Dumping energy

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Steve Ralph - 31 Oct 2004 00:37 GMT

Just suppose -

I managed to cool a lump of polar slush into an iceberg by converting
the molecular kinetic energy in the slush into electron movement round
a circuit.
How do I dump the energy off-planet?

Long-wave radiation seems an obvious candidate, if I remember correctly
it doesn't interact with the atmosphere.

Steve Ralph

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N:dlzc D:aol T:com (dlzc) - 31 Oct 2004 16:10 GMT

> Just suppose -
>
> I managed to cool a lump of polar slush into an iceberg by converting
> the molecular kinetic energy in the slush into electron movement round
> a circuit.
> How do I dump the energy off-planet?

Beam it at the Sun.

> Long-wave radiation seems an obvious candidate, if I remember correctly
> it doesn't interact with the atmosphere.

The atmosphere is pretty transparent to microwave radiation, and the
ionosphere will not affect it like it will long-wave radio. It would take
a lot of long-wave photons to carry the energy of a single microwave
photon... so the current to produce it would be less.

Of course, the second law of thermodynamics will prevent you from doing
this...

David A. Smith

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Natural Science Forum / Physics / General Physics / October 2004

Dumping energy