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From: gdh@dcl-cs.UUCP (Gareth Husk)
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: My "FUSION this decade?" this article
Message-ID: <330@dcl-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 22-Jul-85 14:44:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: dcl-cs.330
Posted: Mon Jul 22 14:44:26 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 01:33:58 EDT
References: <291@greipa.UUCP> <694@charm.UUCP>
Reply-To: gdh@dcl-cs.UUCP (Gareth Husk)
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University.
Lines: 30
Xpath: icdoc ivax

In article <694@charm.UUCP> grl@charm.UUCP (George Lake) writes:
>A note on "breaking even":
>
>When I last looked, this meant that the plasma heated itself as
>much as it was heated.  It ignores the inefficiencies of plasma
>heating (I know, space heaters are 100% efficient, but they don't
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>heat plasmas) and the ineff. of converting heat to electrical power.

Ahem , forgive me if i'm wrong but if I remember my thermodynamics
correctly ( and I will undoubtedly be corrected if wrong ) surely
a little thing called entropy prevents ANY transfer of energy from
being 100% efficient.
    I haven't got my notes but I think it's the 2nd Law of 
Thermodynamics ( again correct me if I'm wrong ) states that entropy
always increases.

Oh well let's see if I've blown what little chance I ever had of
studying Physics again.


-- 
" I'm at the bottom of a deep , dark , hole looking up .... what does
  this remind me of ? ... oh yes ... LIFE . "
  Marvin (Your plastic pal who is fun to be with) the paranoid android.

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