Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexN
I've just started again actually. Rebooting my brain with short course in applied mathematics then onto astronomy/astrophysics once I get my brain back into gear. I sort of, fell off the education bandwagon about 7 years ago. Feels good to be thinking again. And that beautiful feeling of being truly perplexed.. This is really the impetus behind my fusor project.
|
I gathered there must have been a link between the two (although there is a lot of physics and engineering involved in these "fusor" projects).
Education (whatever that may entail) tends to be a twin edged sword. One edge pushes you deeper towards discipline, conservative thought and rigidness whilst the other edge should open up the mind, and encourage creativity and questioning. (the latter heavily depends on the individual and to some extent on the teacher who can deliver lectures in an open and creative way or could also go the other way and hinder imagination and creative thought). Universities these days are often dictated to by Political and government ideologies, and contaminated by the corporate ethic of profit and power. Very sad to see fundamental research take a back seat these days, and research projects that potentially can deliver large profits for investors being favoured over other projects.
Anyway, over the past few years I have been experimenting with an old technology called "heat pipes" or thermal diodes -
messing around with vacuums and the latent heat involved in the vaporisation/condensation process. Basically I have been trying to develop wickless heat pipe systems and moving away from standard tube geometries - panels and odd geometries so that efficiency and application can be enhanced
http://www.1-act.com/advanced-technologies/heat-pipes/#sthash.znzxz2cU.eHIs14rT.dpbs