Science Minds Only

I was wondering if it is possible to use the electromagnetic field of the planet as a freeway using magnetic forces as power? If we are always surrounded by the earths magnetic field, why can't we harness energy from it? If you can imagine surfing on top of these lines which flows in all directions around the planet, the craft would appear to be making incredible manuevers but in reality they are attached to a grid line. Imagine your craft hopping on one grid then in midflight bouncing on to another. Better yet what if each grid has it's own frequency which we can tune into and actually pull ourselves to it, virtually crossing the planet at incredible high rates of speeds. The craft would have to be able to repel gravity waves enough to damper the effect of g-forces (A form of liquid gel to absorb g-forces within the shell of the craft). Could this be done?

the normal magnetic field of the earth is about .5 gauss your refridgerator magnet has about 600 gauss. therefore the magnet is 1200 times as strong. Do you see people making sucessful free energy machines from magnets?

Nice concept.


Unfortunetly impossible due to the weakness of the magnetic field you are describing.

Originally posted by blaqmyst
Could this be done?

Ride the electromagnetic field of the planet? No.

What we can do however is make a vehicle that uses Ionic Wind to propel an Aerostat, very silently, at great fuel efficiency to boot.

Here is a website, dedicated to the enthusiast community built around this technology.

jnaudin.free.fr...

Only way it would work, in my mind, is if the Aerostat is Hardshelled and Vacuum Filled to achieve neutral boyancy in the atmosphere.

As for your question about dampening inertia, yes it can be done but the extent of how much it can be dampened is still up in the air. It's sort of analogous to sound cancellation technology, it's good at getting most of the background noise, but if that noise is loud enough, close enough, or abrupt enough, you'd need a pretty quick responding system in order to dampen it to a degree where it would be noticable by the occupant.

[edit on 28-2-2006 by sardion2000]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I always wondered how electrons moved within an Atom. I thought maybe the nucleus gave off a electromagnetic field which the electron used for propulsion. If that could be remotely true, we can reproduce this movement on a larger scale using it for interstellar travel. So I imagined the earth as the nucleus and our crafts as the electrons whizzing around.

Thanks again

We are going to need something more....exotic then what you describe, in order to traverse the vast distances of the cosmos. Here is a thread talking about a hypothetical solution(though an extreme longshot at that).

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Lot's of interesting stuff in that thread, though I warn you, it's all very Hypothetical to the extreme. Fun stuff to dream about though

I'm trying to study WATER. I understand “old style” atomic theory postulated successive rings (layers) of electrons orbiting the nucleus. As if our own Sun was a nucleus and the planets were electrons. I am under the impression “new style” atomic theory prefers to think of “levels” of vibrating energy surrounding the nucleus. This is somewhat reminiscent (to me) of the question whether light is transmitted by a particle or a wave.

OK, with that ground work laid, here’s my question. I know if an atom of oxygen with 6 electrons in its second orbit, which holds 8 when filled, encounters 2 hydrogen atoms, unique in having but one electron in its first orbit, and each hydrogen atom is aggressively seeking another electron to “complete” its first shell - layer - orbit - will combine without much outside force or energy required, to make a molecule of water. H2O. All 3 atoms are then “complete” in their respective levels of energy. SIMPLE. However, to separate those atoms in a water molecule back into their respective atomic components, requires HUGE amounts of energy. WHY IS THAT?

Originally posted by scienceguy94
the normal magnetic field of the earth is about .5 gauss your refridgerator magnet has about 600 gauss. therefore the magnet is 1200 times as strong. Do you see people making sucessful free energy machines from magnets?

I thought magnetic fields were measured in Teslas. Or am I remembering wrong?

Both Guass and Tesla's are both acceptable units of measurment.

Originally posted by donwhite
I'm trying to study WATER. I understand “old style” atomic theory postulated successive rings (layers) of electrons orbiting the nucleus. As if our own Sun was a nucleus and the planets were electrons. I am under the impression “new style” atomic theory prefers to think of “levels” of vibrating energy surrounding the nucleus. This is somewhat reminiscent (to me) of the question whether light is transmitted by a particle or a wave.

OK, with that ground work laid, here’s my question. I know if an atom of oxygen with 6 electrons in its second orbit, which holds 8 when filled, encounters 2 hydrogen atoms, unique in having but one electron in its first orbit, and each hydrogen atom is aggressively seeking another electron to “complete” its first shell - layer - orbit - will combine without much outside force or energy required, to make a molecule of water. H2O. All 3 atoms are then “complete” in their respective levels of energy. SIMPLE. However, to separate those atoms in a water molecule back into their respective atomic components, requires HUGE amounts of energy. WHY IS THAT?

I think this is due to the fact that the electrons are always trying to seek lower energy levels. The reason that oxygen and hyrdrogen will react is becuase the electrons can orbit in lower energy levels after the reaction. This is why the reaction gives of heat and light energy when it happens, and i believe the same amount of energy is required to break them apart, to provide the electrons to occupy their orignal energy levels.

It does not require 'huge' amounts of energy, you can do this with a 12v car battery if you want, or maybe even a 9v cell.

When you react hydrogen and oxygen, you produce water and energy. When you electrolyse water, you put in that energy and get out oxygen and hydrogen. No energy has 'disappeared' the reason that you need so much energy to electrolyse it is because you convert energy into the wrong things. You may heat the water, and this heat energy will dissapate out of the system, and the real problem here is achieving 100% efficiency.

As for using the earths magnetic feild. I really don't think it has much strength, it barely turns the needle on my compass. As for repleling gravity waves and such, i do not really think WE have the tech.
I think that maybe if you tried to extract energy from the magnetic field it wouldnt be too much of a good idea, you'd weaken the magnetic field right? We need that field. To be honest i think there are better ways to extract energy from the earth (its geothermal is going to waste for example, why not use this for energy?)

blaqmyst:

Good idea; unfortunately, as other people said, it's not going to work, because the earth's magnetic field is tiny.

ralph_the_wonder_llama

1 tesla = 10000 gauss

donwhite:

I'll try to illustrate with an analogy here. Imagine you have a 200 pound block balanced on the ledge on top of a tall building. You could easily push that block off the top of the building, and with virtually no effort could send it falling to the streets below. However, if you want to put that 200 pound block back up on the ledge, that would take a lot of effort.

The block falls down to the ground because that is the point of least energy; it loses potential energy when it falls from the top of the building to the ground. Similarly, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine into water, and this configuration does not require much energy to maintain (like the block lying in the street) To split apart the water molecules (or lift the block up again) will take a bunch of energy to do so.

Hopefully that made sense; anyone is welcome to add or correct if necessary.

The issue of recovering hydrogen for use in powering cars came up, and it was interesting to learn that most of the hydrogen gas is derived from natural gas, so it is a no gainer to use hydrogen for power if it comes from a fossil fuel. Just as I have heard that Archer Daniels Midland is the ONLY beneficiary of the ethanol craze, so it seems likely that today’s hydrogen powered cars are more for show but little for go.

Objects in orbit travelling rapidly through Earth's magnetic field can take advantage of tethers or other long metallic objects to generate power.

science.nasa.gov...

The link above states that power was generated from a tether and the idea has been around for awhile of taking advantage of this power to elevate and lower satellites.

I sometimes wondered what the possible benefits could be of making a spacecraft shell be superconducting. Perhaps a lot of power could be generated by travelling through magnetic fields but I don't know what the results would be. I wondered about that because someone once told me an idea about using superconducting material to make the shells for spacecraft. I didn't know why that would be useful so I wondered about that comment.

Since none of you all have had physics i will explain why the earth could function as an energy generator: the earth has a magnetic field, in physics whenever one magnetic field passes through another i creates a current (a.k.a electricity to use) therefore by having a stationary ring of magnetized wire you could create a significant charge.