Gravity control...

[Xyph]

I posted this a while ago in the pseudoscience forum, but didn't really get the response I hoped for, so I'm posting it here.

 

I know gravity control techniques are generally viewed with skepticism, and quite probably pseudoscience, but I can't find anything refuting this article (or otherwise), and don't know enough myself to judge whether it makes sense or not. So what I'd like to know is whether or not there is anything to what's described in the article. Does General Relativity predict such an effect? Theoretically, going by the information contained in the article, should it work or not? (And why?)

 

 

Also:

In the 1970s, an American scientist proposed using superfluid helium in a toroidal vessel to create gravity control.

I have absolutely no idea how this could possibly have any gravitational effects whatsoever. Can anyone shed any light on what this refers to, and how it would work?

[timo]

Your link leads me to http://www.microsoft.com.

[Rasori]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1281736.html

That is the proper link, as the first started with http://http//, which doesn't work.

[Xyph]

Oops. Sorry about that.

 

Yeah, the correct URL should be http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1281736.html.

[swansont]

"Strictly speaking, it wouldn't be an antigravity machine."

 

So it doesn't have any gravitational effects whatsoever. They are just investigating another way to exert a vertical force.

[Xyph]

But if it's the functional equivalent, then what would be the difference? Surely even if it's not actually a gravitational effect, if it emulates gravity well enough, it could still be used for a variety of applications in which control of gravity would be useful.

[swansont]

But if it's the functional equivalent, then what would be the difference? Surely even if it's not actually a gravitational effect, if it emulates gravity well enough, it could still be used for a variety of applications in which control of gravity would be useful.

 

It would not be control of gravity any more than stairs, elevators and airplanes are control of gravity. But that's not to say it wouldn't be useful, since I find stairs, elevators and airplanes useful.

[Martian]

From the article:

 

Li explains that as the ions spin they also create a gravito-electric field perpendicular to their spin axis. In nature, this field is unobserved because the ions are randomly arranged, thus causing their tiny gravito-electric fields to cancel out one another. In a Bose-Einstein condensate, where all ions behave as one, something very different occurs.

 

If gravity were a force created by laws of motion, making it more relativistic than modern ideas, but more in harmony with Einstein's theory, then the above would be practical antigravity!

 

Our modern idea of "chaotically orbitin electrons" was against Einstein's view of nature. If Electrons had an orbit as predictable as planetary orbits, then ions or even matter could be atomically alligned via magnetic fields to produce antigravity effects. The vicinity of these objects based on the above statement would also show a curvature to space, redirecting the path of light, which of course ends up being a speculation based on a speculation.

[swansont]

The article is six years old. Perhaps you can find more recent results - if you can't, maybe that tells you something about the validity of the theory.

[Xyph]

The vicinity of these objects based on the above statement would also show a curvature to space

Hm, if the result was an actual curvature of space, I'd expect it to be an actually gravitational effect, rather than the "functional equivalent", as it's described. I got the impression that it would have more in common with centrifugal force than actual gravity.

 

 

The article is six years old. Perhaps you can find more recent results - if you can't, maybe that tells you something about the validity of the theory.

Well, the author of this article claims to have had more recent contact with Ning Li:

Ning Li is now working in a secret-environment on her own experiments involving rotating superconductors, and from my research I’ve learned that she’s getting results – in fact, in a carefully-written communiqué that I received from her in early 2003 she claimed that her team was able to produce over 11 kilowatts of “AC-Gravity” effect. This is the last that I’ve heard from her on the subject, and I suspect that her startup-company’s financiers have restrained her from wanton publishing of her day-to-day research results.

[swansont]

Related to Podkletnov's work...definitely in the crackpot regime. Probably busy lining up gullible investors to fund more research.

[Martian]

I got the impression that it would have more in common with centrifugal force than actual gravity.

 

I may be wrong on this, but centrifugal force is related to inertia, and inertia and gravity hold identical relationships as to how mass is subject to them. (A clue Einy used to say they were related/possibly the same.)