Atom breaks rules, beats friction

[RyanJ]

Watch as the laws of physics are seemingly broken infront of your eyes! Scientists have found a molecule that can spin without inducing friction, something that is defined as imposible by physics and could thus revolutionise our understanding of the behaviour of molecules in liquid states.

 

 

http://www.livescience.com/technology/060330_frictionless_spinning.html

 

- Ryan Jones

[Galaxy]

Well I sure ain't no expert in this area, but, this reaction might have smashed the linear response theory model that states that such a thing can't happen in a liquid environment, but as for running against Newton's third law, it just does not seem so.

 

It seems to me that as the central molecule spins displacing water molecules in all directions it would be experiencing an equal force from all directions. In other words it does not move because the displaceing water molecules affect it equally from all directions....

[swansont]

Well I sure ain't no expert in this area' date=' but, this reaction might have smashed the linear response theory model that states that such a thing can't happen in a liquid environment, but as for running against Newton's third law, it just does not seem so.

 

It seems to me that as the central molecule spins displacing water molecules in all directions it would be experiencing an equal force from all directions. In other words it does not move because the displaceing water molecules affect it equally from all directions....[/quote']

 

 

I've seen that objection espoused elsewhere, too. I also think that once it repels the other molecules, one might not think of it being in a liquid environment anymore.

 

An inherent problem in this is getting the information from a summary article, where details may have been omitted, and things taken out of context.

[Severian]

I think the crux to this is the statement:

 

"You can see molecules behave this way in gases, but not in liquids," said study coauthor Richard Stratt, a chemical theorist at Brown University.

 

Is it really that surprising that a "molecule heated up to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit (4,427 Celsius)" should locally behave like it is in a gas, rather than a liquid?