[ExI] The L5 Society ( was: EP and Peak oil.)

[hkhenson]

At 09:07 AM 4/10/2008, you wrote:
>Me:
> >>Fused Quartz, it can do  5 x 10^7 volts/mil.
>
>"Keith Henson" <hkeithhenson at gmail.com>
>
> > Can you cite the source for this remarkable number?
>
>I too thought the number was remarkable, it was larger than even I thought
>it would be so I decided I wouldn't use it unless I could find 3 independent
>references to it, I could. See:
>
>http://www.proscitech.com/cataloguex/get_notes.asp?fusedquartz    or
>
>http://www.mtixtl.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=591  or
>
>http://www.qtubing.com/index/tech_data

All three of these sites also express the breakdown strength as 5 x 
10 exp 7/meter in the next column.  Since there are about 40,000 
mills in a meter, the correct number is about 1250 volts/mil, which 
is more believable.  It's better than rubber but not that much.  The 
sites all seem to have the same error.  Point this out to the web 
masters if you want to do a good deed.

>By the way, I found one reference that said Muscovite Mica could do even
>better but I couldn't find any conformation so I can't swear to it.
>
>Me:
> >> I don't know how much a power satellite would weigh
>
>You:
> >Easy to look up.  I am using 2kg/kW which works out to 10,000
> >metric tons for 5 GW.
>
>That figure is indeed very easy to look up but it is much less easy to have
>any confidence in it. Even with mundane things like civilian airliners  the
>early design estimates of the weight of the finished product usually proves
>to be far too optimistic,

Do you have a cite for this statement?

Keith