Questions for a fic

[hils]

I'm writing my first Iron Man fic *gasp* and I have a couple of questions

How does the arc reactor in Tony's chest work? Does he have to charge it up?

I'm just wondering how

Comments

[dametokillfor]

I think it takes a one time charge usually, as Yinsen pointed out it could power his heart for 50 lifetimes, then Tony counters with the fact it could also power something big for 15 minutes.
So from what I can gather, normally it wouldn't need anything doing to it but after the power was drained from the final fight, it needed charging then.
If that makes any sense.

Also, the press confrence was the day after the final battle. :)

[hils]

So, did Tony recharge himself after the fight and before the press conference then?

[lazaefair]

There's really nothing else for us to assume besides that the Mark I reactor held out long enough for Tony to get another one. I mean, he might not have even had to do that - Jarvis probably had the specs and facilities to fabricate a new reactor.

[hils]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking

This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[juniper200]

As for how the arc reactor works, the fake, movie science is based on some real science involving palladium fusion. As you might suspect, the film twists and extrapolates from what's known, but it does have a scientific grounding, which I thought was kind of cool.

Because it's a fusion device, the arc reactor doesn't need to recharge. Like the power plant that provides electricity to your home, it's a net producer of energy, not a net consumer. If it ran long enough, the palladium fuel inside would need to be replaced, but arc-reactor technology is presented in the movie as extremely advanced and efficient, so I doubt replacing fuel would ever come up before something else happened to impede reactor function.

Obviously, Tony's original work on palladium fusion proved too expensive, unstable or complicated to be of use on a large scale, or else it would have been a ubiquitous technology on that version of Earth. Our version of Earth could certainly use it

Re: This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[juniper200]

I'm glad you found it useful. :)

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that the biggest palladium-for-energy thing was the Fleischmann-Pons cold fusion fiasco. There's still research in the area, but it's not taken all that seriously. The arc reactor -- big or small -- is impossible using the science we have today or probably even decades from now, unless there's an absolute revolution in physics.

Re: This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[hils]

That is absolutely fascinating and not too much information at all

Re: This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[lily_shrike]

Obie's suit was damaged, but they didn't show the reactor was damaged. And even if he used it tremendously hard, it was still glowing strong after he was beaten, so my guess is that the reactor in Obie's suit, the second chest piece that Tony built, was fine to keep Tony alive long enough for Tony to make a new one (hell even with 1% energy left it would still be able to keep him going for six months). My guess is that Pepper or someone removed the chest piece from Obie's suit on Pepper's orders, and she did the replacement on site

[shusu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnet#Electromagnets_and_permanent_magnets

(And my connection is going batty again, so hopefully that offers a possibly explanation. Also now I want to find an iron nail for magnet experiments.)

Re: This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[lazaefair]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Obadiah and his suit pretty much vaporized at the end of the movie? Falling into a giant nuclear fusion reactor and exploding would sort of negate one's physical existence on this plane...

I was bothered by the magnet thing, too. I think the magnet must have been built into the Mark II reactor - it did appear to be larger than the Mark I reactor. It would probably just be more convenient to have all the parts incorporated into the same unit.

Also, there's another thought. Maybe the hospital or Pepper stuck a regular electromagnet on him until Jarvis or Tony could make another one by the next day.

Re: This is probably more information than you wanted. :)

[juniper200]

Four Times Pepper Potts Saved the World (and One Time She Didn't) by th_esaurus has Pepper help Tony hook himself up to a car battery again.

It's an awesome story all around. You should check it totally out.

[abigail_nicole]

From the way I understand it, it's kind of like a battery. Like a lithium-ion battery that powers iPods and the like, except this is a...palladium? I think he said palladium...powered one. The thing he extracted, when he said: "This is .25 grams, and we need 5, start digging." That's my best guess. And it could power his heart for 50 lifetimes or something big for about fifteen minutes, etc, etc. But his suit seems to me to be a big thing, so the new and improved one he built when he got back obviously has more power (because it glows more! obvious!).

[hils]

Yeah, I read in the novelisation that after the wearig the suit the reactor goes into 'recharge mode' so comparing it to a battery is quite accurate I think :)