maverickmathematics said:
The problem is - as I understand it - you cannot get the atoms to touch because of electrostatic repulsion (I think that's the term for charges repelling each other.
The solution would be somehow to get them close enough together. Now, in my limited knowledge of physics I think I have a plan. Heat the particles up - very hot - as hot as they need to be. And then switch on a huge magnet, I mean big which has a -ve charge.
The +ve particles (nuclei) will be attracted to the -ve charge and will hopefully collide, producing energy, and causing other reactions as they increase the overall kinetic energy of the nuclei.
Alternatively, create a black hole - as the black hole is a point in space, and has infinite mass, the atoms must be touching each other - of course getting the energy out of the black hole, and indeed containing it...may not be easy!
maverickmathematics,
If you get the nuclei hot enough - you don't need the magnet.
Additionally, a magnet doesn't have a charge. Magnetic fields form
closed loops. A bar magnet has positive and negative poles - but the
field is a closed loop that runs from positive pole, through the air to
the negative pole, and back through the magnet to the positive pole.
Courtesy of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center:
http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/mag_field.html
Contrary to popular belief, charged particles are not "drawn" toward
the poles of magnetic fields. First, the charged particle has to be
moving, and the strength of the force is proportional to the strength
of the magnetic field, the velocity of the charged particle, and the
sine of the angle between the velocity of the particle and the direction
of the field. [ The force on a motionless particle is zero, and the force
on a particle traveling in the same direction as the field is also zero
because the sine of the angle is zero. ] The direction of the force is
mutually perpendicular to the magnetic field direction, and the velocity
of the particle.
Consider how the Earth's magnetic field protects us from charged
particles from space. The Earth is a big magnet with field lines emerging
from the North Pole, wrapping around the planet, and coming back in
at the South Pole.
The field lines that are over your head are parallel to the ground [ roughly].
Therefore, if a charged particle is heading downwards at right angles
to the magnetic field - then the force will be maximal. The direction
will be sideways. So downward moving charged particles from the Sun
and the rest of space are deflected.
If a charged particle is moving in the same direction as the magnetic
field - then the force will be ZERO! At the poles, the magnetic field
lines are approximately vertical. If a charged particle is travelling
in a downward direction at the poles; it is moving in the same direction
as the field lines - so it will not be deflected.
Therefore, there is an influx of charged particles at the poles. These
charged particles interact with the air to produce the Aurora Borealis,
or "northern lights" effect. It's also why your radiation dose is higher
if you fly a polar route from the USA to Europe in an airliner.
Dr. Gregory Greenman
Physicist
Seriously though I thought it was a very good broad spectrum analysis of what happened after P & F as it seems a lot of people thought that was the end of cold fusion research. There are of course many more recent articles detailing specific research such as the current interest in utilising crystals to produce cold fusion. For eg
