news.com.com — Mach-Lorentz thrusters could provide a new source of propulsion that "puts out thrust without blowing stuff out the tailpipe". MLTs are based on Mach's principle (suggests that all particles in the universe have an effect on each other).
May 17, 2006 View in Crawl 4
kitsune818May 18, 2006
I take it you don't read French.. (and it's not like I can... at least not very well) :) They did 250g with the "Maximus II"
ottoMay 18, 2006
Oh Jebus.... not lifters again!Lifters are primitive ion propulsion devices that rely on charging the air around them. The thing generates a small breeze from the motion of the ions through the air, which yes, is more than enough to lift it up. The breeze you feel doesn't seem like enough because it is dispersed and not coming from anywhere obvious, but it's made up of charged air particles and the lifting action comes from the charge. Instead of blocking the breeze with cardboard (which wouldn't work anyway because by the time you feel the breeze below the thing, the thrust has already been given to the device), try putting it in a vaccum next time. Notice that it don't work without air around it.The wire around the top charges the air near it. The charged air rushes down towards the foil, which is oppositely charged. In the process, the foil is pulled up towards the charged air. Now, if the air hit the foil, there'd be no net gain. But since the thing is not enclosed, most of the charged air actually misses the foil and thus provides thrust to the thing as a whole (by the act of pulling the foil up towards the charged air above it). Simple physics, easily explained and proven. No magic behind it whatsoever.
totalnetMay 18, 2006
At least the Japanese did better than the Mythbusters.
kitsune818May 18, 2006
@Otto: That makes sense.. like those "ionic air filters" at Brookstone that move air without fans.
deepsubMay 18, 2006
Effectively, it is something akin to an ion sterling engine.Mechanically, though, I don't understand how the 'ping pong' action would propel this forward since the whole device's center of gravity would remain the same since it is a closed system.I think a good mechanical engineer could knock this out of the sky with a few Newtonain equations.Any ME's out there?
ragaMay 18, 2006
Finally, we can blow things up without polluting our environment.
aposterMay 18, 2006
So, CorpT, you're claiming you've invented a smug engine? Damn, the universe is saved. With some of the smug bastards I know we could power them for eons.
krakelohmMay 18, 2006
Nighthawke, I think you just surpassed The Star Wars Kid, congrats.
hr15_May 18, 2006
This article lost me at "James Woodward, a HISTORY professor at California State University in Fullerton, presented his research..."Why is the history professor running a Star Trek warp drive lab?Even more disturbing was the factual reference to the engines used in Star Trek.
ottoMay 19, 2006
Steve: It's been done in vacuums. They don't work when the pressure drops too low. Quick google search gives me this: <a class="user" href="http://www.blazelabs.com/l-vacuum.asp">http://www.blazelabs.com/l-vacuum.asp</a>Also, they take into account some other forces I had not considered:-The charged air molecules repel the wire upwards-When the charged air impacts the non-charged air, there's a momentum transfer, and then if the charged air hits the aluminum, the momentum it has is less than the force it gave to the lifter in the first place (since the non-charged air gained all that momentum)And so on.