Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 July 15

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July 15

The holy grail of hydrogen

"Get more energy out than you put in." (https://astronaerospace.com/) Is this legit? Has this been demonstrated or are they just good at making slick CGI animations (better than at spelling)? Thank you. Hevesli (talk) 16:33, 15 July 2024 (UTC)

I wasted several seconds looking at it. It's what we call a solidworks engine. take any positive displacement pump, add fuel and oxidiser, hey presto semi believable engine animation. The total absence of technical info in the youtube I saw is a bit of a giveaway. "Get more energy out than you put in." yeah and I've got a bridge to sell you. Greglocock (talk) 05:54, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

An exception might be a hydrogen bomb. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:17, 16 July 2024 (UTC)

I don't think the H-bomb is considered a "holy grail". The term has been used for nuclear fusion as a source of "clean energy", where the hope is that "we can obtain more energy than we put in".^[1] In this context, the wording "obtain more energy than is put in" is IMO somewhat justifiable: after all, E = mc² gives mass–energy equivalence, not mass–energy equality. Claiming to obtain more energy than is put in for combustion engines is not justifiable.  --Lambiam 13:03, 16 July 2024 (UTC)