Caseck Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 Antimatter is a cool thought. Specifically, I expect we're talking about anti-electrons or anti-protons. Either of these two technologies are currently postulated, and we've created these particles on an atomic level. "How do we make them?" You might ask... Simple! You take hydrogen atoms and whip 'em around in a superconducting supercollider and crash 'em together until they break down into quarks. The quarks recombine 'cause they don't hang out by themselves, and once in so many collisions, you get an anti-proton or anti-electron. (I was an infantryman, not a physicist, so somebody will need to bail me out on the specifics.) Anyway, we have developed methods for storing anti-electrons in theory. Since both anti-electrons and anti-protons have a net electric charge, they can be stored. Science fact. Cool stuff, eh? Remember, when either of these antiparticles comes in contact with it's counterpart, it "annihilates", the two combine and release pure energy. Pretty cool! Or not cool, depending on if this is a controlled or uncontrolled occurance! Anyhow, it requires GOBS of energy to create these particles. The manufacturing facility for antimatter would be HUGE! All our current methods for creating it are astronomically inefficient. Unless the live-ships have the ability to park near a sun, and convert photons BACK into antimatter, they would need to get their fuel from somewhere else... Food for thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonxa Posted August 2, 2005 Share Posted August 2, 2005 It's best not to think too much about energy requirements in sci-fi. I'm studying physics but am not quite at the topic of particle physics yet. I have read a decent amount of more or less popular books on the subject though. From what I recall the consensus is the same on anti-matter, with current methods it's not an efficient way to harness energy. It's more likely that you would use hydrogen fusion since hydrogen is abundant all over the place. But such is life for scientists, most sci-fi, be it books or films, gets ruined for you because you realize all the shortcomings in their "science". Latest example is in Batman Begins where they use a big microwave cooker to vaporize all the water in Gotham, but the humans (who are ~70% water) are unaffected. You learn to not bother too much and just take a few things as given. A solid, small energy source is a good thing to assume in a sci-fi environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomm Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 For all things Sci-Fi/physics go to The Atomic Rocket Website! Personally, I find the waste heat management problem the most nasty one! Best regards, Thomm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarquelne Posted October 18, 2005 Share Posted October 18, 2005 Anyhow, it requires GOBS of energy to create these particles. The manufacturing facility for antimatter would be HUGE! All our current methods for creating it are astronomically inefficient. Unless the live-ships have the ability to park near a sun, and convert photons BACK into antimatter, they would need to get their fuel from somewhere else...[/QB]Massive space-based facilities, a variant form of Liveship... say in orbit around gas-giants (with those powerful magnetic fields), maybe built during the peak of the of the Mu Arae expansion? There's GOBS of energy out there... (Though I admit that I'm not sure such how much a "gob" is. ) You learn to not bother too much and just take a few things as given. A solid, small energy source is a good thing to assume in a sci-fi environment.And there's that, too. Especially for a game, I think. "Believable", from the DropTeam page, seems like a good choice of words. I'm happy with "Doesn't insult your intelligence." (Technobabble is OK with me, if it's more evocative than silly.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcon-5 Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 One thing that no one has mentioned yet is that if the vehicals are powered by anti-matter what happens when the containment system is breached? Talk about your catastrophic kill!!! Somebody would have to look up the physics of the thing but AFAIK even a microscopic amount of anti-matter packs a huge punch! Vehicals in tight formation might even kill the whole group if one goes up. Something like a AMB (anti-matter Boom! ) would definately enchorage tean work in the game, I'll stay on my side of the mountain you stay on your's so if you get killed I won't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcon-5 Posted October 21, 2005 Share Posted October 21, 2005 I jut re-read my post. My spelling horrible. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted October 22, 2005 Share Posted October 22, 2005 E=mc^2 gives you the energy released from anti-matter annihilation. m=mass of matter+equal amount of anti-matter c=3*10^8, IIRC 1 Ton TNT = 4184 MJ, for comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcon-5 Posted October 22, 2005 Share Posted October 22, 2005 Ok according to the infamous Wikipedia a kilogram (1000 grams)of matter will convert into 21.48076431 Megatons of TNT. Divide this by 1000 and you get 0.02148076431 Megatons. Convert the units gives you 21 Kilotons of energy for ONE gram of matter (for argument sake we'll call it 1/2 gram of anti-matter reacting with 1/2 gram of matter). http://www.stopthebombs.org/nuke/MiniNuke.pdf This web site lists the yield of the Hiroshima bomb as 15 Kilotons with a ground blast of 1.5 miles. Given these numbers i hope the terrain deforming software is up to the task Forget engineering vehicals just blow up a power supply and you get a mile wide foxhole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mace Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Since the energy released from a matter/anti-matter interaction would be = mc^2, I think antimatter might be a bit too devastating to throw around on the typical Dropteam battlefield, just because there'd be nothing left to fight over or fight with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarquelne Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Originally posted by Redcon-5: Ok according to the infamous Wikipedia a kilogram (1000 grams)of matter will convert into 21.48076431 Megatons of TNT. Divide this by 1000 and you get 0.02148076431 Megatons. Convert the units gives you 21 Kilotons of energy for ONE gram of matter (for argument sake we'll call it 1/2 gram of anti-matter reacting with 1/2 gram of matter). http://www.stopthebombs.org/nuke/MiniNuke.pdf This web site lists the yield of the Hiroshima bomb as 15 Kilotons with a ground blast of 1.5 miles. Given these numbers i hope the terrain deforming software is up to the task Forget engineering vehicals just blow up a power supply and you get a mile wide foxhole How much AM would a DropTeam vehicle need to carry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redcon-5 Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 Originally posted by Tarquelne: </font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Redcon-5: Ok according to the infamous Wikipedia a kilogram (1000 grams)of matter will convert into 21.48076431 Megatons of TNT. Divide this by 1000 and you get 0.02148076431 Megatons. Convert the units gives you 21 Kilotons of energy for ONE gram of matter (for argument sake we'll call it 1/2 gram of anti-matter reacting with 1/2 gram of matter). http://www.stopthebombs.org/nuke/MiniNuke.pdf This web site lists the yield of the Hiroshima bomb as 15 Kilotons with a ground blast of 1.5 miles. Given these numbers i hope the terrain deforming software is up to the task Forget engineering vehicals just blow up a power supply and you get a mile wide foxhole How much AM would a DropTeam vehicle need to carry? </font> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted October 23, 2005 Share Posted October 23, 2005 20 g of TNT? You get more in a hand grenade. Put it in Joules, you get 90 kJ. When you consider that a modern MBT has a 1000+ kW output engine, that's nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caseck Posted October 24, 2005 Author Share Posted October 24, 2005 An entire gram of antimatter would probably be a sizeable chunk of yield for a factory for a significant amount of time. With current technology, it'd be like 10,000 years of antimatter production. (And would be entirely in anti-electrons, which I believe is the only antimatter particle we can capture to date.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarquelne Posted October 25, 2005 Share Posted October 25, 2005 (And would be entirely in anti-electrons, which I believe is the only antimatter particle we can capture to date.)I was going to put in an anti-proton/lawyer joke, but God told me not to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts