NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/sci/physics/fusion/2777

Text File | 1992-11-24 | 2.5 KB | 53 lines

Newsgroups: sci.physics.fusion
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!sgiblab!pacbell.com!UB.com!zorch!fusion
From: [e-mail]
Subject: What Kind of Fool Am I?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (Scott Hazen Mueller)
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Sci.physics.fusion/Mail Gateway
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 22:00:47 GMT
Lines: 41

For Jed's benefit, let me say right up front that I may well be foolish
to keep asking questions about these experiments rather than just
accepting everything that comes out of the CF community as the absolute
end with no ifs ands or buts.  But what the heck, that's why the gummint
has given us this toy to exchange information over.

Now back to Yamaguchi.  First off, Jed, you should understand that I
don't need to know Yamaguchi.  It is the Yamaguchi experiment that is
underdiscussion and, I started this by saying I didn't know enough about
this $8 billion result.  I still don't know very much about it, but if
we keep whacking away at each other maybe we can get some things sorted
out.  Now I have one more piece of the puzzle.  You say the chamber
vacuum is 10^-8 Torr.  I do a bit of arithmetic and come up with the
number that that corresponds to the order of 10^11 molecules per liter
residual gas.  If the chamber is say 10 liters we get 10^12 molecules
total.  Now you tell us POOF goes a reaction and in a second we get
10^16 helium atoms.  It would seem that the pressure would rise to
shall we say 10^-4 Torr.  Such an event would be hard to miss, right?
Does the good Dr. Y comment on such events?

Now we do same experiment over with hydrogen sandwich and no helium
is formed.  Does the pressure remain at 10^-8 Torr?  Is there a
pressure rise of any sort?

Next I hit the books and read up on the effects of high pressure
on peak shapes in mass spectrometers.  Guess what, Jed?  You can
have nicely resolved peaks in your mass spec when the pressure of
the residual gas is 10^-8 Torr and when the pressure rises to
10^-4 Torr the resolution goes to pot.  In fact most of these
devices don't work at all well above about 10^-5 Torr.

One final comment as to whether vacuum is a good insulator.  Ever
hear of radiation?

It is probably unfair for me pick on the Yamaguchi experiment on the
basis of the information Jed has provided.  My point really is that
Jed is not a suitably critical filter so that his enthusiasm for
these results should not be considered the final word on cold fusion.

Dick Blue
NSCL @ MSU