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Physicists Extend Moore's Law For Tiny Devices
schliz writes to mention that a team of quantum physicists have demonstrated how to significantly reduce the effects of "stiction," or the tendency for two very small, very close objects to stick together as a result of Casimir force. "'The Casimir force might be one of the many reasons that very small, movable components in micromechanical devices sometimes stick together,' said Ho Bun Chan, a assistant professor of physics at the University of Florida who is researching the Casimir force. 'The Casimir effect increases rapidly as the separation between components decreases. It becomes significant when the separation is reduced to below about 400 nm,' he told iTnews."
We've already reduced and even reversed casmier effects, haven't we..?
Or is this different somehow?
I've read the article, read the Wikipedia entry, and I still haven't a good handle on what causes the Casimir Effect. Would anyone care to elaborate a little bit for those of us in the audience whose physics background is of a more Newtonian bent? Is this a manifestation of zero-point energy? Is it energy we can extract in any useful way? Is this just a trick of electrostatic forces, or something else entirely? Thanks!
Zero Point Energy will never yield any significant amounts of energy. It's merely an artifact of the way the Universe is constructed, and not a large source of power or fuel. Stargate attempts to remain (somewhat) scientifically accurate by positing that a micro-universe is contained inside each of the ZPM devices, and that the device attempts to extract all energy from that universe via Zero Point Energy extraction. Thus the ZPMs are capable of "running out" of power once all the energy from the micro-universe is exhausted.
Technically, such an idea suggests that the ZPMs should deliver a constant stream of power at all times. Yet in practice, the ZPMs shown in the program appear to behave more like batteries; often providing more or less power depending upon the city's current requirements. However, this appears to be a literary device as it creates a variety of consistency problems within the program. (e.g. If energy can be extracted at such a rate as to exhaust the unit within a few minutes, why can't the city fly on only one ZPM?)
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The other two replies are correct, but let me give a little more detail - the casimir force is very short-range, and essentially goes to zero over the distance of a micron. The corrugations in the surface are micron-deep trenches, and so the extra surface area is essentially hidden.
It's the difference between voltage and current. The Atlantis stardrive requires at least 10GV to fire, and the output of any given ZPM is rated at a more-or-less-constant 5GV, with DC/DC stepdowns feeding power through the city.
(Or maybe I'm talking utter shit, it's up to you.)
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If it's the Casimir effect, you should probably get a bigger sweater.
I think he was talking about the "cashmere" effect.
Casimir is cashmere in spanish