Fusion Day 2019 falls on Thursday, March 14th, Pi Day!
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14. That’s 3.14. π Pi! It’s a day to celebrate math in general, and our favorite irrational number in particular. There are many ways to celebrate Pi day. These astronauts are celebrating by lifting off at 3:14 today!
Here are some ideas for how you can celebrate, and festivities to join!
You could also watch the movie, Pi. And that other movie, Life of Pi. That’s 2π. Throw in an r (R rating?) and you’ll have the area covered. No wait! That’s just…
Few people are aware of the many conditions under which fusion can occur. Luckily, Irv Lindemuth and Richard Siemon have written a review of fusion to help the rest of us identify the density-temperature space where fusion gain can be achieved. The analysis offers a general understanding why there is such an extreme difference between the conventional approaches to controlled fusion, MCF (which uses a giant “magnetic cage” and ICF (which uses hundreds of laser beams pointed at a small target). It also helps us see how much of the parameter space of fusion has yet to be explored.
When exploring the idea of fusion, many people invoke the sun, not as inspiration, but as a reason to dismiss the earthly fusion program.
Variants of this phenomenon include Joe Romm who says:
I am a big proponent of harnessing the power of fusion — from 93 million miles away.
Sensible. And yet… let’s visualize.
A huge ball of nuclear fusion.
Just to twinkle.
Bringing people and nuclei together.