Nuclear Physics 101

[odinn7]

Yes, my thoughts exactly. Andy C and ulthar...there is to be no more intelligent discussion in this forum...now go sit in the corner!

[Jamtoy]

I used to work as a foundry estimator were we made 1000 to 65,000 lbs steel castings.  Some specs not call for "X-Ray" of the casting (It really uses a Gamma source since X-rays don't really get through metal, but for simplification the term X-ray or RT, radiographic inspection, was used)

Anyway, our source was inside a lead sheilded concrete bunker in a saparate building into which we would place the castings, close the door and expose the area needed to be inspected for however long it took to get the shot.  (Depended on the thickness of the metal)

Our source was so powerful that a 5 minute exposure would be fatal to a human, BUT NOT TO THE YELLOWJACKET THAT GOT CAUGHT IN A 15 MINUTE SHOT!!!

HE WAS MAD!!! or to say the least a little aggrivated.

Our X-Ray tech got stung by that yellowjacket when he went in to remove the RT film.  We joked with him for months that he should now be able to lift cars, sting people with his butt or sprout wings or something.  

He just said it was painful.  ( It also didn't help that the yellowjacket flew up his pants leg and stung just a few inches from...  you get the picture.)

[Andrew]

A common problem we have around here is the boards ability to discuss almost anything with insight and reason.  I imagine it causes the random troll who stops by to pull their hair out in frustration.

Ok, for crazy radiation, how about "The Hideous Sun Demon?"  Having been exposed to deadly radiation, the protagonist only turns into a monster when he gets too much sunlight.  SPF 1000 rems please!

Or you could talk about "The Incredible Melting Man."  There you have the exposure turning a man into an oozing vampire monster.

But I think one of my favorite ones is not radiation, but toxic waste.  In "Mutant" the toxic waste contamination turns people into weird vampires.  The become nocturnal and sores open up in their palms.  The sores both ooze deadly toxic pus and also serve as leech-like mouths for siphoning off somebody's blood.

[ulthar]

No one's mentioned "Hell Comes to Frogtown"??  Radiation turned half of the human race into mutant giant frogs and the remaining half is a mix of (non sterile) hot women and (mostly) sterile men.

[JohnL]

>A couple of years ago, I saw a pretty cool Outer Limits episode where a kid
>discovered, while taking a Physics or Engineering test, a way to make a fusion
>device more efficient of powerful or something. He went a little nuts and took the
>class hostage.

I believe he discovered cold fusion.

Favorite scenes:

War of the Worlds - They drop an ataomic bomb on the martian ships, with the resulting explosion being watched by both the military and by a bunch of people on a hillside. Forgetting that half of them were probably blinded by the flash, they were almost certainly close enough to get hit with the fallout.

It - To try and destroy a golem, they drop an atomic bomb on it. In the last few seconds, the hero races in to rescue the girl and get her to safety on his motorcycle. Of course they're safe, they were a good half-mile away when the bomb went off...

[AndyC]

Fiend Without a Face was an interesting movie, in that the hero dynamites a nuclear reactor, and it does not go up in a mushroom cloud. In fact, it doesn't seem to do much harm at all.

On the other hand, the same movie also uses atomic power to boost radar until it can see the entire USSR from Canada. To me, that's almost sillier than the invisible brain-sucking brain monsters it creates from people's thoughts.

I notice a lot of the older movies present atomic energy as something that can be broadcast or piped from one place to another, or fed directly into devices. It's seen as some magical technology of smashing atoms and harvesting the energy, rather than just boiling water over decaying uranium. Growing up on cheesy sci-fi movies, you can imagine how disappointed I was when I learned how a nuclear reactor really works.



Post Edited (04-29-04 05:41)

[AlexB]

I think a lot of people have become disappointed by the way nuclear reactors actually work. Perhaps that is the reason why most of the mayhem nowadays is caused by chemical waste and/or genetic manipulation. Eight legged freaks/Arac Attack is a case in point. Those spiders clearly should have caused by radiation. Other examples are the recents versions of Daredevil and Spiderman.

[AndyC]

People have become somewhat less naive where radiation is concerned. Most of us have a pretty good idea what it can and can't do.

Genetic manipulation, on the other hand, seems a plausible explanation for mutations. Besides that, it's about as new and misunderstood as atomic power was in the 50s - something akin to magic, full of untold promise and unspeakable peril. It really is this generation's atomic power. Can't wait to see what people make of the current crop of movies in 30 or 40 years.

[odinn7]

Oh Andrew, I really hope you weren't referring to me as a troll. I like to joke around, that's all; seldom am I serious. I don't mean anything by it, just how I am.
Anyway, I came up with something. Anyone ever see those films from I guess the 50's or 60's that they would show school kids how to survive nukes? Hide under a desk or roll yourself up in a carpet...right. I also love seeing the old films of nuclear bomb testing where you'd have these idiots with their glasses on standing behind concrete walls with viewing slots in them. Bet those glasses helped.

[AndyC]

Better still, the films where they're sitting a few miles away on deck chairs watching the blast with their goggles. It's almost like they were sunbathing. Wonder if they used suntan lotion.

[raj]

I actually went through an air raid drill once in grade school, probably 1977 or there abouts.  Now this school was way out in the country, about 70 miles or so from NYC, with nothing of any military significance around, even in town.  It was just silly, I thought then.  Later on in high school our science teacher asked us to demonstrate what we'd do if a nuke came down on the city (about 5-10 miles away) Most everybody hid under chairs or tables but my table mate & I looked at each other and just sat in our seats.  Given the choice of living in a post nuclear apocalypse, I'd just as soon you take my right off the bat.  I don't care for fighting frogpeople

[JohnL]

>I actually went through an air raid drill once in grade school, probably 1977 or
>there abouts.

I went through a couple of those in grade school also. Everyone had to take their chairs into the hallway.