[vannrox]

Cool. And shocking!

[El Sordo]

Anyone want to put that in layman's terms for those of us who are not electrically inclined?

[HighRoadToChina]

BUMP!

[EternalVigilance]

Now the Greens are going to want to ban Static-Guard....

[Slyfox]

[homeagain balkansvet]

But What Does It Mean?

I'm still working on that perpetual motion machine, just a few kinks yet....

[Southack]

In my classes, this old "effect" was called the right-hand rule. Hardly new...

[remitrom]

Now we know the physics behind media spin.

[Quix]

As a rather ignorant but moderately read layman,

bells are going off that this is somehow related to zero point energy.

OK, scream tinfoil hat all you wish.

Tnen perhaps someone with a fair minded perspective and some significant reading on the topic will tell me whether my notion is totally far fetched or not.

[aruanan]

The observed electrostatic rotation was not expected and could not be explained by available theory.

PINK MATTER ALERT

[Born to Conserve]

Simply put: "Electrostatic spin is cold fusion without the cold or the fusion."

[Physicist]

Already posted.

[JoeSchem]

Call us when you get linear propulsion a la 'The Dean Drive.'

Knight's Quest: Or How I learned to stop worrying and love the Crack of Doom

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

Spin is used in quantum mechanics to explain phenomena at the nuclear, atomic, and molecular domains for which there is no concrete physical picture.

Spin is used in other areas too. Sigh. I wish I understood stuff like this but I'm too lazy or busy or both to study it. It sounds cool, though.

[wcbtinman]

Gee wizz, I knew about this years ago. Didn't think it meant much. Still don't

[_Jim]

Anybone here understand the principle upon which a 'circulator' (three port RF device) or 'isolator' (two port RF device) operates on (electron precession)?

[Enduring Freedom]

Ayn Rand's electrostatic engine?

All government shills (arch enemies of personal freedom) now chime in.

[AdranGarrison]

Ok, just a little background: I am a senior physics major at Hillsdale College, and have been working on this exact problem for my senior thesis. Results have been mildly conclusive, however, a few things worth mentioning:

The paper which this article refers to contains very few details which are sketchy at best. It contains precious little data about the magnitude of the rotation observed or the factors which determine it. While this does not prove them wrong by any means, this should invoke extreme skepticism already. Hence one of the reasons I have chosen this for my thesis.

Now, I have not completed analysis of my data yet. However, I have come to one very important conclusion: The orientation of a sphere effects the amount of rotation. I do NOT mean that the orientation of a sphere -with regard to the other two- influences the rotation. If you remove one of the spheres and then proceed to reattatch it to the same position in space but rotated from its initial orientation (Say, 1/4 a turn or so), the amount of rotation of that sphere is effected.

What does this mean? If I had more time to work on this, I'd love to dig deeper into it, but the most obvious conclusion is that the rotation is not fundamental to a perfect sphere, but rather is due to small imperfections on real spheres. You cannot make a sphere which is perfectly smooth. There is always some error, however small. With large voltages being applied (in my case, 3-12 kV... in their's, I believe it went as high as 20 kV, although I am not positive), even small surface imperfections could cause small forces. Given that the magnitude of rotation is very small (About 1/16 of a full rotation, at most. On the order of 1/400 of a rotation at least. Given the hair-thin Tungsten wire used, this is a tiny force), this seems quite plausible.

However... I should really be working on writing my thesis instead of talking about it... so... away I go!

[SunkenCiv]

...this leap forward in understanding may help reveal how the smallest building blocks in nature react to form solids, liquids and gases that constitute the material world around us.

However, this topic is from 2003.