On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 4:09 PM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: >I think my main takeaway from Piantelli's patents is that he's seeing > >sufficient fast protons (e.g., in his cloud chamber) to put up the cost of > >a patent application to capitalize on them. I would be surprised if they > >are the primary channel. > > If they are fast, then clearly they are carrying energy. Most of that > energy > will end up in the electron population. Only a tiny fraction will be used > to > produce new fusion reactions.
Makes sense. I was only noting that Piantelli seems to be seeing fast protons. If you're right, he's no doubt mistaken that he can make use of them by putting up a slab of secondary material with thorium, boron, etc., to react with them. > Perhaps so, something along the lines of a stripping reaction. Even so, the > protons are probably carrying the energy of that reaction. I was thinking of the Oppenheimer-Phillips process. The reason I suspect the fast protons are not the primary channel is that I suppose there would be a lot more detectable bremsstrahlung if there were enough of them. Perhaps this is mistaken, or perhaps Piantelli's reaction is pretty low-energy, and there aren't that many fast protons in the big scheme of things, even if they're impressive to look at in a cloud chamber. > >I also wonder how much energy output Piantelli is seeing in comparison to > >Rossi. > > Pure guess:- not much. :) > My guess, too. > > - If there are broadband emissions, the immediate source of the > > emissions is no doubt from electronic activity and not the nuclei. > > Do you consider bremsstrahlung to be electronic or nuclear? > I would have thought of them as electronic activity stimulated by a passing fast particle, and so electronic (although the fast particle's energy is nuclear), but maybe it's better to think of them as nuclear. > >Putting these two together, I'm inclined towards a nuclear source for the > >energy that is somehow passing through the electronic layer. In > >Piantelli's case, I know of no evidence that he's seeing MeVs worth of > >energy; > > Doesn't a 6.7 MeV proton count? I think it's pretty strong evidence that > some > form of nuclear reaction occurred. > For sure. I guess my question has to do with the main activity -- in Piantelli's case, are the protons the majority of what's going on, or is there something else that predominates? I doubt the patent gives enough information to know much about this. If the protons are just a side channel, it's difficult to know what the average energy per reactant is. Eric
