Chaotic Dreams

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From SlashDot
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the Air Force is actively pursuing antimatter weapons

Isn't anti-matter that stuff, where really, really tiny bits can blow up really, really large things?

/me shakes head...

Neo, Yea. Its not enough the the US Govnt. has the bombs to blow up the planet some ridiculous amout of times. Now they want it in a small, convenient, easy to use packaging.

LoQtUS wrote:Neo, Yea. Its not enough the the US Govnt. has the bombs to blow up the planet some ridiculous amout of times. Now they want it in a small, convenient, easy to use packaging.

From what little I have read the Anti-matter stuff does not have the leathal radiation that is found in conventinal nukes. As you know the biggest problem with nukes is that area becomes un-inhabbitable for many years after. Which if your trying to invade some one is really a bad idea.

BTW OT: The history channel had a really neat special on the birth of the bomb. Did you know that Japan had a plan and means in place to drop a dirty bomb on our West Cost 2 days after the our bombs fell?

Anti-matter has been made, but only in very small amounts using particle accelerators. As far as I know they've only ever made a few atoms of anti hydrogen at a time (although I could be wrong). Even if they did make enough of it to blow something up, how would they store it? As soon as it comes into contact with normal matter (ie a container, air or pretty much anything) it explodes.

Mick wrote:Even if they did make enough of it to blow something up, how would they store it? As soon as it comes into contact with normal matter (ie a container, air or pretty much anything) it explodes.

Magnetic fields. That's how they're storing plasma for fusion reactions.

Kaboodles_The_Assassin wrote:Magnetic fields. That's how they're storing plasma for fusion reactions.

Good point. It would still be a pain to make though.

Kaboodles_The_Assassin wrote:Magnetic fields. That's how they're storing plasma for fusion reactions.

One little power failiure and boom - bye-bye goes the neighbourhood.

And IIRC the explosions after a matter/antimatter reaction go hand in hand with gamma rays, non-lethal though. On the other hand, I sucked at school when it came to these topics...

Chaos should make an anti-matter bomb as a superweapon!

neolith wrote: One little power failiure and boom - bye-bye goes the neighbourhood.

Hopefully there is a back up or some sort of fail safe....


Whoopsie!

Antimatter... ooo fun stuff....

Anyways, while the area might not be hosipitable for a long time with nukes... antimatter in large enough quantities might eat through the earth's crust, which would flood a portion of the planet in semi cool magma-type stuff (yeah...). Among other things, this releases a huge amount of pressurized poisonous gases into the stratosphere, potentially ending life on earth with just one bomb!


Or not.

Kaboodles_The_Assassin wrote: Magnetic fields. That's how they're storing plasma for fusion reactions.

Last I heard, to contain a self-sustaining fusion reaction, they would need mag fields that would increase in power infinitely

Pandora's Box?

Antimatter might just react gases so might not be an issue, but the fields necessary to hold it stable might just make non-dumb antimat bombs a sci-fi tale for a while. Neat idea though for a sf story, might want to make one when I am bored. But chaos does need antimatter weapon. Maybe the incinerator idea is used? Everyone in radius x of triggering person is vaped and causes minibooms that originate from persons chest? [humor] Call it the Chaotic dreams Anti-Matter Products Edition Redeemer to make it the only good CAMPER in UT! with a summon code of summon ChaosUT.SpawnCAMPER it would add to the irony.[/humor]

Kyllian wrote:Last I heard, to contain a self-sustaining fusion reaction, they would need mag fields that would increase in power infinitely

Take a look at http://www.jet.efda.org/, it's quite interesting.

After a google search I also found this on some news site: "The Tore-Supra tokamak in Cadarache, France, which is the only large reactor to use superconducting magnets, broke a record on 18 September 2002 when it generated the longest-ever pulse of energy: 4 minutes 25 seconds, as opposed to just a few seconds produced in the JET."

Fusion powers not that far away.