I suppose that's possible, but I very much doubt it. as it is right now, we need large, energy-intensive particle accelerators to produce even the smallest amount of antimatter, something like 1 nanogram a year, I believe.
I suppose that our technology might eventually progres to the point at which we can manufacture relatively large amounts of antimatter with more efficiency, but we're talking a long, long way off.
On the other hand... if we were to use large-scale solar power plants, perhaps on orbital platforms, to produce the energy, then Thermodynamics would be satisfied (the Sun produces WAY more energy).
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
posted
Hmm... you know, once you got a small energy-producing reaction going, you could use the energy you got from that reaction to transform more matter into antimatter, and create a larger reaction? Cool...
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Man, forget about anti-matter stuff, fusion is definitely the way to go.
We already have all the theories behind it proven, plus a few working prototypes, the technology will probably mature over the next 20 years.
-------------------- "George Washington said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' Richard Nixon said, 'I cannot tell the truth.' Bill Clinton said, 'I cannot tell the difference.'"
-- comedian TOM SMOTHERS, from his latest stage act with brother DICK SMOTHERS.
posted
anti matter creeps me out. I'm always worried there's an anti-matter me walking around and one day i bump into the anti-me and bam! no more universe.
-------------------- "Tragedy is when I cut my finger, Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die."-Mel Brooks
Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged
capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
i hear thats what happened to the universe that was here before us. Some kid mad of antimatter ruined the whole deal for everyone.
I was more worried that id have to fight my anti-me in a glowing, smoke-filled fuchsia-colored psychedelic corridor for the rest of eternity. But then i thought about it and realized that with no food or water id probably die within a week or two along with my double. That eternal torment shit freaks me out
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
posted
If, in the corridor, you can touch your antimatter double w/o annihilating, what makes you think you'd need food and water?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
Don't ask me, ask the guy who wrote 'The Alternative Factor'
Kirk said that was a bridge between universes so thats how the two Lazaruses (Lazari?) could fight there despite their differences..
And how could a transference to another place somehow remove the necessity for your body to need energy which it gains by breaking down solid food stuffs and water to hydrate its cells? Would i miraculously evolve into a plant that can absorb purple light energy? Instantly? What are you, a Voyager writer?!
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
posted
Mike: If it can change the laws of physics to the point where matter and antimatter have no effect on one another, why can't it cause you to no longer need food?
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
I think that presupposes some intelligence that would make it possible for Lazarus to survive there.. could an energetic atmosphere, energy field or quantum wave effect magically supply your cells with the energy they need to survive? Assuming your body is still physical, and the only difference between the corridor and your home universe is that matter and antimatter dont annihilate.
possibly the Lazarus ship acted like a spin reverser and 'made' you into antimatter or made the antimatter you into a matter you, or possibly you only existed in that state between because there was no 'you' in the period of time in which your molecules orbits were reversing and your energy structure was static. This presupposes that there is an end to this process, that is that the tunnel must logically end with your spin resolving itself into matter and you entering the matter universe or vice versa. So when the exits were removed, would the corridor still exist, with the Lazaruses in it?
It seems that they had physical reality while they were in the tunnel, as each time they came out after the fighting they had physical injuries like cuts or bruises. If that is true, wouldnt aging continue, since there was linear time in the tunnel (progressing from the entrance, to the fight, to the injury, to the exit) and conscious thought along with it. So one of the effects of time passing is your body expending energy, and needing it to be replenished.
And in the case that they recieved injuries from each other, would the Lazaruses be injured and killed if they continued fighting? how many hours would it continue until a neck broke or a skull caved? They quite obviously cut each other up pretty good each time they came out of it
As poetic as it would be for them to continue fighting for all eternity, it just seems like science wouldnt support it.
(And another thing.. in the antimatter universe there didnt seem to be an Enterprise there. Kirk went through and found lazarus chilling on the empty planet (presumably there wasnt an antimatter kirk that was charged into our universe, otherwise someone would have noticed him emerging immediately after Kirk left and departing again) So we destroyed the exit to the tunnel in our universe, but the antimatter-Lazarus' ship was still there in the other. Maybe they both escaped that way.. and destroyed that universe. Did Kirk condemn that other universe by sealing the door and saving our own? Untold googols of lifeforms wiped out by his act?)
I just realized the episode probably had something about destroying the other Lazarus' ship.. never mind that last part
[ November 18, 2001: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]
-------------------- "Are you worried that your thoughts are not quite.. clear?"
Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
*Some* people are blatantly ignoring several fundamental laws of physics...
When X kilograms of Matter and Y kilograms of AntiMatter are mixed, the annihilation produces a fixed amount of energy (where E = (X + Y) * C ^ 2); assume for the moment X and Y are equal). In order to sustain MIB's perpetuum mobile (a hyperthetical mechanism running ad infinitum unless subject to external influence), E would have to be formed in such sufficient quantities by the initial reaction that the net energy gain of the whole system would be greater than zero. This is impossible - a loss of energy always occurs, through friction, heat, radiation, etc.
AM has to be created (matter and energy are interchangable - this is naturally also true for AM) from scratch: 'reversing the polarity' of existing conventional matter is simply not feasible (at our current level of technological development... breakthroughs in quantum mechanics might allow for this).
So, unless we could somehow alter the constants of the universe, devices such as MIBs factory will remain in the realm of sci-fi. Antimatter is certainly a very viable source of power, but not an everlasting one.
* Note 1: although the destruction of M and AM results in 100% pure energy, not all of it can be effectively utilized. * Note 2: X + Y kgs. of M and AM produce E. Haul in another 2X kgs. of M (cost: some percentage of E). The maximum amount of AM that can be obtained from 2X is 2X (100%). But the most efficient reaction is achieved when X = Y. Therefore, 2X is split into two identical halves (X and Y). This also requires a substantial fraction of E. The proces of containing and storing Y, as well as controlling the M/AM reaction and harnassing the energy from it, takes E too. And finally, the energy needs to be moulded in a shape that we can work with - electricity. Another percentage of E is expended to accomplish this.
The net result is < zero.
[ November 18, 2001: Message edited by: Mojo Jojo ]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
