Re: Tickling the Dragon's Tail
From Colin Douthwaite <Col...@equinox.gen.nz>
· alt.ascii-art
· 21 Jan 1995 22:35 · View full thread
· report
Jim Carr (ja...@ds8.scri.fsu.edu) wrote:
: In article <3fdiat$j0...@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com>
: JDE...@ix.netcom.com (Jerry Ennis) writes:
: >
: >Can anybody tell me how the early criticality experiments at Los Alamos
: >came to be called "tickling the dragon's tail?"
: The experiment measured the size of a critical mass directly. Does
: that give a clue? You brought two sub-critical masses together for
: a short time and measured the rate of neutron production. If you have
: a critical mass, the rate grows exponentially without limit until the
: heat and energy produced disassembles the mass. So you have to do it
: very quickly, before this can happen. (A bomb compresses and confines
: the mass so it will explode -- sort of like the difference between
: burning gunpowder out in the open or inside a shell casing.) Quicker
: than that, actually, since the neutrons will reach a fatal level well
: before it comes apart from the thermal energy.
: So it is like tickling a dragon's tail: you can get away with it if
: you are quick enough to escape before the dragon turns on you.
: >A reference for the information would also be appreciated.
: I suggest you read "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. You
: will enjoy it a great deal if these sorts of questions interest you. Rhodes
: describes the experiment in some detail, and also tells about the one that
: went wrong -- killing the experimenter, who gave his life to save the
: others in the room at the time. If you have taken a rad-safety class,
: you may have seen a picture of his hands, which got more than 10000 rem
: if I remember correctly.
^ ^
/ \ //\
|\___/| / \// .\ _---_
/O O \__ / // | \ \ /' --
/ / \/_/ // | \ \ *----* (_ --
@___@' \/_ // | \ \ | / C^ / \
| \/_ // | \ \ / /\/ \ \ / / |
| \/// | \ \ / | \ \/ / |
_|_ / ) // | \ _\ | | \/| |
'/,_ _ _/ ( ; -. | _ _\.-~ / / /^------ /
,-{ _ `-.|.-~-. . ~ - / ______../
'/\ / ~-. _ .-~ .` / / | |
`. { } / / / | |_____.
.----~-.\ \-' .~ =___) (____---;
///.----..> c \ _ -~
///-._ _ _ _ _ _ _}^ - - - - ~
" Tickling the Dragon's Tail "
Bye,
Original message headers
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f996b,aff2ba226cb1965d,start X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-Thread: 10b271,f28dff7ac1411f7c X-Google-Attributes: gid10b271,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-01-21 15:35:23 PST Path: pad-thai.cam.ov.com!noc.near.net!bigboote.WPI.EDU!news.mathworks.com!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.duke.edu!agate!overload.lbl.gov!ames!waikato!canterbury.ac.nz!southern.co.nz!equinox.gen.nz!equinox!not-for-mail From: Col...@equinox.gen.nz (Colin Douthwaite) Newsgroups: sci.physics,alt.ascii-art Subject: Re: Tickling the Dragon's Tail Date: 21 Jan 1995 22:35:31 GMT Organization: Southern InterNet Services Lines: 54 Distribution: world Message-ID: <3fs27j$n2...@southern.co.nz> References: <3fc655$a...@lucy.infi.net> <163...@kcbbs.gen.nz> <3fdiat$j0...@ixnews1.ix.netcom.com> <3feu8t$8k...@ds8.scri.fsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: equinox.gen.nz X-Newsreader: TIN [AMIGA 1.3 941121BETA PL0]
Related ASCII art in the Gallery
Explore these categories from our collection of 11,000+ artworks:
Make your own ASCII art
Turn images, text or 3D into ASCII, or draw your own – right in your browser.
About this message.
This message was posted publicly to the newsgroup
alt.ascii-art
in 1995 and is mirrored here unchanged as part of the Historic Archives – only email addresses are masked.
The artwork and text belong to their original authors: if you copy a piece, keep the artist's initials or signature intact and credit them where you can.
Are you the author? Contact us to get your posts attributed, connected to your artist profile, or removed.
Report this message
Help us keep the archive clean and accurate. Reports are reviewed by a person – nothing is changed automatically.