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From: norman@lasspvax.UUCP (Norman Ramsey)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Light-saber construction...
Message-ID: <611@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Oct-85 18:30:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.611
Posted: Fri Oct 18 18:30:39 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 20-Oct-85 05:17:27 EDT
References: <3895@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU> <340@dolqci.UUCP>
Reply-To: norman@lasspvax.UUCP (Norman Ramsey)
Organization: LASSP, Cornell University
Lines: 22
Summary: 

In article <340@dolqci.UUCP> mike@dolqci.UUCP (Mike Stalnaker) writes:
>	Rob, the sinclair chain is what held when it was used in the 
>Ringworld Engineers. Wu used the Shadow square wire as a backup, and the
>extreme heat from the Sunflowers broke/melted/something that.  The
>Sinclair chain  was the superconductor. NOT the shadowsquare wire.
I just read this book. Both molecule chain and superconducting thread were
used. The molecule chain borke (presumably because it overheated), while the
superconductor held (presumably becuase it was cooled by the lake to 100C).
Incidentally, real superconductors have critical fields (electric, magnetic)
beyond which they break down and are no longer superconducting. I'm sure the
same phenomenon appears in heat conduction (it has to do with an energy
level gap; once you put in enough energy from outside to excite electrons
over the gap you can have losses), so I doubt the thing is actually going to
wsustain a treemendous current without breakdown. But it's *p\ossible*.
-- 
Norman Ramsey

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