4 ms·
Comparing the Chinese results with the American results, it seems that raising the wattage by a factor of 50 raises the thrust by a factor of 15000. That's some
by wbhart 11y ago
Comparing the Chinese results with the American results, it seems that raising the wattage by a factor of 50 raises the thrust by a factor of 15000. That's somewhat hard to believe. On the other hand, the linked pdf from the Chinese team suggests that at just 3 times the wattage of the American group, they got 1500 times the thrust. I think there is some confusion somewhere.
- Tossrock 11y agoIt seems like an impossibly basic mistake, but confusing micro- and milli- newtons would make the math a lot more reasonable.
- Bud 11y agoNot impossibly basic at all. Space missions have failed because of these kinds of basic math errors: http://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-report/ http://www.wired.com/2010/11/1110mars-climate-observer-repor...
- oldmanjay 11y agoI almost want another failure so people will stop pulling this out as an all-purpose rhetorical showstopper.
- waterlesscloud 11y agoWell, the natural world is full of non-linear and/or discontinuous responses, so it's not crazy if there's some sort of threshold at work. But yeah, it's more likely there's some confusion in there.
- wbhart 11y agoIt's an important question because the article claims "The applications for a device that functions as these appear to would basically replace every form of transportation and thrust invented by humans to date. Such a device would easily be used to make cars, planes, bikes, boats, etc., all more efficient, clean, and cheap." Given that the thrust required for a car would be something like 40,000N, unless the device scales far better than linearly, you'll need a 25GW power station in your car to even make it go.
- pnut 11y agoNASA did acknowledge that at the power level the American team tested, thrust is generated in a more omnidirectional manner, which is focused into a directional jet as power levels are increased, so that might account for some of it.
- mrfusion 11y agoIt could be you aren't getting the full effect at the lower wattage? What is the ratio of wattage to thrust, that's what I'd be curious about? And how efficient is it? I guess change in kinetic energy can never be greater than energy inputted to the device, correct?
- rasz_pl 11y ago1 non linear 2 mianzi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_(sociological_concept) & http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026240791262939X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0262407912...