Thumper
06-28-2019, 08:46 AM
I was a "science" nut in high school and aced ALL of my math and science courses. My h/s math courses consisted of Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Physics and advanced courses in Trigonometry and Calculus ... straight A's all the way. The sciences were the same, straight A's in Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. I was even selected as one of 10 students from the state to attend a special course at the University of Tennessee (as a Senior in H/S) and we studied (new at that time), laser technology. I went on to attend the Univ. of Tenn. as a Mechanical Engineering major. (I never graduated as Uncle Sam said he needed me at the time and when I returned home, I had to earn a living and had lost all interest in school.)
Occasionally, I like reading scientific blogs (Ok, I can be a nerd at times) just to see what's going on out there. Ha! I think I'm just getting too danged old to keep up and should probably throw in the towel.
I read this blog this morning and it's a tiny bit over my head. Even more confusing is that there are a bazillion responses from other nerds and they have a long discussion going. (It's like us talking about guns, hunting, fishing, etc) They seem to understand each other, but I'm out. Maybe I should have finished school. :slaphead
Here's a blog started by a dude who thinks ... well, I don't know ... the best I can tell is he's estimating the amount of Uranium at the earth's core. (I'll bet he's exciting at parties!) I will say though, there are quite a few responses but I have no frigging clue what they are saying! Here's his initial post: (The discussion is about meteors and meteorites ... I think!)
If the abundance of Uranium in the earth is around 10ppb... then the total mass of U in earth is around 3e19g that's around 1e19 moles (virtually all U-238), corresponding to 3e23 decays / second, which would generate at most 2-3TW of power (attributing the entire 52MeV decay chain energy to each decay of U-238). But U-238 supposedly generates up to 20-30TW of power, up to 10x as much Moreover, the (continental) Crustal abundance of U is 3mg/kg, and the total bulk Crustal abundance of U is 1mg/kg Given that the Crust masses around 2-3e25g, that already implies 3e19g of U... i All of earth's U resides in the (continental) Crust alone ? Doesn't that strongly suggest, that there may well be more U on and in earth, than indicated by the abundances of meteors & solar photosphere ?
WTF? :huh
Occasionally, I like reading scientific blogs (Ok, I can be a nerd at times) just to see what's going on out there. Ha! I think I'm just getting too danged old to keep up and should probably throw in the towel.
I read this blog this morning and it's a tiny bit over my head. Even more confusing is that there are a bazillion responses from other nerds and they have a long discussion going. (It's like us talking about guns, hunting, fishing, etc) They seem to understand each other, but I'm out. Maybe I should have finished school. :slaphead
Here's a blog started by a dude who thinks ... well, I don't know ... the best I can tell is he's estimating the amount of Uranium at the earth's core. (I'll bet he's exciting at parties!) I will say though, there are quite a few responses but I have no frigging clue what they are saying! Here's his initial post: (The discussion is about meteors and meteorites ... I think!)
If the abundance of Uranium in the earth is around 10ppb... then the total mass of U in earth is around 3e19g that's around 1e19 moles (virtually all U-238), corresponding to 3e23 decays / second, which would generate at most 2-3TW of power (attributing the entire 52MeV decay chain energy to each decay of U-238). But U-238 supposedly generates up to 20-30TW of power, up to 10x as much Moreover, the (continental) Crustal abundance of U is 3mg/kg, and the total bulk Crustal abundance of U is 1mg/kg Given that the Crust masses around 2-3e25g, that already implies 3e19g of U... i All of earth's U resides in the (continental) Crust alone ? Doesn't that strongly suggest, that there may well be more U on and in earth, than indicated by the abundances of meteors & solar photosphere ?
WTF? :huh