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Salt water rocket?! Surely not.

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LAN_403

Conundrum

Sun Jun 03 2007, 08:50PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

LOL!!!!!! yeah, like thats going to work. And this guy is looking for investors? Guess there IS a sucker born every minute.

Actually this week's challenge is:- Work out how many different laws of physics are being broken here.

-A

Wolfram

Sun Jun 03 2007, 09:10PM

Registered Member #33 Joined: Sat Feb 04 2006, 01:31PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 971

Looking at the comments makes me loose all faith in humanity.

Chris Russell

Sun Jun 03 2007, 10:07PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

Microwaves are different from radio waves. Don't be a moron.

Kill me now.

ragnar

Sun Jun 03 2007, 10:18PM

Registered Member #63 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:18AM
Location:
Posts: 1425

Wow, all the different tinfoil-hats in there... from even such a small cross-section of the population, we seem to have:

the oil-barons-are-bastards tinfoil-hatter,
the government-will-buy-it-out tinfoil-hatter,
the microwave radiation tinfoil-hatter (pun not intended) who believes that a power plant using microwaves will emit dangerous radiation, and should be shielded with concrete,
the schools-are-brainwashing-us tinfoil-hatter,
the "he'll be assassinated" tinfoil-hatter,

Wow...

Just watched the video... the most disturbing line:

"That, is the true Ameican innovator -- someone that is not looking for something, he just finds it."

What rubbish. Sure, let's completely discredit scientists and engineers, because someone who stumbles across something serendipitously is a 'true innovator'?

I thought people were smarter than that.

Marko

Sun Jun 03 2007, 10:45PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Looking at the comments makes me loose all faith in humanity.

I've lost my faith in humanity long ago... I'm becoming depressed.

The mysterious flame looks like a high voltage streamer considering it's behavior.
Salt colors it orange.

I just wonder how much power he pumped into it to acheive this.

Alex

Sun Jun 03 2007, 11:27PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

It is pretty neat, but it is bothersome that they fail to mention how much power goes into it to run that little sterling engine. I am sure that massive amounts of power are being wasted there. I would like to think that the TV show producers just put together bits and pieces of the statements those people said in order to make a sensational story, but that doesn't seem to be the case. How can people be so misled in the face of all their contradictory knowledge?

Bjørn

Mon Jun 04 2007, 12:46AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

It seems like he has no idea what he is doing.

"Kanzius said the flame created from his machine reaches a temperature of around 3,000 degrees Farenheit. He said a chemist told him that the immense heat created from the machine breaks down the hydrogen-oxygen bond in the water, igniting the hydrogen."

"He said engineers are currently experimenting with him in Erie, Pa. in an attempt to harness the energy. They've built an engine that, when placed on top of the flame, chugged along for two minutes, Kanzius told WPBF."

"This was an experiment to see if I could heat salt water, and instead of heat, I got fire,"

"Kanzius said he hoped that his invention could one day solve a lot of the world's energy problems."

Ragnarok

Thu Jun 07 2007, 12:33PM

Registered Member #659 Joined: Fri Apr 20 2007, 09:14AM
Location: SW Hertfordshire, UK
Posts: 75

It seems to be suggesting that somehow, you can get more energy from putting the bonds of water back together via burning than you used splitting it apart in the first place...

Wow! I'm stunned. He's smashed the laws of thermodynamics apart with that, unless I'm missing something big.

Sure, I can see some uses for it - plumbing blowtorches which just need plugging in and a cupfull of salty water to run, rather than replaceable LPG tanks - but other than things like that, the uses must be limited.

Marko

Thu Jun 07 2007, 01:52PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Ragnarok: as bjorn said the guy apparently doesn't have much clue what's going on.

There is no obivous nucleation of hydrogen and oxygen in the vial nor any currently known possible mechanism for water to break down in these conditions.

All I see happening is the vial, being in a string electric field, creates a breakout point on it's top and streamer arises either from edge of a vial or out of top of cotton wool.
If you look closely, you can see how is the base of flame 'pinched' and not distributed across entire vial.

Liberation of sodium causes yellow-orange color of the flame.

The streamer also seems to be attracted to that stirling engine.

Very similar effect can be gained by placing a piece of cotton wool soaked in salt water in victinity or on topload of a CW tesla coil.

Myke

Thu Jun 07 2007, 02:02PM

Registered Member #540 Joined: Mon Feb 19 2007, 07:49PM
Location: MIT
Posts: 969

"This is the most abundent element in the world, water"
There is no element called water. LOL

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