Re: Wire Obstacles

In a message dated 98-05-10 19:28:19 EDT, Beth writes:

<< G'day,
	Just a dumb question. You may have covered this already as I
haven't been
 following very closely. But what kind of molecules are we talking
about?
 What kind of molecular bonds? If they're only joined by the kind of
 molecular bonds I know about wouldn't appropriate electric/magnetic
fields
 break it up (by exciting the electrons in the bonds enough so that they
 jump out of that orbital thereby breaking the bond - if they're not in
a
 lattice of some kind I would have thought this was a strong
possibility)?
 Sorry if this really dumb, >>

Not a dumb question at all, Beth.  In fact, I don't think that anybody
knows
what kind of molecule would be used for that - maybe something in the
'island
of stability' predicted a few numbers out in the periodic table.  Most
sci-fi
writers use the ubiquitous 'force field' to grant the necessary
strength.  As
far as I can tell, it's not really feasible - but I could be wrong.  I
hope
not.  Nasty stuff.  
     Since it's a single, loooooooong molecule, atomic bonds would hold
the
nuclei together, right?  Would the strong nuclear force, the one that
holds
stuff together on that level, be resistent to the forces exerted by it's
environment?  My chemistry/physics is lacking in this department, so
somebody
more knowledgeable than me should take over here.

Noah V. Doyle