darkshark9
darkshark9 t1_ixpdogw wrote
Reply to comment by Jnoper in China’s space station will run high-energy beam experiment for controversial solar power plant: chief scientist by Soupjoe5
The laws of physics won't let us focus a beam that tightly over that distance due to its diffraction limit.
Shine a laser at the moon and the beam spot is like 50km wide by the time it reaches it.
darkshark9 t1_ixneote wrote
Reply to comment by Theman227 in China’s space station will run high-energy beam experiment for controversial solar power plant: chief scientist by Soupjoe5
Nah, there are wavelengths of microwaves that pass through the atmosphere with extremely minimal losses. Thus minimal atmospheric absorbtion.
darkshark9 t1_ixnedgj wrote
Reply to comment by imafraidofmuricans in China’s space station will run high-energy beam experiment for controversial solar power plant: chief scientist by Soupjoe5
You can use longer wavelength microwaves that essentially render the atmosphere transparent in terms of losses. So even a 1gw beam would barely lose anything if the right wavelength is chosen. So it wouldn't affect the atmosphere in any relevant manner.
darkshark9 t1_ixn5mvo wrote
Reply to China’s space station will run high-energy beam experiment for controversial solar power plant: chief scientist by Soupjoe5
Just did the math.
A 1 gigawatt, 1km wide beam will output 0.12 watts per centimeter squared (in a vacuum).
So it would be a couple of watts worth of power hitting you in the head at most (5-ish watts) . Hardly a weapon.
Your microwave oven in your kitchen is likely over 1000 watts.
darkshark9 t1_ixfe2yu wrote
Reply to comment by RampantRooster in Domino’s Pizza will soon have 800 electric vehicles for delivery drivers by redingerforcongress
I used to work at Dominos. I am 100% certain these aren't actually going to be used by delivery drivers outside of mega-crunchtimes like the day of the Superbowl. These cars will be for the franchise owners and will probably sit in the store driveway as a form of advertising.
They'll keep making drivers use their own cars.
darkshark9 t1_ixrcac8 wrote
Reply to comment by IsildursBane20 in China’s space station will run high-energy beam experiment for controversial solar power plant: chief scientist by Soupjoe5
This was calculated with 1 billion watts.
The microwave oven comparison was to show a power difference between how little 5 watts is compared to a regular household item.