19 million Amps 457
deblau writes "On July 27, scientists at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Nevada Test Site said they generated a current equal to about four times all the electrical current on Earth. During the few millionths of a second that it operated, the 650-ton Atlas pulsed-power generator discharged about 19 million amps of current through an aluminum cylindrical shell about the size of a tuna can. Official news release is available from the DOE (PDF)."
current == power? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
During the few millionths of a second that it operates. Atlas generates electrical energy roughtly four times the Earth's entire energy production.
It doesn't say if it the Earth (magnetic field etc.) or the human energy production....
The statement is just after describing the Earth atmosphere pressure etc. so it could be related to earth it self.
And as the quote above states, it doesn't indicate that the energy production is measured in amps.
Re:current == power? (Score:2, Insightful)
Easy... any superconductor will do.
Daniel
Re:Math (Score:3, Insightful)
R=rho*L/A
where
rho - resistivity of the material in Ohms/m
L - length of the conductor
A - cross-sectional area in m^2 (in this case pi*r^2).
rho for Al [alu-info.dk] is 26.5x10-9.
I am not sure what size can of tuna they were comparing the aluminium liner to in the official release but say it is a big can, say 5cm in heights, 12cm in width.
This makes the resistance:
R around 1.17x10-7 Ohms which makes the power:
P = VI = I^2*R ~ 42293215 or 0.042 gigawatts at about 2.2V
A bit short of 1.21 (28 times short in fact
Who are these twits? (Score:1, Insightful)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Insightful)
There are easily 19 million electrical service drops in the U.S. alone, counting homes and businesses and such, and I'll bet each and every single one of them uses more than one ampere ALL THE TIME.
Who lets this crap through, anyway?
Re:Elsewhere in the news: (Score:1, Insightful)
THIS HAPPENED 4 YEARS AGO!!!
linky: http://www.lanl.gov/news/index.php?fuseaction=hom
funny parent post though
Big deal... the Z-machine has had them beat (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Elsewhere in the news: (Score:1, Insightful)
I think he was making fun of the fact that you refer to the Nobel Prize as the "noble price."