Editing 1404: Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | This | + | This is in reference to the recent news <ref name="news1">D. Hambling, "Nasa validates 'impossible' space drive", ''Wired UK'' (2014-07-31) http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-07/31/nasa-validates-impossible-space-drive </ref> of a microwave thruster which allegedly produces thrust without expelling any propellant or microwaves, a violation of conservation of momentum. This type of thruster would provide delta velocity without conventional limits according to Tsiolkovsky rocket equation since the initial mass and final mass are the same. And indeed, the authors of a recent presentation at a NASA conference waxed lyrical about the space applications of such a device if it worked as claimed. <ref name="draft paper"> D.A. Brady, H.G. White, P. March, J.T. Lawrence, and F.J. Davies, "Anomalous Thrust Production from an RF Test Device Measured on a Low-Thrust Torsion Pendulum," (conference proceedings) Pre-print http://rghost.net/57230791 retrieved on 2014-08-05</ref> But while they hooked it up to a measurement apparatus, applied RF input and measured changes in the apparatus, their interpretation of the experiment conducted in an air-filled stainless-steel chamber as a tiny ''thrust'' only explainable in terms of new (undefined) physics under the moniker of "quantum vacuum virtual plasma" <ref name="draft paper" /><ref name="nasaabstract"> http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140006052 </ref> is an extraordinary claim on very weak data. |
− | + | This may fall under the category of "Tooth-Fairy (Pseudo-)science" <ref name="toothfairy"> http://www.skepdic.com/toothfairyscience.html </ref>, trying to quantify a phenomenon before one has confirmed it exists. | |
− | + | ===References=== | |
+ | <references /> | ||
− | + | ==Transcript== | |
+ | {{incomplete transcript}} | ||
+ | [Cueball and Megan are walking together in the foreground.] | ||
+ | Cueball: Hear about that "impossible" microwave thruster? | ||
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+ | [Still walking together.] | ||
+ | Megan: Yeah. Let me get this straight---they pumped 20 kilowatts into a box under ambient conditions...and it only twitched a ''little''? | ||
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+ | Cueball: Yeah. | ||
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+ | [Way zoomed out, but still walking together.] | ||
+ | Megan: ''That's'' surprising. If you pumped 20 kilowatts into ''me'', I'd twitch a ''lot''. | ||
− | + | Cueball: But you're not pushing on the quantum vacuum. | |
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− | : | + | Megan: I ''might'' be. I do a lot of things. |
− | + | Cueball: I guess we can't be sure. | |
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− | : | + | Alt Text: I don't understand the things you do, and you therefore may represent an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma. |
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] |