Electromagnetic propulsion
- Thread starter Urge
- Start date
I think the warp coils are meant to create some sort of negative energy field to create a spacetime bubble, and this is combined with inertial nullification, but I don't really know. I tend to avoid reading Starfleet technobabble stuff.
What about using a series of rotating gyroscopes on a rotating ring? Move the gyroscopes out of alignment simultaneously and the force that causes the gyroscopes to attempt to realign would cause the entire ring to lift!
^^
Hey, thanks! And I appreciate you not getting TOO technical with your explanation why it wouldn't work.
Hey, thanks! And I appreciate you not getting TOO technical with your explanation why it wouldn't work.
Because people keep trying it and it never has. There are countless websites of people using gyroscopes to try and create linear motion. They all claim to be this close (holds thumb and index finger barely apart). Usually the people involved have less than a clear understanding in physics. I don't claim to be an expert at physics either, but I know enough to realize when something is fundamentally wrong even if I don't know why.
Gyroscopes create turning forces when being forcefully turned. When attached to the end of levers and swung around, the turning forces can lift the lever. It can look like levitation, but it isn't. The lever is being turned upward when swung. The fact that you're holding the other end, supporting the weight and preventing the whole thing from falling is easily overlooked.
Having several gyroscopes spaced evenly around a wheel, nobody is holding the other end, and these turning forces merely causes torsion (twisting forces) in the wheel. They generally cancel out in the system as a whole much like bending a metal rod with your hands by applying two equal and opposite turning forces at each end of it. There is no levitation there either.
However... in air, the spinning wheels do cause some circulation in the air, which is much the same as what helicoptors do with rotating aerofoil shaped blades. Circulation creates a pressure difference above and below the blades, which is what lifts the helicopter.
So you might get levitation in air if you spin the wheel and the gyroscopes fast enough, but it wouldn't work up in the vacuum of space.
Having several gyroscopes spaced evenly around a wheel, nobody is holding the other end, and these turning forces merely causes torsion (twisting forces) in the wheel. They generally cancel out in the system as a whole much like bending a metal rod with your hands by applying two equal and opposite turning forces at each end of it. There is no levitation there either.
However... in air, the spinning wheels do cause some circulation in the air, which is much the same as what helicoptors do with rotating aerofoil shaped blades. Circulation creates a pressure difference above and below the blades, which is what lifts the helicopter.
So you might get levitation in air if you spin the wheel and the gyroscopes fast enough, but it wouldn't work up in the vacuum of space.
We need a better understanding of HOW momentum works before we can figure out a way to dump energy into an object and give it momentum directly, so we may need to figure out how the Higgs Boson field works first.
Ideally if you had saw a "Electricity to Momentum Converter" you could take a nuclear sub, modify it and have yourself a DY-100 type ship.
Ideally if you had saw a "Electricity to Momentum Converter" you could take a nuclear sub, modify it and have yourself a DY-100 type ship.
No, you couldn't. Making a submarine space worthy would be just as difficult as building a new spacecraft and would be less capable than a spec built spacecraft. For a good discussion on why not go here:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15681.0
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=15681.0
^ Is THAT why it looks like a flying pencil?
