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Old 08-14-2012, 02:06 PM   #11
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
At what point are the small amounts of anti-matter mixed in? -- at a refinery or aboard the vessel?
When you mix matter with anti-matter it goes boom. The only way to make a reaction engine out of a matter/anti-matter mix is to mix them in the engine and use the resulting matter/antimatter reaction as propulsion. You can't "pre-mix" them any more than you can pre-mix any other highly reactive fuel combinations.

As for the book, "[These] engines mix..."
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Last edited by ericbsmith; 08-14-2012 at 02:09 PM.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:11 PM   #12
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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Originally Posted by ericbsmith View Post
When you mix matter with anti-matter it goes boom. The only way to make a reaction engine out of a matter/anti-matter mix is to mix them in the engine and use the resulting matter/antimatter reaction as propulsion. You can't "pre-mix" them any more than you can pre-mix any other highly reactive fuel combinations.

As for the book, "[These] engines mix..."
If the antimatter-boosting process is done on the ship, then surely any old water can be collected for the reaction mass.

As for the book, ????
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:14 PM   #13
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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If the antimatter-boosting process is done on the ship, then surely any old water can be collected for the reaction mass.
Sure, but the fuel mix ALSO needs anti-matter. Unless the ship has extra anti-matter onboard then the water does you no good. The cost of the "Antimatter Boosted Hydrogen or Water" in the book is almost totally (99.999...%) for the Antimatter portion of the fuel. Compared to the A/M the cost of the Hydrogen or Water is miniscule.

If you fill the ship up with just water then you have a tank full of just water; you still need to buy the Anti-Matter, and the A/M is what runs you Millions of dollars for the couple of grams you'll need per ton of reaction mass it will be mixed into.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:14 PM   #14
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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At what point are the small amounts of anti-matter mixed in? -- at a refinery or aboard the vessel?
At the refinery, which PROMPTLY blows up the moment the antimatter touches the water. In a nuclear style of explosion.

Read up on Antimatter please, Wikipedia for example. You can not mix Antimatter with Matter - it is not like Diesel fuel. It goes BOOM the moment it touches ANYTHING. And we talk total annihilation here. More than a thousand times more efficient than a nuclear explosion.

Given that you have to keep the Antimatter in a magnetic field in TOTAL vacuum, what you think the refinery mixes in? ;)

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P.S. Can you give me a page cite for that info?
High school Physics and common sense have neither page numbers nor URL's, sorry.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:20 PM   #15
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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P.S. Can you give me a page cite for that info?
Do you have the book so that a page cite will be worthwhile?

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Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
As for the book, ????
The book says, more or less, "These engines mix antimatter with matter" under the engine description. If you need more than that I suggest you look up the "REACTION ENGINE, TOTAL CONVERSION AND ANTIMATTER" description in Spaceships.
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Last edited by ericbsmith; 08-14-2012 at 02:24 PM.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:24 PM   #16
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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Originally Posted by Sanity View Post
... Read up on Antimatter please, Wikipedia for example. ...
I understand antimatter fine. You appear not to understand the issue -- It's about the rules, not the physics.


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High school Physics and common sense have neither page numbers nor URL's, sorry.
Not sure why I'm detecting snark there. I asked specifically if the book said something, I was told it did, and so I asked for the cite.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:25 PM   #17
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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Originally Posted by ericbsmith View Post
Do you have the book so that a page cite will be worthwhile?
I have the book and I was unable to find a passage reflecting what you said.

Quote:
The book says, more or less, "These engines mix antimatter wtih matter" under the engine description. If you need more than that I suggest you look up the "REACTION ENGINE, TOTAL CONVERSION AND ANTIMATTER" description in Spaceships.
Is it super-hard to tell me what page you find this on?

EDIT: Nevermind, I used your quote for a word-search and found that.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:30 PM   #18
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
I understand antimatter fine. You appear not to understand the issue -- It's about the rules, not the physics.
Either way, whether reading the rules or considering the rules using physics, the "Antimatter Reaction Engines" make absolutely no sense if there is no "Antimatter" doing some "reaction" inside the "engine."

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Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
I have the book and I was unable to find a passage reflecting what you said.
Did you look? Under the header name I provided?

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Originally Posted by Figleaf23 View Post
Is it super-hard to tell me what page you find this on?
Is it super hard to look up "REACTION ENGINE, TOTAL CONVERSION AND ANTIMATTER" in the index? and find out it's on page 23

Also, before you start arguing about what the rules say wouldn't it have been better if you had actually read them?
EDIT: That sentence comes off as a bit snarky. However, I stand by it since Figleaf23 started out arguing about the rule and then asked for a page reference to the rules that were being discussed. If he doesn't know the page he obviously didn't read them.
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Last edited by ericbsmith; 08-14-2012 at 02:35 PM.
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:30 PM   #19
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

Antimatter-boosted basically means that you get a fuel tank of hydrogen, and a fuel tank of antimatter; this is clear from the description on SS23. In any case, simple grammar tells us that if you have "Antimatter-Boosted Hydrogen" and "Replace Hydrogen with Water", the result is "Antimatter-Boosted Water".
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Old 08-14-2012, 02:36 PM   #20
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Default Re: [Spaceships] Antimatter Plasma Torch fuelled by Water?

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...Is it super hard to look up "REACTION ENGINE, TOTAL CONVERSION AND ANTIMATTER" in the index?
Without knowing already, that might or might not be where the relevant info is. Ergo, it is more efficient to ask.

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Also, before you start arguing about what the rules say wouldn't it have been better if you had actually read them?
What page?
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