Recent content by JR Wakefield

Thanks to all for replying. I already knew the answer. But simple things like your reflection in a window, or the road reflection off the asphalt at very low angles, and even prisms, shows photons bounce off surfaces.

Simple question. Are photons reflected as is from a surface like a mirror, or is the reflecting surface atoms capturing the photons and re-emitting them?

Thermalizing is the term Willis used. I know it's not a word. And if you read through the comments, Willis et al state categorically that the colder objects emitting IR which when interacting with a warmer object, will increase the energy of that warmer object, and hence it's temperature. It...

These are the arguments I've been dealing with. Warm to cold is a NET flow of energy. Cold IR photons get absorbed by the warmer atoms which get "thermalized". So what happens to the warmer atoms when they encounter IR photons from a colder object? I say nothing happens. If anything, the...

[sigh] No it cant. Entropy forbids a colder object from giving energy to a hotter object. Why is this such an issue? This is basic thermodynamics.

Yes I know that. The point in that debate is IR from the cooler object must be being absorbed by the warmer object. The question is, what happens to the IR photons from the cooler object when they come in contact with the atoms in the hotter object?

Not sure this should go here (you guys need a thermodynamics section). But there is quite the debate going on about cooler objects being able to increase the temperature of warmer objects here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/11/24/can-a-cold-object-warm-a-hot-object/comment-page-1 They are...

Ultimately I want to do three interconnected pendulums. One base, another when it swings alters the baseline of the first, and a third when it swings alters the degree of swing of the first. So the final outcome would look like a drunken sailor walking. This should produce an apparent random...

I'm looking for VB code that simulates a pendulum swinging. I need to be able to alter the frequency of the swing within a range as time progresses and alter the baseline within a range as time progresses. Anyone got something?

My goal is to put the energy required into perspective, not an excersize to actually do it. An analogy, like what a trillion dollars looks like since that is so difficult to see. ($1,000 bills stacked 65 miles high). So to put that energy requirement into nuke plant eqivilent, 1000 for each...

Yes please.

How many nuke plants? If I have that correct, that's 400,000,000kg load that needs to be accelarated for 18 years. Converting the fuel into pure energy would be 3.25x10^23 joules. Over 18 years that's a power of 5.6x10^16Watts. A 500kW nuke plant for comparison would mean 11 TRILLION nuke...

Using a Los Angeles class sub as an example, we have 7000Mt for the ship, with a crew of say 200, and 2kg food per person per day, comes to a total of just short 10,000Mt not including fuel. At a rate of 38:1 then we would need 380,000Mt just for fuel. And if I read that site right that's fuel...

Ok, then how much energy would be needed to make the trip?

The size of the ship is an issue. It would include travelers and the food required to sustain them. Then their gear, and fuel. Closest I can think of would be a submarine for example. What I'm looking for is what the energy would be compared to a nuke reactor or oil equiv. The time of just...