- #1
valleysheep
- 7
- 0
Hi guys,
I've recently stumbled on an interesting article highlighting a point by james jean that a pinhead of 1mm (I took this to mean that it was a box of 1mm sides so 1E-9m3 volume) heated to 15 million kelvin, sun's core, could kill a person 84 miles away.
I tried working this out using stefan-boltzmann's law of [itex]\sigma[/itex]T^4 then an inverse square law. It seemed like a sensible working coming to an answer of ~400,000 W/m2 at the point the person is standing (84 miles away). This is all assuming a vacuum. As a side point would it still happen if it wasn't a vacuum ?
I have also read that the power density of the sun is 276.5W/m3 at the sun's core, which sort of throws a wrench in the plan.
So i guess i am missing something here which is why i need some help :P.
My last concern is that if we were to harness fusion power by what ever means, magnetic containment etc) wouldn't the temperatures reached cause massive damage to the surround area. I first thought that the entire surrounding would absorb the radiated heat.
Thanks for your time in advance. I also apologise for any incredibly poor physics used in this post.
I've recently stumbled on an interesting article highlighting a point by james jean that a pinhead of 1mm (I took this to mean that it was a box of 1mm sides so 1E-9m3 volume) heated to 15 million kelvin, sun's core, could kill a person 84 miles away.
I tried working this out using stefan-boltzmann's law of [itex]\sigma[/itex]T^4 then an inverse square law. It seemed like a sensible working coming to an answer of ~400,000 W/m2 at the point the person is standing (84 miles away). This is all assuming a vacuum. As a side point would it still happen if it wasn't a vacuum ?
I have also read that the power density of the sun is 276.5W/m3 at the sun's core, which sort of throws a wrench in the plan.
So i guess i am missing something here which is why i need some help :P.
My last concern is that if we were to harness fusion power by what ever means, magnetic containment etc) wouldn't the temperatures reached cause massive damage to the surround area. I first thought that the entire surrounding would absorb the radiated heat.
Thanks for your time in advance. I also apologise for any incredibly poor physics used in this post.
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