about me!  Lets start digging! For ideas obviously.

This is going to be a series kind of post, and I'm going to only talk about the arc reactor. 

http://th09.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2012/083/c/6/arc_reactor_blueprints_by_fongsaunder-d4tttee.jpg
Since this is just the begging of the series I didn't want everyone to be left empty handed so I've got some ideas about the Reactor.


The function of the arc reactor (it wasn't actually an arc reactor it was just an electro-magnet)  at first was just to keep the pieces of shrapnel from entering Tony's heart, so Yinsen with a bit of surgical  magic securely put an electro-magnet in Tony's chest without having to cut and break his Sternum to keep him alive (Magic again).

So what do we have here? Well, an electro-magnet with a certain amount of energy which could be from batteries (Preferably of high voltage) that keep out the shrapnel. Hmm, wait a minute during his first advancement in the arc reactor the hole in his chest was pretty deep, so that means the Arc Reactor has enough space to keep loads of batteries, and by loads I mean 4-5. 
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/142/a/3/Arc_Reactor_Technical_Drawing_by_MarkFinn.jpg

Later Tony Builds up his first arc reactor (This time its the one that provides energy).


So now we're here the Energy part. I'm going to end this talk right here and leave the rest for the series.
And this is my first blog so yeah please bear with me, and if I've misquoted or given wrong information or if you would like to share something for this series please let me know and all the pictures were found at deviantart and the link is in the caption. 

Thanks and I'll be back with more stuff to ponder upon soon. So stay tuned? Yeap that's right. :)

The bright light at the end of the tunnel could also be a train headed towards you!