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NASA: EM Drive really does work

sciencealert.com

1–10 of 20 posts

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#3

This must mean we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in physics to explain this wizard free energy bull-shit then.

Agreed we don't really understand it well yet, but it's more of a loophole in our current understanding, vs "wizard free energy bull-shit." It's, sort of, a rounding error in the universe. But I agree, there's obviously things we don't understand yet.

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#4

This must mean we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in physics to explain this wizard free energy bull-shit then.

As far as i understand it, there no free energy being claimed i.e. they still need to power the drive.

What's being claimed is a drive that creates thrust without a reaction (in the Newtonian sense). If true, from a physics point of view, this is huge. Less clear about its immediate practical implications other than it may make a useful thruster for spacecraft.

To put it in its historical context, its hardly unprecedented that we pass the bounds where Newtonian physics is an adequate model. It's definitely not the equivalent of a perpetual motion machine.

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#6
"But the team does acknowledge that more research is needed to eliminate the possibility that thermal expansion could be somehow skewing the results."

So maybe it doesn't really work? I don't see anything substantially new in this article that the EM Drive community didn't already know.

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#7

"But the team does acknowledge that more research is needed to eliminate the possibility that thermal expansion could be somehow skewing the results." So maybe it doesn't really work? I don't see anything substantially new in this article that the EM Drive community didn't already know.

It's another resounding "meh!" as far as measurement goes. And publishing in a low-impact engineering journal is a bit of a warning flag when they're proposing exotic new physics.

Prediction: When it's actually published, it's going to be torn apart.

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#8

This must mean we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in physics to explain this wizard free energy bull-shit then.

See, your conventional free energy bullshit needs a wizard, and we all know what that means: cranky experts on-premises, HR issues, eesh. Wizard-free bullshit is the way forward. Just click and believe [tm].

Re: NASA: EM Drive really does work

#9
post #4

This must mean we are on the verge of a paradigm shift in physics to explain this wizard free energy bull-shit then.

As far as i understand it, there no free energy being claimed i.e. they still need to power the drive. What's being claimed is a drive that creates thrust without a reaction (in the Newtonian sense). If true, from a physics point of view, this is huge. Less clear about its immediate practical implications other than it may make a useful thruster for spacecraft. To put it in its historical context, its hardly unpreced…

Energy-momentum conservation is more fundamental than Newtonian physics. It's part of the structure of spacetime.

http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/05/the-female-mathematic...

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