On Jul 15, 2009, at 8:50 PM, mix...@bigpond.com wrote:
In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:59:10
-0800:
Hi,
[snip]
A 100 micron foil weighs 12 g/
cm^3 * (100x10^-6 cm) = 0.0012 g/cm^2 = 1.2 mg/cm^2. Attenuation in
a 100 micron thick Pd foil, a 1.2 mg/cm foil, would only be on the
order of (0.3 MeV/mg/cm^2) * (1.2 mg/cm^2) = 360 keV.
I get 120 mg/cm^2 which results in an energy loss of 36 MeV, more
than enough to
stop them. (100 micron is 100x10^-6 m, not 100 x 10^-6 cm).
I *thought* 100 microns of Pd was lavish! I was intending to base my
argument on surface reactions only, and was very surprised at getting
100 microns of leeway. I couldn't see the error, though I suspected
it and looked for it sever times! Thanks for taking the time to
actually read and check it. I often wonder if anyone reads anything I
write - and it is understandable given my error rate!
Following is my once again revised and corrected response to the
original queries:
On Jul 10, 2009, at 4:48 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
Takahashi's theory ... it seems to me that it predicts most known
CF phenomena:
1. No direct neutrons.
2. Surface reaction, since deuterium dissociates on entering the
lattice.
3. Takahashi predicts from quantum theory that if the TSC forms, it
will fuse 100%.
4. No momentum transfer problem, all energy is kinetic with the
alpha particles.
5. Alpha radiation.
[snip]
The emission of small amounts of alphas from thin foils or co-
deposition experiments is not consistent with the excess heat
observed. Further, CR-39 tracks indicate uniformly far less energy
than 23.8 MeV alphas. Given that most fusion is said to occur, by
Takahasi's theory and many others, at the surface, and given that co-
deposted cathode surfaces are made up of nanometer scale particles,
there is not enough barrier to 23.8 MeV alpha particles in typical
cathodes to suppress their detection enough to account for the low
count densities. To make a rough approximation based on copper,
particle attenuation in Pd at 23.8 MeV should be less than 0.3 MeV/mg/
cm^2. The density of Pd is 12 g/cm^3. A 10 micron foil weighs 12 g/
cm^3 * (10x10^-6 m) = 0.0012 g/cm^2 = 12 mg/cm^2. Attenuation in a
10 micron thick Pd foil, a 12 mg/cm foil, would only be on the order
of (0.3 MeV/mg/cm^2) * (12 mg/cm^2) = 3.6 MeV. Water would of course
attenuate further but direct CR-39 contact, such as that used in the
SPAWAR experiments, even with the added attenuation of an intervening
6 micron plastic film, should not significantly reduce the count of
the 32.8 MeV alphas, only their apparent energies. The actually
observed SPAWAR charged particles have much lower energies, so
attenuate faster and are effectively stopped by small distances. The
excess heat, observed in surface hot spots, by SPAWAR and various
others, demand a significant particle count and higher energy CR-39
pits, if their source is from a Takahashi type mechanism.
On Jul 12, 2009, at 1:10 PM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
That sounds like the right objection. However, what I haven't seen
is estimates of the actual particle counts compared to what would
be expected from the generated heat.
It's common sense. An experiment producing a watt for two weeks
(various of the SPAWAR replications run about 2 weeks I think)
produces (1J/s)*(60 s/m)*(60 m/h)*(24 h/d)*(7d/week)*(2 weeks)=
172800 J. Obtaining the number of fusions we have (172800 J)/(23.8
MeV) = 4.5x10^16 fusions. Even if the experiment only produces 1/
millionth of a watt, that's 4.5x10^10 fusions, of which we should see
about half the particles, or 2.3x10^10 particles. If half of those
are emitted at too shallow an angle to observe we still should get
about 10^10 tracks. The observed tracks are on the order of 1000/
mm^2 or less if memory serves. SPAWAR infrared photos showed roughly
2 degrees C hot spots developing on the cathodes. I don't think it
is uncommon for CF experiments that generate excess heat to produce
such hot spots, and for ordinary electrolysis that does not produce
excess heat to not produce them. You can do the heat transfer
estimate, based on the thermal conductivity of the electrolyte, but I
don't think that is necessary, because the number of observed tracks
vary from the expected (under Takahashi) number of tracks by orders
of magnitude.
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
