How To Build a Quantum Propulsion Machine 392
Posted
by
kdawson
from the magnetoelectric-quantum-wheel dept.
from the magnetoelectric-quantum-wheel dept.
KentuckyFC writes "According to quantum mechanics, a vacuum will be filled with electromagnetic waves leaping in and out of existence. It turns out that these waves can have various measurable effects, such as the Casimir-Polder force, which was first measured accurately in 1997. Just how to exploit this force is still not clear. Now, however, a researcher at an Israeli government lab suggests how it could be possible to generate propulsion using the quantum vacuum. The basic idea is that pushing on the electromagnetic fields in the vacuum should generate an equal and opposite force. The suggestion is that this can be done using nanoparticles that interact with the vacuum's electric and magnetic fields, generating the well-known Lorentz force. In most cases, the sum of Lorentz forces adds up to zero. But today's breakthrough is the discovery of various ways to break this symmetry and so use the quantum vacuum to generate a force. The simplest of these is simply to rotate the particles. So the blueprint for a quantum propulsion machine described in the paper is an array of addressable nanoparticles that can be rotated in the required way. Although such a machine will need a source of energy, it generates propulsion without any change in mass. As the research puts it with magesterial understatement, this might have practical implications."
This can be done using nanoparticles (Score:5, Funny)
I bet this could be done even easier with cats, but the ASPCA people won't like it.
So , , , (Score:3, Funny)
Vacuum doesn't suck, it pushes?
Re:This can be done using nanoparticles (Score:3, Funny)
Not to mention the International Buttered Toast Society.
Re:Call me pedantic but... (Score:5, Funny)
Finally! (Score:2, Funny)
ZPM's! We'll be able to retire the aging buttered cat array [deepscience.com] fleet!
Boy did I read that headline wrong (Score:4, Funny)
How To Build a Quantum Propulsion Machine
At first glance I thought it said How To Build a Quantum Popsicle Machine. Then I thought Quantum Popsicle would have been a great name for a hair band in the 80's.
You could have flavors like Lime Quark and Strange Berry, put the stand up outside the Hadron Collider.
Re:Those daring men in their quantum pushing machi (Score:4, Funny)
With due apologies to the authors if this estimate turns out to be a gross underestimate.
Re:This can be done using nanoparticles (Score:0, Funny)
Only if you go back to EUROPE.
Re:So , , , (Score:4, Funny)
Colonel Sandurz: It's Mega Maid. She's gone from suck to blow!
Re:This can be done using nanoparticles (Score:0, Funny)
Nor the People Eating Tasty Animals.
Re:Call me pedantic but... (Score:0, Funny)
worthless idiotic mods have no clue what troll actually means. being 12 year olds raging cause wow is patching on their snow day they thought maybe the post was from a low iq green skin.
Re:Those daring men in their quantum pushing machi (Score:2, Funny)
a few millimetres per hour
This is still orders of magnitude better than the Northern Line, however...
ATTENTION (Score:2, Funny)
THIS SOUNDS LIKE A REACTIONLESS DRIVE. NOW THAT I HAVE PROPERLY CATEGORIZED IT FOR YOU, YOU CAN JUST GO STRAIGHT ON TO BEING SKEPTICAL, SINCE EVERYONE KNOWS REACTIONLESS DRIVES ARE BALONY. THIS HAS BEEN A SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE STATUS QUO IN ENGINEERING. THANK YOU.
(We had to bribe Slashdot editors to let us write the above in all caps. They are total suckers for lower-case letters. It's a fetish of theirs, probably. Poor little letters. Cut to CmdrTaco doing a lower-case 'a' in the butt. Oh, ffs, will this filter ever let me through? rthwerg erg qergqegqerg qerg qegqegqreghqer gqer gq erg qer gqe gqergqergeqrgerg)
Re:Why did noone tell me it was the future? (Score:3, Funny)
This isn't the future. There are no aircars.
Re:ATTENTION (Score:3, Funny)
Dean drive?
Dean ... Venture?
Re:Momentum Conservation (Score:1, Funny)
Isn't Maxwell saying that you can use quantum mechanics to violate thermodynamics a bit like Charlie Daniels saying you can produce gold by being a sufficiently good fiddle player?
I hope this is as funny on paper as it is in my head...
Re:Call me pedantic but... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Call me pedantic but... (Score:4, Funny)
So... you're saying that nothing's impossible? Or just that we ain't seen nothing yet?
Nothing is sacred! Bow down before it!
Re:Call me pedantic but... (Score:3, Funny)
"worthless idiotic mods have no clue what troll actually means."
For once I have to agree. He's been modded "Troll", but reading a bit between the lines
"...was from a low iq green skin".
It is clear this guy should have been modded "Orc".