Real life anti-gravity?

[samwichse]

Well, I couldn't cut through all the tech jargon, but I do remember this from an issue of Popular Mechanics (or Science) a year or so ago. Basically, they spun this big charged superconductor donut in a vaccum and it changed the readings on their scales. The big question was if it was just all the electricity/magnetism messing with the instruments.

[scourge]

samwichse - I believe you are referring to an article that centered around shielding gravity. If I remember correctly, they are building a large scale version somewhere in Texas.

This article appears to be discussing the creation of a gravity-like phenomena. Don't know if I can cut through all the tech jargon, but here goes:


"The detection of apparent anomalous forces in the vicinity of high-Tc superconductors"

Some dude noticed something weird while he was playing around with a superconductor that has a high critical temperature.

"under non equilibrium conditions"

-Meaning he was constantly changing a variable like voltage and/or amps and/or something that he was shooting thru the thing.

"has stimulated an experimental research in which the operating parameters of the experiment have been pushed to values higher than those employed in previous attempts."

-Meaning "hey, I wonder what'll happen if we f*ck with those variables a lot?!"

"The results confirm the existence of an unexpected physical interaction."

-Cool!

"An apparatus has been constructed and tested in which the superconductor is subjected to peak currents in excess of 10^4 A, surface potentials in excess of 1 MV, trapped magnetic field up to 1 T, and temperature down to 40 K."

-The aforementioned variables

"In order to produce the required currents a high voltage discharge technique has been employed."

-they plugged it up to something that could give a lot of juice in a very short amount of time

"Discharges originating from a superconducting ceramic electrode are accompanied by the emission of radiation which propagates in a focused beam"

-This thing spits out a beam like a one of those annoying laser pens

"without noticeable attenuation through different materials"

-apparently, this beam passes thru a walnut the same as it would metal with no speed or direction changes

"and exerts a short repulsive force on small movable objects along the propagation axis."

-when it comes in contact with something that isn't bolted down, it moves it in the same direction that the beam came from.

"Within the measurement error (5 to 7 %) the impulse is proportional to the mass of the objects and independent on their composition."

-Like gravity, it doesn't care what it is, but it does care about the mass of the object. It's easier to push an air molecule than it is an SUV

"It therefore resembles a gravitational impulse."

-Cool

"The observed phenomenon appears to be absolutely new and unprecedented in the literature."

-Star Trek has had graviton emitters for over 30 years.

"It cannot be understood in the framework of general relativity. A theory is proposed which combines a quantum gravity approach with anomalous vacuum fluctuations."

-Scotty could explain it.

[DiscoLando]

Well, scourge, my hat goes off to you!

[jomiwic]

You remember those metal spheres that emit lightning like "discharges", well some dude found a way to supercharge one of these babies and focus (direct) it's "discharge". The magnetic field accompanying any electrical impulse through wire or metal of the do-hicky was somehow "trapped" so as not to effect the target. The electons that we all know and love in electricity are negatively charged and create an attractional magnetic field when passed through metal. Apparently when electricity is focused and supercharged it will emit radiation and a "repulsive" magnetic field, moving objects away from the point of the lightning bolt. I kind of doubt it. The last line is probably more along the lines of what is really occurring. Lightning bolt passes through air displacing the air. When the lightning bolt bends the air rushes back to fill the void left by the lightning creating a directional air flow able to move small objects. Maybe maybe not but given the lack of description of the "radiation" emitted and my somewhat limited understanding of HOT air I could be out in left field on this one.
The air rushing back into the void left by the focused electrical discharge also explains thunder. Hmm, I wonder if they heard any noises above the hum of the electrical generators?

Scotty out, captin

[This message has been edited by jomiwic (edited 08-09-2001).]

[ukulele]

Sounds suspiciously like some recent experiments with high voltage capacitors. It has been claimed by several novice experimenters that pulsed charges above 30kv induced in stacked plate capacitors can cause anti-gravity effects. There are plans at http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/weird.html that claim to show how to make them. I haven't tried to make one but it certainly seems to follow along similar methods. Someday somebody is going to improve on the total lack of knoledge our greatest minds still don't have a clue about concerning the nature of gravity and it will probably be some nerd who was looking for a way to make gold out of belly button lint.