Cool Projects

I have built several Tesla coils, the first few were kinda small, only several thousand volts. The latest completed one, also the biggest one, is currently on display in the Physics Department's Lecture Hall display case. It reaches 250,000 Volts at a frequency of about 1 MHz. This picture is from the corona about the unterminated end of the secondary. The linear lenght of the wire is about 12 inches.

The latest in the planning utilizes a 100 KV primary hoping to reach 10,000,000 Volts on the seconday. That will be awesome - a true lightning show.

Yet another aversion to doing required work has led me into researching clean forms of energy. Everyone wished that Pons and Fleishmans of Utah had found the miracle answer - Cold Fusion. They were dead wrong with their idea and shanagans, but I do believe they were on the right track. Recent developments have suggested that tabletop fusion isn't all that impossible. Here is a photo of my sonoluminesce cell. Using the overpressures of the acoustical waves small bubbles can be created then crushed, the trapped gases inside the bubbles reach tremedous pressures and temperatures. It was hoped that the conditions nessecary for fusion might exist in the small bubbles. This process is technically known as ultrasonic cavitation. The extreme temperatures cause a faint glow, this can be observed near the propellor of old submarines - this is where the idea of cavitation was first discovered.

What happens to glass that recieves several Mega-rads ?

6.04 MegaRads !

Using a "Gammator 50" Cs-137 irradiator, I dosed a 100 ml pyrex beaker with gama rays. The dose rate is about 300 rads/minute, the exposure time of the beaker was two weeks. Which correlates to 6.04x10^6 rads. Here is the source:

Here are before and after shots of the beakers used. The exposed beaker is on the right. The uniform structure of the glass is visibly disrupted by turning brown. This also has happened to several old X-ray tubes that have been replaced. The glass envelope has turned beer-bottle brown. Things that make you go hmmmmmm.

Above is a weather balloon package that I was involved in putting up. I am currently designing a package that will map the background radiation as a function of altitude. I will elaborate on this more at a later time. If you are interested, send me mail, I would be more than glad to tell more about this, and i will when time is more prevalent - it's finals time - yippie !

Welp, I've graduated now, but I still work hard at wasting time :). Here a couple cool pictures of a rocket that the MadScientists of NJ have flown:

Here's another shot of it.