On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Jed Rothwell <[email protected]> wrote:
> Of course I understand the necessity for blank runs and controls when you > are trying to measure a fraction of a watt, or even ~10 W. But with > kilowatt levels of heat that anyone can confirm by sense of touch, running > a blank is ridiculous. > > We are talking about a heat release on the scale of everyday experience, > like you get when you turn on your stove, or a room heater. When you see a > steaming hot cooked turkey, do you ask yourself: "Could this really be > cooked? Is it really hot? I'll need a frozen turkey as a control before I > can be sure!" > It is certainly true that in comparison to zero power, a few kW are trivial to identify. And if that's what we were doing here, no blank run would be necessary. But that's *not* what we are doing in Rossi's demos. The problem is that we have to evaluate the output power or energy in comparison to (1) the input energy either during or beforehand, and (2) the energy that could possibly be produced by chemical means in a device of that size and weight. Rossi's not just claiming he can make kW of power, he's claiming he can do it by nuclear reactions. Turkey can be cooked by non-nuclear means, so your analogy, as usual, is lame. > > Ask a cook whether she can tell a frozen turkey from a cooked one. She > will think you are crazy. And yes, that *is* the magnitude of the > difference we are talking about. That is not hyperbole. > > Do you find that you must look at a parked car for reference before you > can be sure that one driving past you at 20 miles an hour is moving or > standing still? > > - Jed > >
