[fporretto]

This is hard to accept at face value. These things levitate over any surface? Or just specially prepared ones, perhaps ferromagnetic ones that carry a few million Gauss of field?

Some years ago, Analog reported on a maverick who'd developed a device that appeared to violate Newton's Third Law. It would thrust against any surface you put it in contact with, yet remain motionless even though it was unbound, mounted on rollers, and sat on a smooth surface. That's the sort of thing that could rewrite all of physics, if you think about it. But the "inventor" would give no details of theory or construction, and after that one report in Analog, it was never heard of again.

Tinfoil suiters immediately conclude "conspiracy." Physicists -- I'm one, by education -- immedately conclude "hoax."

Freedom, Wealth, and Peace,
Francis W. Porretto
Visit The Palace Of Reason: http://palaceofreason.com

[jlogajan]

The "Dean Drive"?

Attributed to the slip-stick phenomena of standard friction. G. Harry Stein developed a physical theory for it with a guy by the name of Davis, became "Davis Mechanics." It involved rates of change of acceleration.

Interesting but almost certainly nothing to it.

[jlogajan]

These things levitate over any surface?

At high voltages most normal surfaces are sufficiently conductive -- ground, cement, even many woods.

You need to get to low-metal containing glass and plastics to get away from conduction. And then there can't be a surface under the surface, so to speak. A plastic sheet over a patch of conductive earth or metal would not stop the electrostatic force from penetrating.

So there is a lot of room for fraud here.

[jlogajan]

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with investigating electrostatic repulsion. For instance, "ionic wind" can indeed produce a thrust, and therefore a repelling base surface is not needed. However, the seeding of the surround atmosphere with ionic charges is somewhat energy expensive because you can't recover the energy lost to ionization. But if energy is sufficiently cheap, ionic atmospheric repulsion may yet prove effective for lifting.

But it isn't new physics.