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“I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

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Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#81

Post by tristanj »

pmiller2 wrote: post #68
tristanj wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Side note: the view of the hills and mountains from the reactor room is gorgeous. Agreed. The twins' fusor.net profile says the they live in Berkeley, CA, a suburb across the bay from San Francisco. At 1min into the video I'm fairly the shot is from Berkeley looking across the bay to San Francisco. The mountains in the background look like the ones just south of San Francisco. If you head a bit farther up the hill…

AFAICT, berkeley's nuclear free ordinance only covers weapons research and development.

Makes sense. The pair seem to know what they're doing, so they probably checked city law beforehand to make sure everything is alright.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#82

Post by zamalek »

gnoway wrote: post #42
stevecalifornia wrote: post #34

If they weren't doing this in a suburb I'd say 'Congrats'-- but to knowingly be generating x-rays in a residential neighborhood is really, really selfish and disrespectful to neighbors.

I think this is overstating the risk a little bit. Looking at the video linked elsewhere, this was run in a bedroom on the second or even third floor of a single-family residence. He mentions not being able to detect x-rays more than 35ft from the device. I think a neighbor would have to be trying to get in range to be affected. Here's the video again, queued up to the view out the bedroom window: https://youtu.be/92…

One of the the few times where the inverse square law is helpful.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#85

Post by dammitcoetzee »

eggy wrote: post #76

I made a lengthy comment below about my son, but now after watching the YouTube video, I am sad I do not have the resources to let him have such equipment. My son pulls off some cool experiments all on his own (I stay out of it apart from the phone call consultation, or YouTube video call) with salvage and other workarounds, with the money he earns and my contributions. These brothers have a freakin' mini-Tony-Stark…

One of the things I discovered later in life was that all the things I thought I was too poor to do in highschool were never actually limited by the amount of money I had. It was mostly the work I was willing to put in. After some of the things I've done now... If I had just sat down and thought about it, I could have come up with a way.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#86

Post by midnightclubbed »

sthatipamala wrote: post #11

This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

In slight defense of the counselor, lots of kids have outside interests and projects that cause them to lose focus on their studies and not obtain the grades they were capable of. Very very few of them have the skills and sheer determination to actually deliver. Shame on the councellor for not seeing the finished project in senior year and pushing to get this kid some more opportunities (not that UCSB is a bad school by any measure).

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#87

Post by argonaut »

fletchowns wrote: post #50
nlh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong. I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and excelled at. And I got into MIT.

I would have to imagine these days average high school GPA for incoming freshman to MIT is > 4.0

To add on to amluto's point, that's because your average elite college admit is cookie-cutter: great grades, great test scores, probably did a sport, did some extracurriculars with some leadership/responsibility. A cookie cutter average admit to MIT needs great grades to be competitive because they all look similar.

Standing out exceptionally in one category (such as extracurricular projects) is not something the average admit to MIT posseses.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#88

Post by taneq »

50CNT wrote: post #37
ChuckMcM wrote: post #33

I read these things and I smile because the stories will help others step outside their self imposed limitations and do things. When I was growing up I had a number of people who allowed me to dream big things and try them out when others would consider them too much work or too crazy. I got there by reading stories about some of the earliest inventors of our time and their home spun laboratories. There is a lot you…

I had a strict no "high-anything" rule for my basement bedroom. No high temperatures, no high voltages, no high amperages, no high velocity, no high pressure, no high vacuum, no high anything :(. At least I made my desktop sound like a jet engine, so that's something.

> no high voltages

So electron beams ahoy then? "But muuuum! -45kV is a LOW voltage!"

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#89

Post by nl »

swampthinker wrote: post #44
nlh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong. I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and excelled at. And I got into MIT.

If you don't mind me asking, how long ago was this?

This person claims she got into MIT in 2006 with a SAT a 1430 SAT I (which I guess would be, say, a 2150 or so now)[1]

[1] http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/how_to_do_everything_wr...

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#90

Post by cantagi »

50CNT wrote: post #37
ChuckMcM wrote: post #33

I read these things and I smile because the stories will help others step outside their self imposed limitations and do things. When I was growing up I had a number of people who allowed me to dream big things and try them out when others would consider them too much work or too crazy. I got there by reading stories about some of the earliest inventors of our time and their home spun laboratories. There is a lot you…

I had a strict no "high-anything" rule for my basement bedroom. No high temperatures, no high voltages, no high amperages, no high velocity, no high pressure, no high vacuum, no high anything :(. At least I made my desktop sound like a jet engine, so that's something.

No "high-anything" would mean something very different to most parents :)
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