Name: Alex S.
Status: Student
Age: 15
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: September 2002
Question:
I have heard that the most efficient energy source
effectively harnessed by man is nuclear fusion, with an efficiency of
something like 0.7% mass-energy conversion. And that the most efficient
energy source in the known universe, matter-antimatter annihilation,
works at an efficiency of 100%.
Why the huge discrepancy if both works upon the principal of mass-energy
conversions? Also, is there another energy source mechanism that works
with an efficiency between that of fusion (.7%) and antimatter (100%)?
Replies:
Matter/Anti-matter annihilation is a special reaction between a particle
and its anti-particle. Nuclear fusion is the conversion hydrogen into helium
(approximately -- it's more complex than that) which is not the same as the
latter. The difficulty in both cases is the engineering problem of
harnessing that energy to produce useful energy in a controlled fashion.
That problem has not been solved.
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