#making things explode

[sailorsol]

So most of this is true. We are very good at making things boil to create steam to make the spinny thing give us power. But. We are also very good at making things EXPLODE to make the spinny thing give us power.

This was touched on briefly in regards to internal combustion engines, but this is true for any gas turbine engine. If you cram a bunch of oxygen into a small space and add some fuel and then EXPLODE it, you get a lot of hot air pushing out of that area really quickly, which will make your turbine spin as well. This is a gas turbine, most commonly seen in jet engines, but there are also industrial gas engines (as seen at natural gas power plants, for example) that are basically GIANT jet engines that don't fly.

Part of the reason natural gas is more efficient for energy generation is because you don't have to heat the water to make the steam to turn the turbine to get the power, you just explode the gas. You also get a lot fewer problems with the turbine when steam isn't involved, because steam has a habit of causing pitting on the turbine blades if it isn't dry enough. (Yeah, dry steam is a thing. Try not to think about it too hard else you'll break your brain.) This means having to replace the turbine a lot more often--which is fine if your cooling loop is separate from your primary heating loop, like in most types of nuclear reactors, but if you've got a boiling water reactor, your turbine is exposed to irradiated steam so maintenance becomes a lot harder.

All that being said--we have been using water and wind to generate power for thousands of years. Not electricity, but power, which is really what we're talking about when we talk about making the spinny thing go. Because the spinny thing is creating mechanical power, which is then used to make an electric engine go WEEEEEEEE to give us electric power. But mechanical power can be used directly for things like pumping water or grinding grain or operating bellows to fuel really huge blast furnaces for smelting iron.

Humans have been really good at finding ways to make mechanical power and reduce the amount of energy we are personally required to put into getting that mechanical power. Because humans are relatively weak and generally lazy in the sense that we're always looking for an easier way to do something difficult.

Steam power, in the grand scheme of things, is relatively new, and frankly it took a lot of trial and error (and explosions) before it could be used reliably and efficiently, which is also partly why we don't see things like steam powered cars or nuclear powered jet engines (though they tried, for both). It just isn't efficient or practical. And inherently one of the ways to make steam power more efficient is to pressurize all that lovely boiling water (whatever the heat source), which is where the explosions come in. Think about a bottle of soda exploding, but now imagine that with a giant metal tank and boiling water, and you have the horror of late 19th century steam power. The number of trains and ships that exploded was not inconsequential. There was an entire insurance company created just to deal with steam boilers because no one else wanted to touch them. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers was basically created because a bunch of engineers got together and said "right, there has to be some way to do this without blowing people up" and the pressure vessel regulations came into existence. But that was in 1880, and if you look at the development of steam powered energy, not much has changed except the source of the heat.

(Yes, Vitruvius created a bladeless radial steam engine in ~30 BCE, but you'll note that it never really took off, mostly because it lacked a good way to do anything with all the spinning, like turning a gear shaft.)

So yes. Nuclear power is really no different from coal power, they just use different sources to make sources hot. And steam power is great, but at the end of the day, we have come up with lots of better ways to create power. Steam is just the best way we've found so far to create a lot of power all at once. And with nuclear power in particular, we can get a lot of electrical power out of the system with very little energy being put into it. One uranium fuel pellet that can fit in your hand is equivalent to 40 tons of coal, the size of a large dump truck.

So if you need lots of electrical power, steam is one of your best options. But if you're just looking for mechanical power, there are lots of better options.

nuclear power is impressive until you get up to why. "we use the most precisely engineered machinery ever created to split atoms to release energy" oh yeah how come? "boil water to turn a fan" get the fuck out

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]

[chloesimaginationthings]

Yarnaby's story in poppy playtime is tragic,,

[morganbritton132]

Early in their time at Scoops Ahoy, Robin forgets that she’s decided to hate Steve forever and starts telling him a funny story about the time her family went to camping. Steve’s laughing along and afterwards is like, “That’s so funny. I stopped telling people stories about my childhood.”

Robin thinking that Steve must’ve went on all these extravagant trips and did a lot of cool stuff, is like, “Why, all your friends jealous?”

“No,” Steve says, distractedly restocking sprinkles. “Everybody kept being like, ‘ that’s messed up. Are you okay? You should tell an adult about that.’ It was really annoying so I stopped saying stuff.”

Robin just stares at him because, what?

After a second goes by, and then another, and then another… Steve looks up and frowns, “Hey, space cadet. You with me?”

Robin blinks.

She decides he’s joking. He has to be. No one is that casual about shit and he doesn’t even look serious so she tells him as she walks back out to help a customer, “It’s messed up to say things like that.”

“That’s exactly what I was talking about,” Steve tells the empty room.

[soupdweller]

you guys know the film City of Lost Children (1995)? no? WELL I HAVE MADE AN AU OF IT-

+ some close-ups:

further AU lore and sketches under the cut!!

THE LORE: - much like the film - it takes places in a rusted steam punk portside town. - most people get by but a crazed scientist is said to be running things behind the scenes. - a series of unsolved child disappearance have started to plague the town.

SUN: - day-time performer/entertainer at the local carnival! - shares a body with Moon; and the two...used to be close... - can only see out of his right eye- but would die before letting anyone know his blind spot. - deceptively stronger than he looks. - courteous guy who definitely is not hiding any ulterior motives!

MOON: - night-time performer at the local carnival. - can only see out of his left eye. - ???? - ???? - ????

YN: - local handyman - puts on a cold front but has grown a soft spot for one of the neighbourhood street urchins. i'm sure nothing bad will happen to them. - untrusting and loathes owing people favours.

i've been working on this since November so have a stupid amount of concept sketches:

i changed a lot of stuff in the final designs, but i still like the older ideas :')

[jomo-is-here]

I graduated last week!

I would’ve made this sooner but I crashed hard after everything was done lol

College was certainly an experience. Still not too sure how I feel about it.

[lgbtlunaverse]

Full respect to mxtx and her apparent tall people kink but as much as I believe it's her right to make every single character a fucking tree, I strongly disagree with jiang cheng's canon height being 185cm. Than man should be 179cm exactly. Just barely shy of 180cm. I think even if you do not grow up with an inferiority complex topping out at this height legally requires you to develop it.

179 cm, incidentally, translates to 5'10.5" if my online sources are to be believed. Which, in a beautiful alliance of cross-measurement system solidarity, is also a perfect height to be deeply insecure about! If someone asks you how tall you are and you answer 5'10.5" you sound desperate. But if you round up to 5'11" you are technically lying about your height and any loose shixiong within ear shot may loudly call you out on it, making you look even more desperate. You can't win. Just like Jiang Cheng.

[shepscapades]

[Set in Mid-Late Hermitcraft Season 8]

In which we learn a little something about Cub, a little something about Doc, and a little something about Xisuma.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

MDZS x Firefly AU: A ragtag crew.

[thefishywizard]

Rip Bill Cipher, you would have loved Chapelle Roan.

[fruifruit]

giving ten year olds microwave mind powers is kind of insane tbh

[clowns0up-felix]

Stumbles through the door confused and dazed ,, I ,,,, I like cowboys a lot

Which means Jayvik Cowboy AU okayyy ,,,,,I have like 15 million jayvik wips but this is the only thing I managed to finish.. I like cowboys I dunno

[egophiliac]

hiii im sure you’ve answered this before but in regards to your twst x Pokémon, how do you choose which Pokémon go give to the cast?? really curious since your choices are unique :O

unique in a good way, I hope? 😅 (jk jk I haven't come across too many pokemon AUs, so I was going in without preconceptions, I guess!) I was sorta aiming somewhere between doing, like, a full AU with internal consistency and everything, and just picking entirely based on theme/character, so maybe that's why! basically I just set some arbitrary rules (no legendaries/no repeats/evo stages based on year) and then went on ~vibes~. a couple were also suggestions (thank you guys!) and last-minute decisions, so it was a bit of a delightful mess of ideas!

my one regret is that I should have given Riddle a Togedemaru after all. ...you know what, he can have one now, why not

[imgoingcarzy]

So me

[ethosiab]

erm . yeah

[ace-daemon]

in a distant time place

the same song of humanity still sang