Can Tabletop Cold Fusion Be Achieved with Simple, Safe Materials?

[mat1101]

My friend and I are doing table top fusion for our science fair. We can not figure out a sutable replacement for lithum crystals either than magnets. We need independat varibles, because our teacher says that just 2 magnets is not good enough. Also, it has to be cheap and can be handled by 13 year olds. :)

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Neutron radiation, has anybody considered that? With enough motivation I can create a nuclear weapon, and of course the implications displace the satisfaction.

 

[mat1101]

haha nice

 

[Astronuc]

Solar powered electrolysis of water would be safer, feasible and more useful.

 

[Kevin_Axion]

Astronuc is the perfect person for this, I don't have the faintest idea of nuclear physics engineering (although I do know how to build some small nuclear devices - I didn't try it and I wouldn't advance it) - I'm in high school. I do know though that designing something to manipulate the properties of atomic nuclei without proper knowledge or provisions is extremely dangerous. Not just the radiation but the amount of electricity being used and amps could be very deceptive to a 13 year old. The human mind is so great in its ability to decipher the Universes mysteries that sometimes we forget about our body's frailty.

 

[Dragonfall]

Whatever happened to baking soda volcanoes?

 

[mat1101]

@ Kevin Axion
we know it is quite dangerous.
my friends dad is a Ph.D in nuclear physics so he will watch over what we are doing so we don't blow the hydorgen up :)
@ Dragonfall
hahaa

 

[inflector]

If you really want to do tabletop fusion as a 13-year old, it is possible.

Check out:

http://www.fusor.net/

They're not cold fusion but they are doing actual fusion and there have been several younger fusioneers. I think the youngest one to do actual fusion was 14 years old at the time.

If you are up to the challenge it is doable but would require a lot of interesting learning and hands-on work, and the supervision of someone who is an expert in high-voltage electricity for safety. It sounds like your friend's dad would fit the bill if he was willing.

See also:

http://www.asylum.com/2010/07/08/chad-ramey-amateur-nuclear-fusion-fusor-net/

 

[mat1101]

thanks!

 

[Kevin_Axion]

I don't understand why a nuclear physicist would propose that this is a good idea for 13 year olds. You can do what you wish and I'm sure it will be very interesting and brilliant but know your limits.

 

[inflector]

It's not as dangerous as it might seem.

Getting enough fusion going to create an actual neutron hazard is really hard to do in a home lab. The electrical hazards are comparable to working on a microwave oven. It can kill you if you are not paying attention, so there needs to be some adult supervising who knows electrical hazards. But it's not any more dangerous than driving a car or tractor and there are plenty of 13 and 14-year olds doing that in other countries and in the U.S. in some farming states (see: http://www.dmv.state.ne.us/examining/licpermits.html) for example.

I certainly would have been capable of doing this when I was 13.

The radiation danger is much more manageable and the real problem is not neutrons but ends up being x-rays which can be easily detected with a geiger counter and blocked with a thin sheet of lead. A nuclear physicist should be able to make sure the setup is safely built and operated.

 

[mat1101]

I finally finished it and won at the science fair!
But i figured out that only about 5-20 counts of radiation at the most were given off; 7 is about the normal count for radiation in our air.

 

[ZapperZ]

This is a variation on the joke heard after the Fleishman and Pons cold fusion debacle:

"Did you hear about the bad news on the winning table-top cold fusion reactor at the science fair?"

"No, what?"

"The participants and the judges are still alive!"

Zz.

 

[Drakkith]

Matt, you guys just did what I have been wanting to do for almost a year now lol. And I'm 27 years old! Do you have any pictures or videos of your machine? I'd love to see them.

 

[mat1101]

Um i think i might Drakkith, but what we did was basically create our own tabletop fusion reactor from scratch. instead of propelling hydrogen atoms, we made attracted them to a wire with magnetic field to create the hydrogen so we could measure the radiation

 

[mat1101]

I made a short clip of some pictures that i kept, sorry they arent the greatest but i found them and they were the only ones there.
Any questions or comments just leave in the video and ill try to answer them to the best of my ability!

 

[mat1101]

oops! forgot to post the link!

 

[Drakkith]

Ohh, I misunderstood what you were doing. I thought you made a Fusor, a tabletop fusion device. You guys just did the "cold fusion" thing. Hope you learned something from it!

 

[mat1101]

Ohh, that's okay, but yes we learned a lot!

 

[bj97872]

i am having that same problem. I'm doing a science fair project and my experiment is cold fusion vs fossil fuels. i need help building a cold fusion reactor. one that works please

 

[Drakkith]

i am having that same problem. I'm doing a science fair project and my experiment is cold fusion vs fossil fuels. i need help building a cold fusion reactor. one that works please

Cold Fusion does not work.

 

[cmb]

i need help building a cold fusion reactor. one that works please