On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 10:09 AM, Abd ul-Rahman Lomax <a...@lomaxdesign.com>wrote:
Lomax>The world is so complex that math can be useless, unless simplifying assumptions are made. It is certain simplifying assumptions that led to the conclusion that QM predicts that LENR is impossible. This was already a problematic assumption, because we already knew of a three-body example where fusion is known to take place, muon-catalyzed fusion, so the question then naturally arises if there might be other "exceptions." What? Muons are exceptional in nature, and muonic atoms are exotic, but muon-catalyzed fusion in no way represents an exception to standard QM. In fact, the phenomenon was predicted theoretically before it was observed. The reaction rates fit the calculations perfectly. The fusion reactions follow expected branches. The production of muons for the purpose is understood. Everything makes sense. This was all understood in the 1950s. The only way this can be bootstrapped to explain CF is if you claim electrolysis, or deuterium absorption in Pd, or hydrogen absorption in Ni produces exotic nuclear particles, a process just as unlikely as any other proposed mechanism for nuclear reactions producing useful heat. > Physics only uses math in the interpretation of results, in the development of theories, and some of these theories, applied in simplified situations -- such as plasma conditions -- are extraordinarily successful, amazingly accurate. As long as you stay away from messy situations, like the stuff that we live with all the time. Physics is also extraordinarily successful at describing mathematically the properties of materials, crystals, and lattices, just the sort of environment cold fusion is supposed to take place in. > Fleischmann and Pons were quite aware of this, and they agreed, but they also knew that it was possible, even probable, that there was *some deviation* from expected fusion cross-section in condensed matter. Fleischmann has written that he expected this to be below measurement accuracy, that he and Pons expected failure to find anything. That's revisionist balderdash. They were clueless about nuclear physics, and expected to find fusion, and said as much in interviews after the fact. > So what now? I'm willing to bet a significant chunk of my net worth on Rossi being real, That's what he's counting on.
