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British Scientists Reverse Casimir Effect
An anonymous reader writes "The Telegraph reports that Scientists at the University of St. Andrews have developed a technique to cause the Casimir effect to repel instead of attract. This discovery could lead to near frictionless machines or in theory even levitation."
Gasp, that means we will have to repel one of the laws of seance.
How says science cannot be uplifting.... literally.
This could be put to immediate use in the USA, where much bad legislation needs to be repealed and they need to attract fewer blockheads to a career in politics.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
It can revoke laws?
I'm not a big fan of knitwear at the best of times.
At the bottom of the
I have a feeling that this breakthrough will eventually lead to the development of giant flying mecha.
You heard it hear first, on slashdot.
Soon we can do away with stupid things like elevators..
The moral of the story is: "Always remember to mount a scratch monkey."
You are suggesting that they repel repeal in order to repeal the misunderstanding of repel.
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
So was it only me that heard Sir Alec Guinness read that line out?
You moved your mouse. Please restart Windows for changes to take effect.
What is this? a spelling contest or a discussion about a new scientific discovery?
/. is populated purely by obsessive pedants with nothing better to do.
Sheesh. Anybody would think
oh..
Oh, well, then I guess we're not going to leave it up the guys who made the original lenses on the Hubble, now are we?
My blog
"dry glue" effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling.
"Spider-pig, Spider-pig,
Does whatever a Spider-pig does."
-- Boycott Shell
now where is my hover skateboard?
Electronic Liberties must be defended at all costs!
Total protonic reversal.
Don't cross the streams.
Wouldn't that be repugnant, then?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I did not know this guy => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_(dinosaur) had a physics degree.
I assume it involves a cat with a piece of buttered toast strapped to its back...
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Or even worse: what if all your *electrons* repelled each other?????
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
"It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
Given that the Casimir effect actually produces enough force (well, pressure) at tens of nanometres distances between the two plates, that'll be some really tiny giant mecha
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
No, the OP was right. They're repealing attraction. Don't know why they took so long, Slashdotters repealed attraction years ago.
I hate printers.
I've already patented using this technology on skateboard decks, and no, Back to the Future doesn't count as prior art! I didn't get the idea from there at all!
which is totally what she said
I've always wondered about what would happen if/when a time machine is discovered. You can patent it only for so many years, but with free travel possible in the temporal dimension, just thinking about a profitable business model makes my head hurt.
Cheers!
Atheist: Buddhist in a Prius
I hereby theorize that cramming peanuts into your arsehole will cause levitation.
There, now that I've officially theorized this, I can say, "In theory, cramming peanuts into your arsehole will cause levitation." and it's perfectly true.
I am a physicist, but these subjects are often beyond me. Still, let me try a short explanation.
That's fine. The non-physicists here will gleefully take up the slack.
FTA: "The force is due to neither electrical charge or gravity, for example, but the fluctuations in all-pervasive energy fields in the intervening empty space between the objects and is one reason atoms stick together, also explaining a "dry glue" effect that enables a gecko to walk across a ceiling." ... and now that scientists have figured out how to reverse the Casimir effect, this will soon enable geckos to walk on the floor.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
That would repel from the floor, but not from another cat with another slice of buttered toast strapped to its back (which is what this can potentially do).
From what I remember of the buttered toast cat, doesn't it end up spinning just above the floor as the cat tries to land feet-first and the toast tries to land butter-side down? If so then why is no-one wrapping these cats in wire, putting them between magnets and throwing them off surfaces en-mass to generate electricity while they spin?
Only works with live cats. The cost of feeding and care for the cats makes this uneconomical. ;-)
That should be pretty obvious. The moment that you start to make progress on a working Time Machine, something unfortunate and completely unforseen will happen to stop you from finishing it. Maybe you will just decide to paint bubble wrap red and paint the words 'TENSION SHEET' on it instead.
Because somewhere in the future, somebody has got to really hate having his history messed with.
Contrary to popular belief, the world does in fact not revolve around money.
That is all.
"What happens if all the molecules in your body suddenly repels eachother?"
Okay, that's a good safety tip. Don't cross the streams!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I assure you, Ladies and Gentlemen of the audience, this gigantic crate is levitating! Between it and the stage are entire nanometers of magic.
- The Amazina Llama
We will finally have Casimir sweaters that will repel lint and pet hair instead of attract it!
Slashdot readers have had the ability to repel instead of attract for years!
Web hosting that doesn't suck!Dreamhost
It's all well and good until you have to take the cat down for maintenance. Have you ever seen a cat that's been wrapped in wire, strapped to a piece of buttered toast, and spun for 3 days? Let's just say it's not happy.
Actually, the cat will freeze in midair suspended on its side, because in that case, the direction of spin that requires the least work to get the cat/toast to the correct position are in opposite directions with an equal magnitude. So, sadly, it will hit static equilibrium, so you'll just have a crazy floating cat, not a crazy floating power-generating cat.
Liberty you never use is liberty you lose.
Check out my e-bay auctions...I will sell you a pair of cat wiring gauntlets - guaranteed to protected you from the savage beasts.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
>>> the whole world is not American you know
That depends on who is defining "world".
From today:
Yung Nasteecat use powah of flite
Now if only they'd try this with Edwin's cat. Bam! Superpossition of perpetual motion and non-perpetual motion... Ugh. Head hertz now.
What if it is just turtles all the way down?
Don't worry, that's a cyclic effect that primarily appears when posting AC. In your case, it's probably just your sinuses. No need to go off on a tangent. Have a slice of pie and call me in the morning. I'm sure you're feel radiant by then.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Indeed. The power of privacy that comes with being an Alternating Commenter can be electrifying but is sometimes a revolting experience. It's sometimes better to take charge and post directly as your user name instead.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Don't they mean Schrödinger's cat? It would simultaneously both produce electric current and not produce it until you touched the wire to find out.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Hallelujah. My username is finally getting the credit it deserves.
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
There is no net energy gain here.
The cat, due to the spinning motion dies pretty quickly.
It turns out that the lenght of time it will survive, and thue spin for, is a function of it's body fat.
In short - you are simply using up the stored energy in the cat. No Net Gain.
Simply chucking the cat into a furnace and generating electricity that way would be more efficient.
http://davesboat.blogspot.com/