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Physicists develop levitation technology

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Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby Omnitir » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 00:06:49

Physicists have solved mystery of levitation

Edit: This is nano-scale technology. This is important because it is another major hurdle on he path to developing molecular nanotech, which is possibly our single greatest technological hope.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('physicsworld', '"')In the nano-world, the Casimir force is the ultimate cause of friction," Leonhardt told physicsworld.com. "Our result means we could now envision frictionless machines or novel micromotors."

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Last edited by Omnitir on Wed 08 Aug 2007, 21:34:23, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby Falconoffury » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 01:49:55

I read some interesting articles that argue the Casimir force was used in ancient Egypt to build the pyramids.
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby Omnitir » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 10:00:23

It's not exactly false advertising. The image is captioned "In theory the discovery could be used to levitate a person". Kind of like posting a drawing of a flying car and saying "this might one day be possible".

Maybe they should have just included an image of the actual nano-scale levitation they developed. Less misleading, but I guess less dramatic.

Important discovery because it's yet another tick off the "molecular nanotech is impossible" list. Plus levitation is cool :wink:
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby grabby » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 11:28:11

Look, this is just like ethanol.
They promise the impossible.

the force involved here drops off as the square of the distance, at atomic radii the pressure is one atmosphere.

To do this over large distances is too expensive and energy intensive to be useful.

It is like using gecko feet to transport 60 ton cannisters across country.

it could be donw for enourmous dollar expense but not useful.
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby EnergyUnlimited » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 16:46:11

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Falconoffury', 'I') read some interesting articles that argue the Casimir force was used in ancient Egypt to build the pyramids.

I can assure you, that articles are BS.
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby EnergyUnlimited » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 16:59:35

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Omnitir', '[')url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/06/nlevitate106.xml]Physicists have solved mystery of levitation[/url]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he practicalities of designing the lens to do this are daunting but not impossible and levitation “could happen over quite a distance”.

I really cannot work out what would be actually "focused" or "defocused" by those "lenses".
Casimir vacuum?
It cannot be true.
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby Geko45 » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 18:42:34

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('grabby', 'I')t is like using gecko feet to transport 60 ton cannisters across country.

Someone called for a pick up?

:-D
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby jboogy » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 18:57:13

I levitate, therefor I am
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby PenultimateManStanding » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 20:11:57

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '
')I really cannot work out what would be actually "focused" or "defocused" by those "lenses".
Casimir vacuum?
It cannot be true.
What do you mean it cannot be true:

In the original calculation done by Casimir, he considered the space between a pair of conducting metal plates a distance a apart. In this case, the standing waves are particularly easy to calculate, since the transverse component of the electric field and the normal component of the magnetic field must vanish on the surface of a conductor. Assuming the parallel plates lie in the x-y plane, the standing waves are

\psi_n(x,y,z,t) = e^{-i\omega_nt} e^{ik_xx+ik_yy} \sin \left( k_n z \right)

where ψ stands for the electric component of the electromagnetic field, and, for brevity, the polarization and the magnetic components are ignored here. Here, kx and ky are the wave vectors in directions parallel to the plates, and

k_n = \frac{n\pi}{a}

is the wave-vector perpendicular to the plates. Here, n is an integer, resulting from the requirement that ψ vanish on the metal plates. The energy of this wave is

\omega_n = c \sqrt{{k_x}^2 + {k_y}^2 + \frac{n^2\pi^2}{a^2}}

where c is the speed of light. The vacuum energy is then the sum over all possible excitation modes

\langle E \rangle = \frac{\hbar}{2} \cdot 2 \int \frac{dk_x dk_y}{(2\pi)^2} \sum_{n=1}^\infty A\omega_n

where A is the area of the metal plates, and a factor of 2 is introduced for the two possible polarizations of the wave. This expression is clearly infinite, and to proceed with the calculation, it is convenient to introduce a regulator (discussed in greater detail below). The regulator will serve to make the expression finite, and in the end will be removed. The zeta-regulated version of the energy per unit-area of the plate is

\frac{\langle E(s) \rangle}{A} = \hbar \int \frac{dk_x dk_y}{(2\pi)^2} \sum_{n=1}^\infty \omega_n \vert \omega_n\vert^{-s}

In the end, the limit s\to 0 is to be taken. Here s is just a complex number, not to be confused with the shape discussed previously. This integral/sum is finite for s real and larger than 3. The sum has a pole at s=3, but may be analytically continued to s=0, where the expression is finite. Expanding this, one gets

\frac{\langle E(s) \rangle}{A} = \frac{\hbar c^{1-s}}{4\pi^2} \sum_n \int_0^\infty 2\pi qdq \left \vert q^2 + \frac{\pi^2 n^2}{a^2} \right\vert^{(1-s)/2}

where polar coordinates q^2 = k_x^2+k_y^2 were introduced to turn the double integral into a single integral. The q in front in the Jacobian, and the 2π comes from the angular integration. The integral is easily performed, resulting in

\frac{\langle E(s) \rangle}{A} = -\frac {\hbar c^{1-s} \pi^{2-s}}{2a^{3-s}} \frac{1}{3-s} \sum_n \vert n\vert ^{3-s}

The sum may be understood to be the Riemann zeta function, and so one has

\frac{\langle E \rangle}{A} = \lim_{s\to 0} \frac{\langle E(s) \rangle}{A} = -\frac {\hbar c \pi^{2}}{6a^{3}} \zeta (-3)

But ζ( − 3) = 1 / 120 and so one obtains

\frac{\langle E \rangle}{A} = \frac {-\hbar c \pi^{2}}{3 \cdot 240 a^{3}}

The Casimir force per unit area Fc / A for idealized, perfectly conducting plates with vacuum between them is

{F_c \over A} = - \frac{d}{da} \frac{\langle E \rangle}{A} = -\frac {\hbar c \pi^2} {240 a^4}



It's much easier to see at the wiki article on Casimir. Technology will save us. That isn't a magnet anyway. Maybe this is what the UFO thing is about, huh?
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Re: Physicists develop levitation technology

Unread postby Omnitir » Wed 08 Aug 2007, 21:28:03

You're a funny man PMS :-D

I thought people here would realise why this is such an important breakthrough. Sorry, I'll edit the OP to highlight it's importance. It's not about transporting goods across America.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Science Daily', '"')At the moment, in practice it is only going to be possible for micro-objects with the current technology, since this quantum force is small and acts only at short ranges. For now, human levitation remains the subject of cartoons, fairytales and tales of the paranormal," explained Professor Leonhardt.


This is about quantum levitation. The Casimir force was a serious block in the development of molecular nanotech. Now that's been overcome.

This is a big deal because molecular nanotech is a big deal. Forget cold fusion, or magic levitating cars, molecular nanotech is the holy grail we need.
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