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/sci/ - Science & Math

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5799515 No.5799515 [Reply] [Original]

YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST MOTHERFUCKERS!

So the earth is hot.
The heat is trapped here by the atmosphere.
My PC's processor is hot too, so there's a heat sink on top of it, practically in direct contact, which siphons heat from it and disposes of it somewhere else.

So if we run a length of naked copper wire, for example, from the freaking sahara to outer space, would it siphon heat away from the earth's atmosphere?

Discuss. Have I just saved humanity?

>> No.5799531

How you gonna pay for that?

>> No.5799533

What happens when we overclock the planet?

>> No.5799537

>gets hit by sun
>sahara gets hotter

>> No.5799643

> from the freaking sahara to outer space
There's a reason space elevators aren't easy to make. A length of copper wire that long wouldn't be able to support itself. Making it thicker doesn't help because that also makes it heavier.

Supposedly a material like graphene has the strength/weight ratio to make a space elevator, and it's a decent conductor of heat, but your idea has other problems.

Your CPU's heat sink dissipates energy mostly through convection. That's where the heat moves to the surrounding air which is blown away by your fan. There is no air in space. The only heat transfer is radiative is much slower.

>> No.5799668

>>5799643
Cover the Sahara with graphene web.
giant rod going to space.
brilliant!

>> No.5799820

>>5799643
We can tie it to a space station, and the centrifugal force should keep the space station and the wire afloat?

>> No.5799829

>>5799515
>The heat is trapped here by the atmosphere.

No it isn't. Heat transfer through air MUCH better than it transfers through the vacuum of space.

>> No.5799832

How about huge sail floating in space to overshadow the sahara?

>> No.5799858

How about planting more forests, then burning plants to make electricity and then broadcasting a lot of radionoise?

>> No.5799865

How about having less children

>> No.5799869

>>5799820
one would assume that the massive strain in the wire due to the weight would still cause the wire to either literally bring the station down or snap.
any wire thick enough to transfer large amounts of heat energy to space would be incredibly heavy, probably in the hundreds of tonnes

>> No.5799902

How about shooting a big ass laser powered by a concentrated solar power plant. Get right back at the fucker,

>> No.5799932

>>5799515

The heat transfer capacity of a single copper wire is so small in comparison to your heat load, that you're done DERPED your way into the /sci/ hall of fame.

>>5799643

Firstly, you're right about the copper never making it to geosnychronous orbit. The strongest alloy of copper doesn't have the strength to make it.

Secondly, you're wrong about graphene. Nothing Humans have made, can form a ribbon of carbon nanotube material such that it can hang from geosync to the ground... when you take into account the safety factor that's minimum for such a structure, 2.0. Using minimum density (unlikely, but still) of 1.3 g/cc, a ribbon 1nm thick hanging 42000 km from geosync would experience 70 N alone from its weight. Since the cross section of such a ribbon is tiny, that means 70 GPa stress in the ribbon. A safety factor of 2.0 (should be higher for an aerospace structure, but still) makes that 140 GPa. And that's just its weight. Look it up... Humanity is nowhere near making a 140 GPa ribbon of carbon nanotube material. Current manufacturing ability might be able to manage a consistent quality of maybe 10% of that. AND THAT'S JUST THE RIBBON'S WEIGHT.

I'll post the calculations later in another thread. Sadly, this space elevator is pretty much a fantasy. 300 GPa is the theoretical maximum for carbon nanotubes, and the C=C bond is the strongest atomic bond known.

>> No.5799943

The length of copper required would throw the earth's rotation off balance.

We need 4.

>> No.5799969

>>5799643
>The only heat transfer is radiative is much slower.
There's also conductive heat transfer, that would be the one effective in that case

>> No.5800036

We could just launch rockets filled with ice at the sun.

>> No.5800132

>>5799865
Why the fuck has nobody else seen this.

>> No.5800140

>>5800132
The less intelligent are breeding more...

>> No.5800142
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5800142

>>5800036
But wouldn't the fire melt them?

>> No.5800156

The heat transfers from your heatsink to the air. There's no air in space, the heat would have nothing to go to, so no.

>> No.5800197

Wouldnt a cabe passing through earth's magnetic field cause massive voltage?

How would one calculate that

>> No.5800204

>>5800197
>How would one calculate that

I'd use math.

>> No.5800211

>>5799537
Put mirrors on it? Not sure

>> No.5800217

>>5800197

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrodynamic_tether#Voltage_across_conductor

>> No.5800354

>>5799969
There's nothing for it to conduct to in space though unless...

That's it!

We slow down the Moon's rotation so that the Earth and Moon become a doubly tidal locked system, with the Moon just above the Sahara desert. Then we run the conductor to the Moon and use the Moon as a conductive heat sink!

Brilliant!

>> No.5800502
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5800502

why not run a copper wire from the sahara to antartica?

>> No.5800503

>>5800354

The moon is a lousy heat sink. Lousy. The lunar surface is basically a crystallized ocean of iron and magnesium silicates. It's basically an insulator, for what you want to use it for.

>> No.5800519

>>5800502
wanna drown

>> No.5800601

>>5800502
>why not run a copper wire from the sahara to antartica?

There are billions of copper wires from running from hot places to cold places already. But you can't transfer heat that way. Nobody ITT seems to know anything about thermodynamics whatsoever.

>> No.5800644

>>5800601
Yes you can. Just not in an effective way.

>> No.5800651

>>5800644

Don't be pedantic. You're not going to transfer anything through a thousand miles of copper.

>> No.5800720

>>5799832
How are you gonna continously keep it between the Sahara and the sun?

>> No.5801233

There is no air in space to transfer the heat to. Heat sinks work because a fan blows cool air across the metal. Space is vacuum. There is nothing to transfer directly to.