'Lifters' may change the world the way Segway didn't

Wired News ^ | 5.11.02 | Michelle Delio

[mhking]

Antigravitational devices developed by a computer geek could eventually change the world as we know it.

Or they may just blow a few holes into some barn roofs.

The devices are known as "lifters." When charged with a small amount of electrical power, they levitate, apparently able to resist Earth's gravitational forces.

[mhking]

I know it's kind of geekish, but if it ever works, it'll be pretty cool.

[Post Toasties]

Damn! Now, what did I do with my perpetual motion machine?

[OHelix]

Anyone want to comment on the Townsand-Biefield effect?

[F16Fighter]

I'm still waiting for the Jetsons-style flying back-pack.

[jlogajan]

It has been known for hundreds of years that like-charges have repulsive forces. The video of the "lifter" is just an conductive surface connected to the "table" conductive suface through wires. Apply a charge to the unit and they will seperate by mutual repulsion. Nothing new here. Sorry.

[isthisnickcool]

I've seen these videos before. I'd like to see one of them "fly" about 30 feet above and away from the "base" they are connected to. That would make this more interesting.

[fporretto]

This is hard to accept at face value. These things levitate over any surface? Or just specially prepared ones, perhaps ferromagnetic ones that carry a few million Gauss of field?

Some years ago, Analog reported on a maverick who'd developed a device that appeared to violate Newton's Third Law. It would thrust against any surface you put it in contact with, yet remain motionless even though it was unbound, mounted on rollers, and sat on a smooth surface. That's the sort of thing that could rewrite all of physics, if you think about it. But the "inventor" would give no details of theory or construction, and after that one report in Analog, it was never heard of again.

Tinfoil suiters immediately conclude "conspiracy." Physicists -- I'm one, by education -- immedately conclude "hoax."

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[jlogajan]

The "Dean Drive"?

Attributed to the slip-stick phenomena of standard friction. G. Harry Stein developed a physical theory for it with a guy by the name of Davis, became "Davis Mechanics." It involved rates of change of acceleration.

Interesting but almost certainly nothing to it.

[jlogajan]

These things levitate over any surface?

At high voltages most normal surfaces are sufficiently conductive -- ground, cement, even many woods.

You need to get to low-metal containing glass and plastics to get away from conduction. And then there can't be a surface under the surface, so to speak. A plastic sheet over a patch of conductive earth or metal would not stop the electrostatic force from penetrating.

So there is a lot of room for fraud here.

[Junior]

A flying fig leaf bump.

[jlogajan]

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with investigating electrostatic repulsion. For instance, "ionic wind" can indeed produce a thrust, and therefore a repelling base surface is not needed. However, the seeding of the surround atmosphere with ionic charges is somewhat energy expensive because you can't recover the energy lost to ionization. But if energy is sufficiently cheap, ionic atmospheric repulsion may yet prove effective for lifting.

But it isn't new physics.

[pabianice]

>>Scientists at NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics project are researching theories that at first glance would seem to be hanging even further off the bleeding edge of rationality than the lifter. Current projects include possible methods of manipulating space-time -- that's time travel in lay terms.

If time travel had been developed, wouldn't travelers from the future already have traveled back to our time to give us the technology that will be developed...uh...will have to have been developed in the past-future...uh...will have been brought forward by the...uh...ow! My head hurts...

[unending thunder]

Was this the same guy who discovered that if you put a kids broken front tooth under the pillow, the Tooth Fairy came and took it away and left a silver dollar instead?

[nimc]

Anti-positively!

[Timesink]

Note that this article isn't from Wired magazine, but from Wired News, which has had no direct relation to the magazine for some years now, and has been known to be just a touch sensationalistic at times, though generally reliable.

And whatever these things are doing, they aren't "resisting Earth's gravitational forces" any more than airplanes and birds do. Anti-gravity devices are impossible under the laws of physics, specifically the First Law of Thermodynamics.

[jayef]

The others, who have already left us, are still perfecting technologies that they will use to appear to humans in our time. Several test runs have been foiled. They will come to reveal all truth and share knowledge which will represent a quantum leap forward.</conspiracy theory>

[jlogajan]

Anti-gravity devices are impossible under the laws of physics, specifically the First Law of Thermodynamics.

I would have to disagree with that. Attractive and repulsive forces are known in nature, obviously. But you just don't have a repulsive force appear out of nowhere and do work for you. You are required to insert energy or tap into a natural store of potential energy in order to make use of repulsive forces to do work, lifting, etc.

[jayef]

Is it possible that there are "holes" in that theory? Or more specifically, can the "holes" be created?

[dead]

"All major scientific breakthroughs were scoffed at when they first debuted,"

All completely useless technologies were also laughed at when they first debuted.