Talk:Z Pulsed Power Facility

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foam cylinder[edit]

From 81.62.242.92; The magnetic pulse crushes an array of tungsten wires into (?inside?) a foam cylinder that produces x-rays.

see [1]

Duk 15:11, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Z machine as a particle accelerator[edit]

The Z machine may also be used as a particle accelerator. It gets its name because current travels vertically into the target, which is conventionally the z axis (x and y being horizontal).

How do the meanings of these sentences connect? The "current" here is the movement of electrons, and so in that way the Z machine is a particle accelerator? Does this make the Z machine comparable in function to CERN? ✈ James C. 16:57, 2004 Oct 26 (UTC)

good point. The sandia website mentioned that it could be used as a particle accelerator, but didn't give and examples, so i removed the sentance. Duk 19:19, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

From where comes the plasma?[edit]

Needs to say where the plasma comes from - is it produced prior to the main event or is it a side effect of the vaporization of the tungsten wires? Leonard G. 05:28, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think the plasma refers to the superheated tungsten wires collapsing on themselves. In reality the wires aren't collapsing all at once; their outer layers are going in first while the inner cores of the wires remain relatively intact. The cores do eventually move inward as well, however. --brian0918™ 11:39, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)


2GK production timeline[edit]

In 2006, the Z Machine produced plasmas with temperatures in excess of 2 GK (109 K) or 3.6 billion oF. Project scientists were doubtful about the results, but after fourteen months of computer modeling and further tests, they have concluded that the results are, indeed, valid.

I don't exactly understand how 14 months of testing could be done if this was first done in 2006, anyone understand the timeline here a bit better? Perhaps it should be "In 2005"... Leebert 02:23, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Unknown Energy[edit]

Can someone add a comment on the recent finding as described on Sandia's website and the theory Haines suggests.

"Ordinarily, in non-nuclear reactions, output energies are less — not greater — than the total input energies. More energy had to be getting in to balance the books, but from where could it come?

Second, and more unusually, high ion temperatures were sustained after the plasma had stagnated — that is, after its ions had presumably lost motion and therefore energy and therefore heat — as though yet again some unknown agent was providing an additional energy source to the ions."

http://www.sandia.gov/news-center/news-releases/2006/physics-astron/hottest-z-output.html

I'd say the press release was written by a journalist without an inkling of science understanding and not much more journalistic ability: Z is housed in a flat-roofed building about the size and shape of an aging high-school gymnasium. How does the size and shape of a gymnasium change with age? --Art Carlson 20:05, 24 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is there some debate as to the accuracy of the reported findings? The contact listed is Neal Singer who is a science writer for Sandia National Laboratories. He specializes in pulsed power research, computing (modeling and simulation), basic research, the Laboratory-Directed R&D program, and the Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Application (MESA) facility and research?

What's the matter? You gotta problem with ad hominem arguments or somethin?  ; )
Singer, as illustrated by your quotes, makes the results sound like some kind of over unity device. The real situation is interesting, but hardly dramatic. It's not a question of a mysterious surplus of energy, but only of how the magnetic energy, which is undoubtably present, gets converted to thermal energy. According to this report, the overall efficincy is 10 to 15%. (See also Haines' abstract.) --Art Carlson 14:17, 26 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

How about adding something to that effect to the article? It is significant, if only to address the concerns you raise over the wording of the press release?

Confusing sentence[edit]

What isthis sentence suppose to mean? "The Z machine is now able to propel small plates at 34 kilometers a second, faster than the 30 kilometers per second that Earth travels in its orbit around the Sun, and three times Earth's escape velocity."

It is worded poorly.... I wasnt aware the machine could propel stuff... I thought it only crushed them with xrays

The machine uses the energy that is normaly produced to well, crush things with X-rays is put into a coil/railgun to propel things. 71.196.157.153 (talk) 12:24, 6 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Power question[edit]

"Z releases 80 times the world's electrical power usage during its short burst." -- world's power usage over what time period? 68.170.53.236 04:15, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)

updated with information from http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR1999/thermo.htm. Duk 04:59, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Power usage over a time period is energy, making the comparison with the Z machine's power meaningless. -- 140.158.48.243 18:07, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
yes, power usage over time is energy. But the sentence is a power rating, during a brief period of time, not an energy rating. Duk 18:26, 25 Oct 2004 (UTC)
This sentence is indeed meaningless as it stands - how can something which itself contributes to the world's power usage produce more than that figure?


Its not meaningless. the instantaneous power output of Z is incredibly high (hundreds of trillions of watts) the instantaneous power output of the worlds electric power plants is far below that. I think you are misunderstanding the definition of power (physics). --Deglr6328 19:54, 10 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]


Z machine upgrades[edit]

Cool article, not enough time/knowledge to add it to the article [2] -Ravedave 14:35, 26 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Z Machine Pictures[edit]

http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2007/rapid-fire-pulse.html

The pictures on this page are free to use according to the author. Are any of them good for the article? M@$+@ Ju ~ ♠ 03:25, 28 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Highest man-made temperature?[edit]

It says that the 2 billion kelvin is the highest man-made temperature. This is not true. They have already created trillion kelvin temperatures in RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) in the form of quark-gluon plasma.

For how many "particles" ? Croquant 16:08, 16 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
I removed the section altogether. The claim is generally believed to result from a misinterpretation (interpreting the kinetic energy as temperature). Since the original publication 16 years ago, no other peer-reviewed study has claimed anything even remotely close to that figure. Evgeny (talk) 16:31, 24 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

History?[edit]

A History section would we wonderful. What lead to the creation the Z Machine? Who was behind the creation of the Z Machine? How has the Z Machine changed over time? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 142.179.217.154 (talk) 05:32, 2 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Desmond Hume? Seriously?[edit]

Operated by Desmond Hume of Sandia National Laboratories, it gathers data to aid in computer modeling of nuclear weapons. The Z machine is located at Sandia's main site in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Desmond Hume>? The link is to the Lost character page so this is obviously some prank or vandalism. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 221.163.163.17 (talk) 00:28, 28 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dead Goldfish vandalism[edit]

"The end result of the program (scrapped in 2011) was the destruction of a goldfish named Frank." <-- located at the end of the article.

This is not referenced and seems to be vandalism. I've removed it from the article on 28/06/2016. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gabrieldillon (talk • contribs) 20:35, 28 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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