Suppoes we constructed a hollw spher, with the outside ringed with hydrogen bombs…at the center would be a lead sphere. If we could trigger the bombs simultaneously, could we cause the lead sphere to compress into a singularity? If we could create a black hole in thus manner, would we then have an unlimited source of energy? …Just pitch some sand into it…and you should get all kinds of radiation coming out! Going further, could a black hole like this be magnetically confined , in a tokomac-like structure?
What do you physicists say…how do I apply for a grant to try this out?
All kinds of radiation coming out sounds like a good method of getting fried, not creating energy. How would we keep from being sucked into this “black hole” you want to create.
[sup]I have no idea if your method would work or not, but for some reason I doubt it. [/sup]
First, I’m pretty sure none of our technology could create a black hole. You pretty much need a Big Bang to make a microhole of that variety, I believe.
Second, I think it would evaporate due to Hawking radiation, though it would actually be more stable than a larger hole.
Third, it wouldn’t really be possible to somehow reach into the aftermath of multiple thermonuclear bombs and grab the results. By the time you could go after your baby black hole, it would have sunk to the center of the Earth, and would begin consuming the planet. I’m not sure if it would actually eat the whole thing or just make itself a hollow place, but it wouldn’t be much use to us (and more likely extremely dangerous).
Last, black holes can carry an electric charge, so you should be able to contain it magnetically. Assuming you could somehow get your tokomak around it while it was still within reach and not moving too fast.
One hell of a magnet to contain a black hole! And I mean that in terms of force, not size… given even a small black hole size-wise, the thing would still weigh a whole heck of a lot.
BTW, I think only spinning black holes have magnetic poles. Though I don’t think there can be non-spinning ones.
[confusion… leaves to read other posts]
Remember, this black hole was made from a plain ol’ lead sphere. Just after it’s made, it wouldn’t actually mass all that much.
You might, but it wouldn’t be around long enough to marvel at. Black holes evaporate. The smaller a black hole is, the faster it evaporates. One that you could create with hydrigen bombs would be gone in seconds.
Now if we could artificially generate and contain a small black hole, we could use it as an effectively unlimited power source. As they evaporate, they emit blackbody radiation. Just feed matter into it at a rate to keep it from evaporating, and run a steam turbine off the radiation given off.
Mmmmmmm… unlimited power source…
Somehow the idea of a black hole-powered steam engine sounds wonderfully anachronistic to the geek in me. But I just finished reading Gibson’s The Difference Engine, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Therefore, ralph124c can’t patent his idea, since the Patent Office won’t take any perpetual motion patents. :smack:
No problem, just slip in a 3% inefficiency on the patent application. (What, like they’re going to climb in the main Black Hole Generation Chamber to check for themselves?)
And it wouldn’t be a perpetual motion engine: Unless you keep feeding it, it will evaporate away, and you only get an amount of energy out of it commensurate with how much mass you shove in. In other words, you won’t get infinite amounts of energy because you’ll never be able to shove in infinite amounts of mass. Finally, you won’t even break even: Some energy will be released as waste heat, too low-energy to be used by whatever energy reclamation system you choose to use. That’s a law of physics, not an engineering problem.