01-02-2018, 11:02 PM | #41 | |
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
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01-03-2018, 04:14 PM | #42 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Cowtown, Canada
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
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In electronics you pretty much always have a voltage differential and the actual current drawn depends on the load. You can create 'current sources' but they are basically self-modulating loads that balance out resistance with the real load so the real load sees a constant current.
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01-07-2018, 11:23 PM | #43 |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
Mostly just because Vinge is the name most generally associated with the Singularity idea in SFnal circles, he's the name that comes to mind for me rather than the others.
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01-08-2018, 05:50 PM | #44 |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
No. The chemical composition of chemical batteries will have varying current based upon the resistance of the external circuit. But the chemical action produces electrons not voltage. Granted, by Ohm's Law, the three are highly interconnected but the chemical action produces electrons.
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01-08-2018, 05:52 PM | #45 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
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01-08-2018, 06:38 PM | #46 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
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It should be fairly obvious that the chemistry in a battery doesn't have any direct dependency on the resistance of the external circuit. What the resistance does is determine (in combination with the voltage) a rate limit on the flow of electrons which is (under typical conditions) the rate-limiting step in the battery reactions.
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01-13-2018, 10:24 AM | #47 |
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
I'm an engineer, but I hung out with the technicians running the labs a lot when I did my undergrad degree. I learned an awful lot of practical skills from them that weren't taught in the classroom.
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01-13-2018, 10:26 AM | #48 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Cowtown, Canada
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
Getting back to Accumulators, it seems the only pseudo-realistic tech that makes sense is superconducting loops. Anything else requires a fair bit of handwaving to explain the energy density and discharge rates. I also wonder if star-trek style plasma could do the job? Maybe store the plasma in rings and draw the power down as you need it. Could use superconductors to help with efficient confinement of the plasma to generate containment fields...?
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01-22-2018, 12:14 AM | #49 | |
Join Date: Feb 2007
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
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Actually, given that the great powers all have access to total-conversion power plants by KK's time, the only real reason for them to use accumulators at all would be speed of delivery, and maybe emergency backup. Otherwise, you could store your energy in a very safe stable high-density form, i.e. matter. If you've got total conversion tech, you can store energy as something like blocks of lead or other compact material, and not have to worry about accidental discharges or anything else until you need it. Furthermore, your storage density is E=mc^2, so a gram of whatever equals 25 gigawatt-hours. That's pretty good.
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01-22-2018, 07:23 PM | #50 |
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Re: Accumulators: A concept for GURPS Spaceships
Apparently the replicators in Star Trek fed off a stock of generic matter rather than trying to create matter from energy from scratch. The generic matter was reconstructed by the replicator which was much less expensive energy-wise. Storing fuel as matter for total conversion seems a similar concept.
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