Posted 01.23.2012 at 4:45 pm
10 Comments
Deflecting Fire
DARPA
A recently-concluded DARPA program sought to extinguish fires using unusual methods. No water or simple common chemicals for DARPA: instead, this is "a novel flame-suppression system based on destabilization of flame plasma with electromagnetic fields and acoustics techniques." Below, you will find a video of somebody rubbing a fire with some sort of rod, which puts the fire out.
"Instant Fire Suppression" is the name of the program; it was undertaken by the DARPA research team at Harvard University, aiming to find a way to put out fires that treats them in a fundamentally different way. Typical methods, like, say, using water, or a blanket, are chemical solutions, seeking to starve the fire of oxygen or introduce a substance that destroys the fire's source, that kind of thing. But what if you looked at fire from a physics point of view, rather than a chemical one? Others have tried--we even wrote about one method--but this is the first time we've seen one in action.
"From a physics point of view," says DARPA on their site, "flames are cold plasmas comprising mobile electrons and slower positive ions." So this project was designed to manipulate and extinguish fires using "physics techniques" like acoustics, ion injections, and manipulation of electromagnetic fields. DARPA hasn't said exactly how the fire-killing rod in the video works, but the results of the project will hopefully be scaled up and used inside military vehicles, especially sensitive ones like ships that may not respond well to traditional firefighting methods.
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yeah ^^ i live to see that kind of sh!t !!! (and a wrapDrive would be nice too)
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bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^
Its warp drive.
And I don't think we NEED language on this website.
The science itself is fascinating.
i think they should just build a super duper one for forest fires. p.s. never heard of a wrapDrive. how much does that cost at taco bell? :)
-Knock knock
-Who's there?
-The Doctor.
-Doctor Who?
-Yes
@scientific anomaly - wrapDrive's are very expensive now due to the flooding that happened in Thailand. ‾\(ツ)/‾
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In space, no one can hear a tree fall in the forest.
lol @ "wrapDrive"
good one.
"religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"
-Killah Priest
lol the wrapdrives are out of stock at tacobell because of the influx of gravity waves from the meteorite collisions. now you can only buy them at McDonalds!
making oxygen go towards the rod would make the fire surround it. wouldn't it?
kinda, it wouldn't pull the flame towards the wand it would just excellerate the fire near the wand. you'd get the same effect but it's a different concept.
however this is deflecting the fire, if i had to guess i would say it's simply a coil wrapped around the wand with an alternating current going through it. if i'm right it's the same concept behind those washer chuckers that you see on youtube.
like anything else with science fiction technology you should be able to increase da powah to get a bigger effect. one thing we can't forget is that DARPA IS in fact a government program so i sincerely doubt they are showing us the latest prototype.
now wrap your selves in punks this engine is taking us places. wrap engine to the maximum! *boom* *chicka* *boom* *boom*
to mars or bust!
Would be pretty cool if they could develop an "acoustics cannon" or something that would fire a pulse huge enough to put out a house fire or something....it rolls up and "boom" there goes the flame....