Re: Unrenewable sun was "Hemel fuel depot explosion"

James Nicoll wrote: 
In article <11poslcfgp5lk81@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Bill Swears  <wswears@xxxxxxx> wrote:

David Friedman wrote:

In article <dnhpek$l7c$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
jdnicoll@xxxxxxxxx (James Nicoll) wrote:


In article <rIZmf.7427$Dk.4318@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Cully_J <acarter@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I'm glad you're okay, Neal,

Your post got me thinking about future energy use. We're increasingly moving
towards more renewable energy sources; things like solar energy.

I have this skiffy idea that we'll suddenly find out that the sun's rays are
actually nonrenewable. 

	*blink*

	You think the sun isn't running down, just like the rest of
the universe?


It's running down, but the rate at which it is running down doesn't depend on whether we do or don't use its rays.


That doesn't prevent it from being an interesting idea. A lot of neat S.F. solutions are firmly grounded in bad physics.


There's the old idea of the star-tap, where wormholes or other high tech distance evaders give us direct access to
stellar cores. This could increase how quickly energy gets
out of stars, which I suppose would have the effect of cooling
their outer layers. Which, hrm, would then contract slightly.

In the other direction, there's star-lifting, which removes fusion byproducts to extend the useful life of stars. 
How about this?

entropy increases at a steady rate, and the heat death of this universe is an absolute date. Each sun turns out so much energy, and it fills the space between stars to a set percentage of total death in a given amount of time.

Use of a solar battery converts a fraction of heat energy into mechanical, and a portion to storage, but reduces, very slightly, absolute waste heat. This interrupts a portion of the total output from our sun, which creates a residuum loss in the universe. A portion of that loss is filled by other local stars, but most of the lost waste heat is sucked out of the sun where the residuum loss occured. The sun increases its output by the amount the solar battery absorbed and converted to other, non-waste heat, states. Sort of like filling a vacuum.

A previously undiscovered, or unrecognized law of physics. You can name it after me.

Bill
--
Bill Swears

Ever Inappropriate, always contrite, and now... Ironic!  How cool is that?
.

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