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Salt water rocket?! Surely not.

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LAN_403

GreySoul

Thu Jun 07 2007, 03:38PM

Registered Member #546 Joined: Fri Feb 23 2007, 11:43PM
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Posts: 239

-edit-

Myke wrote ...

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

You forget that most of these people are stuck in the dark ages when the ONLY elements were Earth, Fire, Water, Air, and Aether.

Of course wouldn't that make... Earth the most abundant element on Earth?

-end of edit-

-edit2-
At 3000F the glass itself would start to melt. Sicne we can pretty safely assume it's borosilicate (Kimax logo on the tube) then the orange could also be from sodium off gassing fromn the glass itself.

At temps over 1500F glass becomes electrically conductive. You can melt boro in a microwave if you get it hot enough with a torch to start the reaction. there are HUGE furnaces absed on this technology.

Also, if the whole container was at 3000F wouldn't the water just boil off before it could "burn"
?

- Edn of edit2-

This seems to be springing up everywhere.

I'm on a glassblowing forum and in one of our mod rooms someone brought this up. They were the oil-barons-hate-us and this-guy-will-be-assassinated tinfoil-hats.

They were asking me (since I'm known as the mad scientist of the group) if I was going to invest in this. When I explained to them that I wasn't because it was a scam I got about 5-6 really nasty emails.

People don't like it when you nuke their illusions.

-Doug

Steve Conner

Thu Jun 07 2007, 09:04PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Ah, but we love it when you nuke the illusions of the tin foil hat brigade. Please keep up the good work!

Adrian

Fri Jun 08 2007, 02:28AM

Registered Member #697 Joined: Thu May 10 2007, 12:28PM
Location: Australia
Posts: 22

The simple fact that this 'inventor' has had no offers from "big companies" for his device means that it's probably a worthless idea. Begging for their attention on national TV is pretty sad too.

Time is the best cure for tinfoil-hats.

Eventually they'll move onto the next big thing.

Shaun

Fri Jun 08 2007, 03:09AM

Registered Member #690 Joined: Tue May 08 2007, 03:47AM
Location: New Jersey, USA
Posts: 616

Yea, my AP chem teacher showed this video in class. It's funny how much credibility you instantly get by putting "engineer" in your title/description. I thought it was hilarious, you have this massive-looking "radio wave machine" that can create this little flame out of some salt water, which looked a little suspicious to begin with (I hadn't though of an electrical arc yet).

Well, great, but I'll bet that big generator uses up a ton more energy than comes out of that flame. And unless you can get saltwater to burn unaided, forget about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he's a moron, but that at first glance seems to have much more potential than it actually does. Then again, someone just like me could have posted to a forum in 1903 scrutinizing Orville + Wilbur...

Steve Conner

Fri Jun 08 2007, 09:11AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

I think if saltwater could undergo an exothermic reaction when excited by microwaves, there would have been a BIG accident by now, given that it covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface. You could imagine some WW2 plane with a secret experimental radar crashing into the ocean, igniting it and starting a colossal fire that threatened all life on Earth. Hey, I have a plot for a cheesy B-movie now!

Ragnarok

Fri Jun 08 2007, 11:25AM

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

Steve Conner wrote ...
Hey, I have a plot for a cheesy B-movie now!

Hey, I'll come and see it if you get it made!

Then I can review it, writing it off as scientifically inaccurate, then get attacked by the tinfoil hat people, whereupon I can release my mutated minions, and they fight until some nameless guy in a stetson - who's only other defining feature is that he has a shotgun - turns up and he kills everyone.

Hang on, there's got to be a C movie in there somewhere...

Well, as I said before, you might get some industrial use from it, assuming the RF generator could be scaled down - because thinking about it, a huge slab like that couldn't fit practically into most circumstances.

Dr. Shark

Mon Jun 11 2007, 04:42PM

Registered Member #75 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 09:30AM
Location: Montana, USA
Posts: 711

Ice IX has allready frozen the oceans, your B movie comes to late

is rather old and boringbut

A dissociation torch creates monoatomic hydrogen in an arc which is subsequently used for welding - I don't think mixing in oxygen and salt would help the quality of the weld, but doing away with the gas bottle would be a nice touch

Alex

Tue Jun 12 2007, 12:07AM

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

Ah, Cat's Cradle was a good book.

Andrew L.

Sun Jun 17 2007, 09:44PM

Registered Member #515 Joined: Sun Feb 11 2007, 02:06PM
Location: Slovenia/Ljubljana
Posts: 94

After watching some of the movies on youtube regarding the salt water burning I also came to a conclusion just like Firkragg that the flame looks like an electric arc. As for putting a fluorescent tube in the generator I got the same effect by swapping the secondary coil of my VTTC with a fluorescent tube.

Steve Ward

Mon Jun 18 2007, 12:03AM

Registered Member #146 Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 04:21AM
Location: Austin Tx
Posts: 1055

Hey, at least it looks cool. Its surely eating up many hundred watts to make that arc. Looks similar to wet salt on SSTC breakout :P.

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