On Jul 12, 2009, at 7:07 PM, [email protected] wrote:
In reply to Horace Heffner's message of Sun, 12 Jul 2009 16:31:59
-0800:
Hi,
[snip]
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 observed tracks and expected (under Takahashi)
tracks are off by orders of magnitude.
If there is a fraction of a millimeter of space between the cathode
and the
CR39, then that would stop most alphas, but I think everyone
recognizes that.
Only if the alphas are low energy, as in the SPAWAR experiments. If
the alphas are all 23.8 MeV, as consistent with Takahashi's theory,
then things are quite different. It is notable that the higher the
energy of the alphas the lower the attenuation, the loss of energy
per cm. Perhaps I have a mistake in my calculation. Here it is again:
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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 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. 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.
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Another point however is not so obvious. If Hydrinos are responsible,
(or various other hypothesized mechanisms as well 8^)
then much
of the energy may be released in the form of fast electrons through
internal
conversion, rather than as alpha particles, and fast electrons
don't show up in
CR39. They would however create bremsstrahlung and photoelectric
effect x-rays,
but given the nature of the environment, the photo-electric effect
x-rays may be
low energy, and result primarily in heat. Some of the
bremsstrahlung x-rays
should show up, if looked for.
Regards,
Robin van Spaandonk
http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
All said, I see the gaping hole in Takahashi's theory being the
orders of magnitude lack of detectable high energy alphas. Perhaps
it is just a calculation error on my part. It wouldn't be the first
time such a thing has happened. 8^)
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
