Posted on 11/22/2006 3:05:23 AM PST by ajolympian2004
DETROIT — On the surface, Thiago Olson is like any typical teenager.
He's on the cross country and track teams at Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, Mich. He's a good-looking, clean-cut 17-year-old with a 3.75 grade point average, and he has his eyes fixed on the next big step: college.
But to his friends, Thiago is known as "the mad scientist."
In the basement of his parents' Oakland Township, Mich., home, tucked away in an area most aren't privy to see, Thiago is exhausting his love of physics on a project that has taken him more than two years and 1,000 hours to research and build — a large, intricate machine that, on a small scale, creates nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion — when atoms are combined to create energy — is "kind of like the holy grail of physics," he said.
In fact, on www.fusor.net, the Stoney Creek senior is ranked as the 18th amateur in the world to create nuclear fusion. So, how does he do it?
Pointing to the steel chamber where all the magic happens, Thiago said on Friday that this piece of the puzzle serves as a vacuum. The air is sucked out and into a filter.
Then, deuterium gas — a form of hydrogen — is injected into the vacuum. About 40,000 volts of electricity are charged into the chamber from a piece of equipment taken from an old mammogram machine. As the machine runs, the atoms in the chamber are attracted to the center and soon — ta da — nuclear fusion.
Thiago said when that happens, a small intense ball of energy forms.
He first achieved fusion in September and has been perfecting the machine he built in his parents' garage ever since.
"I was always interested in science," he said. "It's always been my best subject in school."
But, his mom had other ideas.
"I thought he was going to be a cook," Natalice Olson said, "because he liked to mix things."
Thiago Olson, 17, stands near his nuclear fusion reactor, which he calls "the Fusor," at home in Oakland Township on Friday. After more than two years and 1,000 hours of research, the Stoney Creek High School senior, with a little help from his dad, built the machine.
Wait! On the other hand...
...that's rich.
Fusion can be made for millionths of second...maintaining it is what only God can do so far.
Stoney Creek High School in Rochester Hills, Michigan
It's Jimmy Neutron!
Fusion using deuterium is one of the easiest nuclear reactions to perform. You need a small bottle of D2 gas, a vacuum system, a specially configured chamber and a modest high voltage power supply. Fusion devices are widely used in elemental analyis, oil well logging, etc. Here we're not talking about fusion power generators, just simple vacuum tubes that produce neutrons. That said, putting together such an apparatus requires time, skill and patience. Measuring the neutron output is another challenge. Read all about fusors here: http://fusor.net/
D2 gas? Do you think Safeway would carry that?
Owl_Eagle
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
to post 4
I don't believe that to be true.
In the not-sure-what-name experimental fusion reactor,
sustained fusion was acheived, at one point, but
not at breakeven.
Not quite but you can order a bottle for about $100.
What's the big deal. I created some fusion back in high school until her father found out about it.
Ah...yea...right.
and were do i buy tritium ?
Nuclear fusion as the savior of mankind has been reappearing in one venue or another for, what, forty years? This looks like a fun science project, but I s'pect it won't draw a long line of investors this week.
e-Bay
For fun!
I must have a sick mind.....
....but I can't stop thinking there must be a Columbine joke as a followup to this story.
When I saw the words, Fusion and Detroit, I was thinking, "Uh, oh. Mecca, Michigan...this can't be good."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.