A curious connection between the flying anomaly and the “impossible” EmDrive engine
This morning Google Alert brought a link to the article “The Curious Link Between the Fly-By Anomaly and the“ Impossible ”EmDrive Thruster” , which seemed interesting to me. Made a translation, enjoy reading!
A theory that explains the mysterious flying anomaly can also explain how the conflicting EmDrive generates traction.
More than 10 years ago, a little-known aircraft engineer named Roger Shawyer made an amazing statement. Take a truncated cone, he said, run microwaves inside, reflected back and forth, and as a result get traction towards the sharp end of the cone. Voila! Ready revolutionary engine that can send a spaceship to the planets and beyond. Shawer called him EmDrive.
Scheer's statement was highly controversial. The system converts one type of energy into kinetic, like many others, and in this respect is nothing special. A fundamental problem arises with momentum. The total momentum of the system increases when it begins to move. But where does this extra impulse come from?
Shawer offered no explanation and critics noted that there was an apparent violation of the law of conservation of momentum. Shawer contrasted them with the results of experiments, confirming that the device works as stated. However, this did not convince the opponents. EmDrive was said to be the same as creating traction while standing in a box and pushing a wall. In other words, quackery.
Something interesting has happened since then. Various teams around the world began to build their versions of EmDrive and test its capabilities. To everyone's surprise, the Scheer effect was reproduced. EmDrive seems to actually be producing traction. In 2012, the Chinese team announced that they measured the cravings of their version of EmDrive. In 2014, an American scientist built EmDrive and convinced NASA to test it, with positive results. This year, NASA conducted new tests in a vacuum to eliminate the effect of air on the occurrence of force. Once again, NASA confirmed that EmDrive is producing traction. As a result, six independent experiments confirmed Shoeer's initial statements.
This leads to an important puzzle - how to explain the apparent violation of the law of conservation of momentum. Now we got some response, thanks to the work of Mike McCulloch from the University of Plymouth, UK. McCullough’s explanation is based on a new theory of inertia that makes amazing predictions about the motion of bodies with very small accelerations.
First, background information. Inertia is the resistance of all massive bodies to a change in their motion or acceleration. In modern physics, inertia is considered as an integral property of massive bodies under the action of acceleration. Moreover, body weight itself can act as a measure of inertia. However, the reasons for the existence of inertia have puzzled scientists for centuries.
McCullough’s idea is that inertia arises from Unruh radiation, an effect predicted by the general theory of relativity. It consists in the fact that an accelerating object radiates like a black body. In other words, the universe heats up when you accelerate.
According to McCullough, inertia is simply the pressure that Unruh radiation exerts on an accelerating body.
This is difficult to notice in the conditions of accelerations usual for the Earth's surface. However, with a decrease in the magnitude of the accelerations and a corresponding increase in the radiation wavelength of Unruh, everything becomes more interesting.
McCullough says there is evidence in favor of this theory, in the form of the famous "flying anomalies." These are strange jumps in momentum observed on some spacecraft while flying past Earth. And this is exactly what theory predicts.
A careful verification of this effect on Earth is difficult due to the fact that the accelerations involved are very small. One way would facilitate the task would be to reduce the allowable Unruh radiation wavelength. “This is exactly what EmDrive does,” says McCullough.
The idea is that if photons have an inertial mass, they should experience inertia when reflected. However, Unruh radiation in this case is extremely small. So much so that in fact it interacts with the immediate environment. In the case of EmDrive, this is a truncated cone.
The cone allows Unruh radiation of a certain length from a large end, and a shorter length from the other end. Therefore, the inertia of photons inside the cavity should change during reflections. And to maintain momentum, traction must occur.
McCullough checks the theory, using it to predict the magnitude of the emerging force. Accurate calculations are complicated due to the three-dimensional nature of the problem, but the approximate results correspond to the order of magnitude of the thrust obtained in all experiments performed so far.
Most importantly, McCullough's theory makes two testable predictions. The first is that placing the dielectric inside the cavity should increase the efficiency of the engine.
Secondly, resizing the cavity can reverse the direction of traction. This should happen when the Unruh radiation is better aligned with the sharp end of the cone.
McCullough says there is evidence that this is exactly what is happening. “This traction reversal seems to have been observed in recent NASA experiments,” he says.
This is an interesting idea. Shoeer's EmDrive could potentially revolutionize space travel because it does not require fuel, the most limiting factor in today's propulsion systems. But in the absence of an explanation of how it works, scientists and engineers are understandably cautious.
McCullough’s theory can help make a difference, although the idea is far from universally accepted. It is based on two controversial assumptions. Firstly, that the photon has an inertial mass. Secondly, the speed of light must change inside the cavity. This is not so easy to digest for many theorists.
But the more experimental evidence from EmDrive Scheuer appears, the more difficult the position of theorists becomes. If not McCullough’s explanation, then what?
A theory that explains the mysterious flying anomaly can also explain how the conflicting EmDrive generates traction.
More than 10 years ago, a little-known aircraft engineer named Roger Shawyer made an amazing statement. Take a truncated cone, he said, run microwaves inside, reflected back and forth, and as a result get traction towards the sharp end of the cone. Voila! Ready revolutionary engine that can send a spaceship to the planets and beyond. Shawer called him EmDrive.
Scheer's statement was highly controversial. The system converts one type of energy into kinetic, like many others, and in this respect is nothing special. A fundamental problem arises with momentum. The total momentum of the system increases when it begins to move. But where does this extra impulse come from?
Shawer offered no explanation and critics noted that there was an apparent violation of the law of conservation of momentum. Shawer contrasted them with the results of experiments, confirming that the device works as stated. However, this did not convince the opponents. EmDrive was said to be the same as creating traction while standing in a box and pushing a wall. In other words, quackery.
Something interesting has happened since then. Various teams around the world began to build their versions of EmDrive and test its capabilities. To everyone's surprise, the Scheer effect was reproduced. EmDrive seems to actually be producing traction. In 2012, the Chinese team announced that they measured the cravings of their version of EmDrive. In 2014, an American scientist built EmDrive and convinced NASA to test it, with positive results. This year, NASA conducted new tests in a vacuum to eliminate the effect of air on the occurrence of force. Once again, NASA confirmed that EmDrive is producing traction. As a result, six independent experiments confirmed Shoeer's initial statements.
This leads to an important puzzle - how to explain the apparent violation of the law of conservation of momentum. Now we got some response, thanks to the work of Mike McCulloch from the University of Plymouth, UK. McCullough’s explanation is based on a new theory of inertia that makes amazing predictions about the motion of bodies with very small accelerations.
First, background information. Inertia is the resistance of all massive bodies to a change in their motion or acceleration. In modern physics, inertia is considered as an integral property of massive bodies under the action of acceleration. Moreover, body weight itself can act as a measure of inertia. However, the reasons for the existence of inertia have puzzled scientists for centuries.
McCullough’s idea is that inertia arises from Unruh radiation, an effect predicted by the general theory of relativity. It consists in the fact that an accelerating object radiates like a black body. In other words, the universe heats up when you accelerate.
According to McCullough, inertia is simply the pressure that Unruh radiation exerts on an accelerating body.
This is difficult to notice in the conditions of accelerations usual for the Earth's surface. However, with a decrease in the magnitude of the accelerations and a corresponding increase in the radiation wavelength of Unruh, everything becomes more interesting.
McCullough says there is evidence in favor of this theory, in the form of the famous "flying anomalies." These are strange jumps in momentum observed on some spacecraft while flying past Earth. And this is exactly what theory predicts.
A careful verification of this effect on Earth is difficult due to the fact that the accelerations involved are very small. One way would facilitate the task would be to reduce the allowable Unruh radiation wavelength. “This is exactly what EmDrive does,” says McCullough.
The idea is that if photons have an inertial mass, they should experience inertia when reflected. However, Unruh radiation in this case is extremely small. So much so that in fact it interacts with the immediate environment. In the case of EmDrive, this is a truncated cone.
The cone allows Unruh radiation of a certain length from a large end, and a shorter length from the other end. Therefore, the inertia of photons inside the cavity should change during reflections. And to maintain momentum, traction must occur.
McCullough checks the theory, using it to predict the magnitude of the emerging force. Accurate calculations are complicated due to the three-dimensional nature of the problem, but the approximate results correspond to the order of magnitude of the thrust obtained in all experiments performed so far.
Most importantly, McCullough's theory makes two testable predictions. The first is that placing the dielectric inside the cavity should increase the efficiency of the engine.
Secondly, resizing the cavity can reverse the direction of traction. This should happen when the Unruh radiation is better aligned with the sharp end of the cone.
McCullough says there is evidence that this is exactly what is happening. “This traction reversal seems to have been observed in recent NASA experiments,” he says.
This is an interesting idea. Shoeer's EmDrive could potentially revolutionize space travel because it does not require fuel, the most limiting factor in today's propulsion systems. But in the absence of an explanation of how it works, scientists and engineers are understandably cautious.
McCullough’s theory can help make a difference, although the idea is far from universally accepted. It is based on two controversial assumptions. Firstly, that the photon has an inertial mass. Secondly, the speed of light must change inside the cavity. This is not so easy to digest for many theorists.
But the more experimental evidence from EmDrive Scheuer appears, the more difficult the position of theorists becomes. If not McCullough’s explanation, then what?