Zero Point

[John A]

There was an article on the Drudge report yesterday about an engine that tapped into the quantum vacuum zero point energy field. I have not been able to find that again so I was wondering if anybody here caught that. There is a book called "The Hunt for Zero Point" that details the search for WW2 Nazi technology on that. Evidently the Germans were close to developing an engine. The article on Drudge said someone had built an engine useing Zero Point that had scientists wondering how and why it worked and that it would make space travel feasible .

[Testarossa]

Suspicious of this, and not just because it comes from Drudge. There's a good Wikipedia article on the subject, and this, specifically about zero-point energy and Nazis: http://www.salon.com/2002/08/05/zero_gravity/

The Nazi-connection rumors may have arisen because Walter Heisenberg wrote a well-received paper before WWII, reviving the zero-point quantum concept first proposed, then abandoned, by Einstein. Heisenberg later ran the WWII German nuclear bomb program but didn't get far, in part because the Nazis regarded quantum physics as "Jewish science." He did apparently come up with the idea of a nuclear pile (like the simple reactor Fermi built in Chicago) but never built it. That may be the origin of the idea that the Germans were close to to building an energy device.

Physicists seem to agree that any practical device using zero-point energy would be at nanoscale, to power quantum electronic circuits for instance. Certainly not terrestrial-scale vehicles or power plants.

[Testarossa]

I think this article is about the same engine.

Nope. EMD (electromagnetic drive) is a different animal altogether. It uses electric power (from solar panels) to ionize particles and stream them out a channel, like an electromag "gun" at particle scale. Very low thrust and practical only in deep-space flight after being boosted out of the gravity well by a conventional combustion-fuel rocket.

[rodekyll]

Remember what Abe Lincoln said .

  Dusty

"Pass the pancakes."  ?

[Penderic]

Fact! If the Earth's gravity were any higher, we would never be able to get off the planet!


Thats why we should be investing in lowering the Earth's gravity, somehow.

[sib]

Thats why we should be investing in lowering the Earth's gravity, somehow.

We can do that by increasing levity, as this thread demonstrates.

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

Remember what Abe Lincoln said .

  Dusty

remember what Booth said, "I was just trying to enjoy the play, and some asshole with a big tall hat comes and sits right in front of me...."

[mtiberio]

The Federation uses matter anti matter mixing to travel faster then light. The Romulens use a singularity. Seems like Drudge has been watching old star treks...

[Penderic]

And we are just dust in the wind! According to this graphic demo of how big, I mean really big, enormous, stupefying, and yes even bigger than that!

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html


Why worry? Space is too big to fill with all our garbage. 
 

[sib]

The Federation uses matter anti matter mixing to travel faster then light.

Gee, I thought it was dilithium crystals.

[Penderic]

These guys should know.

 

[cj750]

Right. Dilithium crystals are used to contain and regulate the matter and antimatter in a starship's warp core, which otherwise would explode from the uncontrolled annihilation reaction. Everyone knows that.

[sib]

I need that NOW, Scotty!
 
Captain, I canna' change the laws of physics.

[beetle]

This is all rubbish. Spaceships need to be powered by Unicorns, just like my Griso.