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[–] 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Also, it's good to note, that producing that much power in a small device would mean that device is very, very volatile. There was some research I read about a long time ago to design a small nuclear fission device that would ideally replace batteries with a much more long lasting energy cell that also would greatly increase output wattage. Besides the obvious miniaturization issues, the other problem was that if that much energy is release all at once, such as from a drop or being in a fire or something else catastrophic, the explosion it would create would be significant and do a lot more damage than any battery not to mention the heavy shielding itself as shrapnel would be way more destructive than the explosion alone.

Take that and then think about people who are likely to use these things as weapons and you can't really sell that kind of thing commercially. This is one reason that for example, gasoline is not more energy dense which would make it way more efficient. Imagine if gasoline was as energy dense as jet fuel. It would mean way smaller fuel tanks and thus significantly less weight both of the tank and the fuel and thus more efficient cars. But the danger in widely selling jet fuel to consumers is significant.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Jet fuel is available for purchase at the consumer level without regulations because people have private planes.

    Jet fuel (ATF or avtur) is also called "aviation kerosene" and is similar enough to diesel fuel that it can used in diesel engines. Kerosene and diesel are also readily available most places.

    Aviation gasoline (or avgas) is just ordinary leaded gasoline, which was available for a long time to consumers until it was banned for environmental reasons.

    Gunpowder and tannerite are available over the counter, no regulations there either.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago

    I don't want to get into guns, that's a special case in the US due to money in politics.

    But, ok, yeah "jet fuel" I was thinking more of military jet fuels, I was in the Navy for a while and never in the aviation industry. Though even they don't approach the energy density and instability a reactor would have. Maybe I should have said "rocket fuel" or even pure hydrogen. Anyway, point is cars could use fuels that are more energy dense, but even missiles don't use the most energy dense fuel available because there's a need to balance stability and potential for explosions with energy density.

    A miniaturized fission reactor like I mentioned or even more, a miniaturized fusion reactor like in Ironman, would have problems if sold unregulated, both in accidents as well as malicious use as a weapon.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Jet fuel is way less volatile and way less dangerous than gasoline.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    My high school science teacher took a container of jet fuel, poured it into a beaker, then suited up in a tin foil apron, face mask, safety everything, ducked behind his large lab bench at the front of the class, lit a popsicle stick on fire, grabbed it with tongs, and dropped it into the beaker while everyone in the front row scrambled. Made a big show of it. It went out without even a fizz.

    Then he transferred it into a small spray bottle and aimed it at the same lit popsicle stick on the end of the same tongs and made a highly satisfying fireball.

    Then he switched a shop vac from suck to blow, attached some kind of paint sprayer contraption, and made a giant flame thrower that scorched the ceiling tiles. It was awesome.

    The next years’ classes didn’t get the same experience. Can’t imagine why.

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  • [–] 2 points 18 hours ago

    High school science story time:

    When I was in school, we had a gym teacher fill in for the chemistry teacher. Not as like, a substitute teacher for a day or a week or whatever, but due to some kind of staffing or budget issue the gym teacher taught that whole semester. His science background would have been what he learned in high school himself thirty years earlier, but he was a warm body that could read a textbook so that was good enough for the administration.

    Anyway, there was this demonstration they'd do where they'd drop a chunk of sodium in water, and as an alkali metal it reacts with heat, sparks, and maybe a small explosion. Now, you're only supposed to use a tiny amount for the demonstration, so the teacher pulls out their chunk of sodium and cuts off a pea-sized piece for the experiment and wows everyone with the demonstration.

    Every year you get at least one student who asks what happens if you used a larger piece. The chemistry teacher would explain about how the reaction scales up, and that it's too dangerous to perform in the classroom. But the gym teacher says, "Gee, I don't know. But this is supposed to be a science class, so let's do a science" and uses the entire supply of sodium.

    So I wasn't actually in that class when it happened. I was in a classroom directly above the chemistry lab when there's an explosion that I'm sure could have been heard throughout the building. Incidentally, someone had called in a bomb threat a month or two earlier, either as a prank or to get out of exams or whatever. You can probably imagine the chaos in the classroom. Someone pulled the fire alarm and everyone evacuated, but I don't think anyone was actually hurt.

    Anyway, there's still a hole in the ceiling tile and they don't do that experiment anymore.

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  • I mentioned in the other reply that I was thinking more on military grade fuels since that's where my knowledge is from, but even those aren't really good examples. Better would have been pure hydrogen or "rocket" fuels used in the space industry or similar. But that's wasn't meant to be the point.

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