Casimir force co-opted to generate free energy, midichlorians not included

The vacuum giveth, the vacuum taketh, but the vacuum doesn’t let you taketh.

See full article...

 

[Lexus Lunar Lorry]

https://xkcd.com/1486/

 

[nartreb]

First things first. A round of applause for Aurich.

Now I'll read the article...

 

[Sarty]

There really is no dumb stone left unturned in the relentless pursuit of VC chumps.

 

[pvgnax5]

I remember, with fondness, learning about the Casimir force in undergrad and getting very excited about all of the ways one might extract energy or propulsion from the vacuum of space. Then I got to grad school and learned better. Modern physics can be a cruel mistress. Which is why we have sci-fi! (and, apparently, gullible rich people)

 

[Kommi]

Do you want to cause a vacuum collapse? This is how you cause a vacuum collapse. (joke)

 

[MiguelMC]

How're they "moving the electrons" back to the high energy state to keep the good stuff flowing?

EDIT: And if vacuum lets electrons go in only one direction, wouldn't that break the isotropy of space? I mean, we only assume that, but it feels like a pretty solid choice.

 

[Mechjaz]

I'll put this on the fridge, right next to my valuable NFTs.

 

[James McP]

How're they "moving the electrons" back to the high energy state to keep the good stuff flowing?

That's step 2.

But VCs are focused on step 3: PROFIT!

 

[CousinSven]

ZPP aka Zero Point Point

 

[wastrel]

There's an immense vacuum between the ears of many people.

 

[avilhelmo]

Trying to find the universes krakenbugs.

 

[tosenaeus]

God damn, I really should've gone with studying physics after finishing school, back in the day. I could be out there, fleecing VC with the best of them!

 

[CrystalCowboy]

But there are a couple of ways to make tunneling asymmetric (and hence might work). The one proposed in the paper by Casimir Inc. is that the structure it has designed somehow has modes between the plates that follow the same rules as a hydrogen atom, and the tunneling involves an electron going from a high-energy state to a low-energy state (at least in hydrogen, these would represent different energetic states).

? So if I just had a bottle of hydrogen, it would produce free electrical energy? That has not been my experience.

 

[Satellaview]

Extremely entertaining article that explains complex concepts well. Love it!

 

[graylshaped]

a froth of virtual particles ... the company’s service in burning through a bunch of VC money.

These two phrases belong in close juxtaposition.

At the end of the day, the energy coming out of a system purportedly "free" is coming from somewhere, whether or not we can figure out from whence. I envision us finding such a system, building an galactic empire utilizing it, then one day having John Cleese knock on the door, tell us "You're abusing this," and pull the plug, a la Simmons' farcaster network.

 

[xandey]

Maybe the internet got so excited by a new Chris Lee article it broke Ars' CDN this morning. Count me excited as well!

 

[Argent Claim]

Before I so much as even opened the link to the paper, I knew Harold White was going to be the lead author.

This is neither notable or news: White was involved in the nonsense that was the Emdrive, demonstrating incredibly shoddy work and outright word salad for a concept that was already disproven by his own team.

Edit: Seriously, though, even tongue in cheek, the whole thing is silly.

 

[Hadrian's Waller]

There's an immense vacuum between the ears of many people.

And it is full of random fluctuations.

 

[raxadian]

Free energy you say?


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT_bTnkwLuE



View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fE_njY63o4


Can't find the video were he explains that he messed up the sciency explaining.

 

[odikweos]

I share the skepticism. The end of the day, the only thing that would persuade anyone real is a working device that does a lot more than demonstrate some weak assed laboratory shit. Call me when the vacuum cleaner becomes a rocketship.

 

[nartreb]

"The idea is that electrons will tunnel from the plates to the electrodes"

No electrodes were previously mentioned. Did you mean to say "pillars"?

It would be interesting to know a bit more about who the actual people are who are behind this "research", and I would also like more clarity on the history of the WTF drive and what role those people played in it. Leaving aside the movie references, the mention of WTF drive is backed by a link to a previous Ars article, that is pretty brief and links to another article, which is even briefer, and dates from 2016. Half of journalism is laying out a timeline. - who what when why?

(The what part of this article is excellent as far as the physics goes.)

 

[jgee43]

If they took VC money, I do not care what they're peddling. I have no interest in ANY technology funded by the worst humans on the planet.

I think you mean "pedaling".

As in, the only motion of significance they are going to experience is if they attach this to a bike and start pedaling.

 

[Anton Longshot]

Free energy has the sound and feel of free lunch.
However, I once had a free lunch.
Once.
I doubt I'll be that lucky with free energy.

 

[richardizme69]

Jumping right to zero point power without even researching antimatter power first? Hax!

 

[TheColinous]

Do you want to cause a vacuum collapse? This is how you cause a vacuum collapse. (joke)

Gordon doesn't need to hear all this. He's a highly trained professional. We have assured the Administrator that nothing will go wrong.

 

[flerchin]

But I do value the company’s service in burning through a bunch of VC money.

This is also a service that I provide.

 

[Jeff S]

Like let's say it would even BE possible to get energy from the Casimir force. . . would the equipment be cheaper than solar panels? Windmills? Geothermal energy? Nuclear energy?

The universe is full of "free" (as in freely available) energy, but all energy requires some sort of machines to convert it to other forms of energy that are more directly useful, typically electricity or heat.

If it's not significantly cheaper, it doesn't matter.

It's like all the people who always talk about Tesla's "free energy device", and I never get any explanation of how those devices' cost per kilowatt hour would compare to a solar panel or nuclear plant.

 

[The_rubble]

Not read the article yet, but saw it was from Chris Lee. Missed you around these parts.

 

[Ravant]

Where's Rodney McKay when you need him?

 

[Demosthenes642]

Exclusive on Ars! I'm founding a new energy company called MagLectric! It uses top secret technology to clamp a piezo-electric material between two magnets for infinite free energy! VC folks can line up to the left with their checks!

/s goes without saying

 

[Sarty]

The universe is full of "free" (as in freely available) energy, but all energy requires some sort of machines to convert it to other forms of energy that are more directly useful, typically electricity or heat.

If it's not significantly cheaper, it doesn't matter.

In my more trollish moods, my favorite outcome of the EM-drive saga would have been that it was demonstrated with extremely robust data to be, like, twice as forceful per unit input power as a photon drive. Completely fucking up many of our most fundamental physical laws, but still useless in practice.

 

[baloroth]

Edit: Oops missed a joke

 

[Jeff S]

This is also a service that I provide.

What a coincidence - me too!

 

[MattGertz]

I'm reminded of a live TV special somewhen in the early eighties featuring spoon bender extraordinaire Uri Geller and MC'd by Bill Bixby, the Incredible Hulk's "better half." Geller kept trying to show how all of these wonderful amazing tricks like ESP and so on really did work, and he kept failing miserably. Eventually, he resorted to stating that there was just a lot of negative energy coming from the audience, and that was affecting the experiments. Bixby concurred and mumbled something about "what is it with all this negative energy?" (I'm going from memory here, so bear with me.)

The show was obviously a dismal failure for Geller, but I'm wondering if he ever tried to leverage that negative energy in concert with the Casimir Force. Two negative results clearly equal a positive, so just run the experiment in the article in front of a skeptical studio audience and, voila!, energy for free.

 

[Unclebugs]

When I read these comments after reading this story, I feel like the entire Ars commenteratti has been infected with Beth Mole-itis. Nearly each and every comment has resulted in spasms of laughter.

 

[ProfessorScience]

I feel like the discussion of the physics focuses on entirely the wrong things. For those sufficiently literate in physics already, it's fine to pick apart the details and try to figure out how, assuming their claims include the slightest scintilla of honesty, they could have made the observations they did. For those who, like the VCs, may have a fuzzier memory of that material, there's another facet that should be emphasized:

If you start with zero, add one, subtract one, add one, subtract one, keep doing that, then when I come back next week and you tell me your running sum is now eight, you didn't discover a new property of arithmetic. You fucked up the math. I can tell that without looking at your stack of paper showing your sums. I don't need to know which step you got wrong to know that your answer is wrong.

Nothing about the Casimir force breaks conservation of energy. It's still baked right into the equations that predict the force in the first place. You can extract a tiny amount of energy from Casimir-driven motion, just as you can extract energy from a compressed spring or a falling weight or a charged capacitor. But once the plates are stuck together or the spring is relaxed or the weight has fallen or the capacitor has discharged, it's done. If you want to extract energy again, you have to put that energy back into the system by pulling the plates apart, compressing the spring, lifting the weight, or charging the capacitor.

If your math says that the Casimir force will keep on pushing electrons around without anybody doing any work to put the system back into its initial state, you didn't discover new physics. You fucked up the math. It doesn't matter how complicated and obfuscated a system you concoct to hide the error (or more likely, hide the lie), we know your answer is wrong.

 

[Tomcat From Mars]

So, wait... Does the unicorn have free energy diarrhea? Or is it getting a free energy enema? I'm so confused right now.

 

[Veritas super omens]

Like let's say it would even BE possible to get energy from the Casimir force. . . would the equipment be cheaper than solar panels? Windmills? Geothermal energy? Nuclear energy?

The universe is full of "free" (as in freely available) energy, but all energy requires some sort of machines to convert it to other forms of energy that are more directly useful, typically electricity or heat.

If it's not significantly cheaper, it doesn't matter.

It's like all the people who always talk about Tesla's "free energy device", and I never get any explanation of how those devices' cost per kilowatt hour would compare to a solar panel or nuclear plant.

My go to example is nuclear, either fusion or fission. The capital cost of the system to glean electrons is NOT competitive versus wind or solar PV's in nearly every situation. It doesn't matter that the amount of fuel is nearly endless*. What matters is how low can you profitably price delivered electrons.


*sunlight and wind are virtually endless as well.