Hallo from New Hampshire

[david pattantyus]

Hello all,

I am 13 years old and just started my freshman year in high school. I am trying to get a grant from the school and am working on a proposal presentation (if you are curious, i can share it on Google docs). My birthday is on October 13th, so i am trying to get neutrons before then, also do any of you know how long after his fourteenth birthday Taylor Wilson achieved fusion? I am working with one other person, Benjamin Abbatiello and we are planning on getting help from the engineering department at Dartmouth college because they have Hv power supplies and can obtain dry deuterium. I have compiled a parts list that is not yet complete and if you would like to see it, i can share it with you on Google docs ( just pm me your email address).

Auf wiedersehen

[Scott Moroch]

Hello David,

Welcome to the Forum. I am 15 years old and in high school just like you. I admire your enthusiasm and ambition to build a fusor before your 14th birthday, however, I want to be honest with you: I really do not think it is A) in your best interest and B)possible

I have been working on a fusor for a little over a year now. In this past year I have devoted all of the free time I have to finding parts, designing the fusor, buying, and assembling. There are people on this forum who work on their fusors for years and years. This is why I do not think you will be able to get all of the parts, assemble the fusor and see neutrons before your birthday in about two months.

In addition, I strongly advise you not to rush building your fusor. Building a fusor in high school is certainly possible, however you have to remember all of the dangerous equipment you are dealing with: lethal voltages, flammable gas, radiation. Rushing a fusor will only end up in someone seriously hurt. When I started researching my fusor I knew, and everyone knew, that I did not know enough about electronics and high voltage. I took everyone's comments into consideration and began to seriously study up on electronics and also got a mentor who is an electrical engineer. I am very thankful that everyone put up with me and helped me because I would not be where I am today if they hadn't. I certainly learned my lesson that before messing around with high voltage, you should really understand what you are doing.

I think getting help from Dartmouth college is very beneficial to your project. In my opinion, for your own safety, you should not rush this project to break a record. I also think if you take your time you will be much happier with the end result.

The forum often sees people who are trying to break the record for the youngest, however most times their project does not work out. I have learned that it is important to learn from your own mistakes and to learn from others mistakes. The truth is that building a fusor is much easier said than done. I hope you take all of this into consideration and learn from my mistake of getting in over my head before I knew what I was doing.

I wish you the best of luck with your project and hope to one day see your name on the neutron club.

Scott Moroch

[Richard Hull]

Well spoken wisdom from someone so young........a great rarity.

Richard Hull

[Andrew Robinson]

Hallelujah Scott

[david pattantyus]

Thank you for the advice, Scott. I intend to finish before the beginning of the next school year.

[Fred Stock]

Congratulations David with your intentions and congratulations Scott with your insight in the perils and challenges that are inherent when building a fusor.

It is against my principles to disappoint people by killing their enthusiasm and therefore I rarely react publicly on their intentions. However, reading David’s plans I miss scientific interest but observe only eagerness to be the first.
High quality scientific work and high speed to achieve results very rarely combine well. In fact, the joy is to be found in the journey and not in the arrival.

Sincerely, I do not understand why one wishes to be the youngest to produce neutrons in a fusor, or the oldest, or the richest, the poorest, etc.

The question is also if it is in the interest of the fusor community to award age records when we cannot determine if the “having neutron production achieved” status has been fulfilled with the help of ambitious parents who wish to push their kids into the ranks of successful fusioneers, or school teachers who wish to have their school mentioned, or the friendly neighbour who is a professor at a science lab, etc. With other words how can we judge the own effort of the candidate?

In my opinion intellectual matureness is one of the basic requirement for dealing with the science and techniques involved in fusors. Age and intellectual matureness are related but, lacking knowledge in this matter, I cannot determine at what age the barrier is crossed for fully understanding what is needed for building and operating a fusor.
Because Scott shows to have that intellectual matureness (imho) and since he is 15 years old I think that that barrier could very well be established at that age of 15 years old. Of course I know that referring to a single case is lousy statistics but nevertheless I would like to propose to the board of the forum that we raise a barrier at the age of 15 for being accepted as a successful fusioneer who has produced neutrons. This might stop that silly race for records of being the youngest.

Of course you may think that this is a dumb proposal. In that case, when I apply for the Neutron Club, I prefer to be registered as the dumbest person who has achieved fusion.

[david pattantyus]

It would be nice to be the youngest however i can not let that aim make me lose sight of the real reason i am doing it. And that is for the experience, all the learning opportunities, the chance to work and meet with some extremely intelligent people and the experience in general. And as Scott said earlier, rushing it could only end badly and the potential fame is not worth the potential consequences, given that those consequences would in all likely hood be lethal or debilitating.

[Rich Feldman]

Good luck with your efforts, David and Benjamin.
Don't get your names in a newspaper story that also mentions Jessica Dubroff.
-Rich

[david pattantyus]

Thanks, and i wouldnt worry about that