sbisson: (Little Dee: Library Card)

So today's XKCD What-If...

posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 12:30pm on 05/03/2013 under , ,
...about the logarithmic scale-powered hairdryer is pretty much the topic of my research work at the University of Bath in the early 1990s, when I was developing electrothermal models for the heating effects inside electromagnetic launchers.

But his single pager is probably a little more easy to read than my paper (the TL;DR of which is "Railguns get too hot, too quickly to be practical weapons. Sorry David Weber et al.)

The high transient currents used by electromagnetic launch techniques produce a wide range of problems for modeling. The use of electromagnetic finite element (FE) analysis has allowed the electromagnetic effects to be modeled, and as a result the instantaneous heating effects. A technique for modeling the cumulative heating has been demonstrated for the 2-D case in Bath University's MEGA electromagnetic FE program, by an FE application of the thermal diffusion equation. The 2-D thermal model has been modified and extended to modeling the 3-D case, and to the coupling between electromagnetic and thermal material properties.


Phew.
Mood:: 'amused' amused
location: Putney, London
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sbisson: (Default)

And by their words you shall know them.

posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 12:44pm on 30/07/2010 under ,
Boris Johnson at the launch of the London bicycle hire scheme: "In 1904, 20% of journeys were made by bicycle and in London. I want to see that kind of figure again. If you can't turn the clock back to 1904 ladies and gentlemen, what is the point of being a Conservative?"

Ah...
Mood:: 'amused' amused
location: Putney, London
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sbisson: (Default)

Glazier on call

posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 01:22pm on 08/02/2010 under
[livejournal.com profile] marypcb and I heard a news broadcast about yesterday's Shuttle launch with a description of the new cupola module as "some big windows".

"Ah," she said, "So they can get glaziers to go out that far on a Sunday in Florida. You'd never get that in Putney..."

Y'know? She's right. Customer service just isn't there these days...
Mood:: 'amused' amused
location: Putney, London
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