^first of all, i don't think it's fair to measure the energy calculation in joules.

Solar income is by far the biggest energy contribution to the production of crops, not any human factor. we're merely facilitating a nice opportunity for the plants to convert photons to food, because we can't to that ourselves. so the whole thing rests on our metabolism being "wasteful", energy-wise.

Another reason strict caloric calulation is meaningless for farming, is that the US and EU are subsidizing their domestic agriculture industry with billions of dollars, making farming methods and yields completely divorced from the financial success of a farmer.
Here, I can mostly speak from experience in the EU, where subsidies are often given for weird, counterintuitive behavior, meant to satisfy other goals than production, such as specific, fashionable environmental concerns ("preserve hedges and enclosures!"), or simply to preserve employment in that sector. Talk about wasteful.

And why isn't the haber process sustainable? Because it's dependent on fossil fuels? it only gets the hydrogen part from natural gas, the nitrogen comes from the atmosphere. A lot of people are spending lot of money these days on developing efficient, large scale, renewable hydrogen production, such as electrolysis machines running off solar/wind/nuclear power.
When people talk about "sustainable", they often forget to take into account future developments, and proceed to make gloomy prognoses based on current technology (see: Thomas Malthus)

Weight 62.3 tonnes -> 56517.61 kilos

speed 80km

Kinetic energy 13,677,261.62 Joules

# 1×106 J, the kinetic energy of a one tonne vehicle at 45 metres per second (100 miles per hour)
# 1×106 J, approximately the food energy of a snack such as a Mars bar
# 1×107 J, the energy of a day's worth of heavy labour[2]
# 1×108 J, the kinetic energy of a 55 tonne aircraft at typical landing speed (115 knots or 59 m/s)

powers of 10 are crazy

1 food calorie is really a kilo-calorie of chemistry persuasion, each of which is 4.184 joules.

An explosion equivalent to 1 megaton (a small hydrogen bomb) is equivalent to 4.184×10^15 Joules (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent )

So, 4.184×10^15 / (170 * 1000 * 4.184) = 5.8824 x 10^9 Ranchero Chicken Soft Tacos. (i.e. 6 billion, i.e. one delicious taco for everyone on Earth.)

A Tzar Bomba, at 50 megatons, would be 50 tacos for everyone on Earth. And an epidemic of scurvy.

Wikipedia notes that carbohydrates have higher energy density than TNT, so if you actually measured nuclear explosions in mega-tons of tacos, it would be a smaller number than mega-tons of TNT.

Effin' awesome. That bolide's packing serious heat. At 500km in radius and a density of say 3000kg/m3 it would have a mass of density*volume=3000*(4/3)*pi*(5*10^5)^3~1.5*10^21 kg. At minimum it'll be traveling at earths escape velocity which is ~10km/s. So it'll hit with a kinetic energy of 0.5*mass*velocity^2 = about 10^29 Joules.

For reference, the nuke that hit hiroshima had a yield of 6*10^13 Joules. THIS EVENT IS ENERGETICALLY EQUIVALENT TO MORE THAN ~ 1,000,000,000,000,000 HIROSHIMA's GOING OFF AT ONCE!

There's only one way to prove it and that's to do it! Time to gather up all my old phones...

There are loads of other clips on youtube of this effect...


In reply to this comment by theaceofclubz:
A microwave can range between 500-1000 watts and is specifically designed to transfer as much energy as possible onto a target. It still takes minutes to make a kernel pop. These cell phones are making it happen in about 5 seconds using antennas. They would practically have to be alien death rays for that to be possible.
In reply to this comment by Irishman:
The supernerd hasn't taken the amplitude increase that occurs between waves of the same frequency into account. The amplitude increase can be as much as ten-fold for most standing wave (harmonic) solutions...

I'm pretty certain that this video is geniune... which is a bit scary

In reply to this comment by theaceofclubz:
Choggie's insightful analysis aside, a supernerd at http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=423337 has already applied the science required to debunk it - "Popcorn pops because the water in it turns to steam and a kernel is about 14% water. So, if we assume a kernel of popcorn weighs 1 gram, it has 0.13 grams of water. Heat that water from 30�C to 100�C would take:

(0.14g)*(100�C-3 to turn the water to steam requires he latent heat of vaporization, which is 2259J/g.

2259J*0.14g= 316J for a total of 316J 41J = 357J.

Wattage = Joules/seconds. If it took about 5 seconds to turn the water in the popcorn kernel to steam, then the wattage required was:

357J/5sec = 71W assuming all power from the cell phone transmitter went into the kernel.

Cell phones typically have 0.75W-1W transmitters in them. With a 1W transmitter, it would take,

334J/1W = 334secs, if all power is transfered to the kernel.

Conclusion: since the corn is popping in 5 seconds... completely fake.

edit - as pointed out, corn kernels weigh about 0.25g and there are 4 phones which could be up to 2W each. Therefore, the energy hitting the corn could be 16 times greater. But the other assumption (that all the power is focussed into the water content of just 1 kernel) is most likely wrong by a factor of 100 or more." - NOBODY PANIC

The science tidbit theaceofclubs posted is pretty much spot on. There simply isn't enough power in a cellphone to cook a kernel that fast, even if you assume every joule of energy leaving the phone goes into the kernel (which is pretty much impossible).

That's not to say it's not worth doing a study on the health effects of longterm exposure to cellphone "radiation", but they're just low-power radios, and there's not a lot new about that.

A microwave can range between 500-1000 watts and is specifically designed to transfer as much energy as possible onto a target. It still takes minutes to make a kernel pop. These cell phones are making it happen in about 5 seconds using antennas. They would practically have to be alien death rays for that to be possible.
In reply to this comment by Irishman:
The supernerd hasn't taken the amplitude increase that occurs between waves of the same frequency into account. The amplitude increase can be as much as ten-fold for most standing wave (harmonic) solutions...

I'm pretty certain that this video is geniune... which is a bit scary

In reply to this comment by theaceofclubz:
Choggie's insightful analysis aside, a supernerd at http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=423337 has already applied the science required to debunk it - "Popcorn pops because the water in it turns to steam and a kernel is about 14% water. So, if we assume a kernel of popcorn weighs 1 gram, it has 0.13 grams of water. Heat that water from 30�C to 100�C would take:

(0.14g)*(100�C-3 to turn the water to steam requires he latent heat of vaporization, which is 2259J/g.

2259J*0.14g= 316J for a total of 316J 41J = 357J.

Wattage = Joules/seconds. If it took about 5 seconds to turn the water in the popcorn kernel to steam, then the wattage required was:

357J/5sec = 71W assuming all power from the cell phone transmitter went into the kernel.

Cell phones typically have 0.75W-1W transmitters in them. With a 1W transmitter, it would take,

334J/1W = 334secs, if all power is transfered to the kernel.

Conclusion: since the corn is popping in 5 seconds... completely fake.

edit - as pointed out, corn kernels weigh about 0.25g and there are 4 phones which could be up to 2W each. Therefore, the energy hitting the corn could be 16 times greater. But the other assumption (that all the power is focussed into the water content of just 1 kernel) is most likely wrong by a factor of 100 or more." - NOBODY PANIC

The supernerd hasn't taken the amplitude increase that occurs between waves of the same frequency into account. The amplitude increase can be as much as ten-fold for most standing wave (harmonic) solutions...

I'm pretty certain that this video is geniune... which is a bit scary

In reply to this comment by theaceofclubz:
Choggie's insightful analysis aside, a supernerd at http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=423337 has already applied the science required to debunk it - "Popcorn pops because the water in it turns to steam and a kernel is about 14% water. So, if we assume a kernel of popcorn weighs 1 gram, it has 0.13 grams of water. Heat that water from 30�C to 100�C would take:

(0.14g)*(100�C-3 to turn the water to steam requires he latent heat of vaporization, which is 2259J/g.

2259J*0.14g= 316J for a total of 316J 41J = 357J.

Wattage = Joules/seconds. If it took about 5 seconds to turn the water in the popcorn kernel to steam, then the wattage required was:

357J/5sec = 71W assuming all power from the cell phone transmitter went into the kernel.

Cell phones typically have 0.75W-1W transmitters in them. With a 1W transmitter, it would take,

334J/1W = 334secs, if all power is transfered to the kernel.

Conclusion: since the corn is popping in 5 seconds... completely fake.

edit - as pointed out, corn kernels weigh about 0.25g and there are 4 phones which could be up to 2W each. Therefore, the energy hitting the corn could be 16 times greater. But the other assumption (that all the power is focussed into the water content of just 1 kernel) is most likely wrong by a factor of 100 or more." - NOBODY PANIC

Choggie's insightful analysis aside, a supernerd at http://forums.gametrailers.com/showthread.php?t=423337 has already applied the science required to debunk it - "Popcorn pops because the water in it turns to steam and a kernel is about 14% water. So, if we assume a kernel of popcorn weighs 1 gram, it has 0.13 grams of water. Heat that water from 30�C to 100�C would take:

(0.14g)*(100�C-3 to turn the water to steam requires he latent heat of vaporization, which is 2259J/g.

2259J*0.14g= 316J for a total of 316J 41J = 357J.

Wattage = Joules/seconds. If it took about 5 seconds to turn the water in the popcorn kernel to steam, then the wattage required was:

357J/5sec = 71W assuming all power from the cell phone transmitter went into the kernel.

Cell phones typically have 0.75W-1W transmitters in them. With a 1W transmitter, it would take,

334J/1W = 334secs, if all power is transfered to the kernel.

Conclusion: since the corn is popping in 5 seconds... completely fake.

edit - as pointed out, corn kernels weigh about 0.25g and there are 4 phones which could be up to 2W each. Therefore, the energy hitting the corn could be 16 times greater. But the other assumption (that all the power is focussed into the water content of just 1 kernel) is most likely wrong by a factor of 100 or more." - NOBODY PANIC

U-238 is 138 times more abundant than U-235. U-238 breeder reactors work, but are more expensive to operate than U-235 reactors. Reprocessing spent fuel to extract the half that's unused is currently more expensive than mining fresh uranium. But as oil runs out, energy prices will go up, and more expensive ways of generating energy will expand. Uranium power generation based on breeder reactors could power the world's current rate of energy consumption for at least a thousand years with current proven uranium reserves, but nobody's even bothered to look at more expensive ways of recovering uranium. In the long run solar will have to be part of the solution. The earth receives 4*10^24 Joules of energy per year from the sun, while our worldwide fossil fuel consumption in 2004 was 4*10^20 Joules.

Solar thermal generator plants can store energy via phase change to be more reliable. For example, Solar Tres stores 6,250 tonnes of molten sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate (assuming a density of 3g/ml that's about a 10m x 10m x 20m tank). This is enough to provide a 16 hour buffer for the generator (600 megawatt-hours). So it can generate continuously at peak capacity except in winter. Electricity demand is always higher in summer than in winter, because in the winter your random electrical appliance electricity use supplements your environmental controls (almost all used electricity is converted to heat) while in the summer all of your electricity use works against your environmental controls (generates more heat that your AC has to remove).

If about 0.1% of the surface of the earth were converted to solar power stations, that could supply all of our current energy use. But the rate of consumption is increasing exponentially as population increases exponentially and THAT MUST STOP. Who's going to vote for the global 2-child policy that will probably be necessary to avoid annihilation of the environment and subsequent annihilation of mankind? Mankind needs another big round of moral progress to save itself from itself.

Holy fucking shit. Did you say 10 megajoules??????

According to this engineering page a 1000kg car travelling at 90km/h has only 320,000 joules of kinetic energy. So this tiny flechette has 30 times more energy than that???? AND that's only a third of its capacity?? FUUUUCK!

"Even small air conditioners can consume thousands of watts per hour"

The narrator obviously has no clue about physics. One watt is one joule (unit of energy) per second. Total energy consumption would be measured in joules; the rate of energy consumption would be measured in watts; the rate of change of the rate of energy consumption would be measured in watts per (time).

Lithium bromide is no safer than other coolants used in air conditioners. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_bromide
Bromide is harmful because it displaces Iodine and interferes with the production of thyroid hormone (among many other ways it can poison you). Lithium is used as a psychoactive drug. Lithium was used as a food additive in the USA until 1948 when manufacturers were forced to stop adding it to food. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_pharmacology#Lithium_and_culture

The device in the video is far too bulky to be adopted in an urban area and provides the same net impact on the heat of the surrounding area as running an ordinary AC from solar panels.