Posted on 10/10/2001 12:45:11 PM PDT by RightWhale
The Michelson-Morley experiment is a famous non-result. Michelson didn't believe his first non-result in 1881, and so repeated it (with a granite block table, floating in mercury) in 1887. Again, there was no difference in the measured speed of light -- which ultimately led to Einstein's work on relativity.
This current non-result is potentially interesting, too:
First is a rather striking apparent coincidence: Podkletnov’s findings appeared to match phenomena earlier predicted independently by a University of Alabama at Huntsville scientist, Ning Li. Second, many renowned physicists believe nature has an underlying unity, by which all its forces are fundamentally connected. This means electromagnetism and gravity are somehow linked. The "gravity shield" could conceivably operate at the bridge between the two forces, interacting with both.
A non-result with better equipment may show that there are difficulties with the theory; OTOH, you would be hard-pressed to complain about a positive result with better equipment.
But of course, your real problem is with NASA, and not this particular experiement.
In essence, mankind is completely stranded on Earth (or at least in our solar sytem), until we can travel at many times the speed of light, without high energy (i.e. fuel, weight) costs. This will require a completely new physics.
The cost of ths effort is currently very small. I see keep at it - if we really want to explore beyond planet Earth.
(Eager-beaver rocket scientist): Sore-prize, sore-prize, sore-prize!! Sarge, I was looking through this comic book, and in it was this man, and he could leap tall buildings, and what if we made a machine that could do that, just think what it would mean, why, I could have rescued that cat that got stuck in Mrs. Appleby's tree the other day....
(Old hand): Awww, Pyle, shut up!!
Yeah, but the technology only works on Vulcan mammary glands.
All this money could be much better spent on invisibility lotions.
Oh sure, rain on their parade.
Pruneface.
It's $600,000, but what's a few decimal points amongst friends?
My quarrel with NASA is that it is a bastard offspring disowned by the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon, and is trying to make its way in a hostile world relying on the generosity of strangers. At first it was the champion coming out of nowhere to put men in space and land on the moon. But then it was realized that NASA was not entitled to the inheritance, and it is permanently down on skid row doing antigravity experiments. Better to put it out of its misery.
Mon Dieu, even the French haven't fallen for this antigravity chimera.
From the article:
"He claimed to have measured a weakening of Earth’s gravity by 2 percent near a specialized superconductor spinning in a magnetic field."
I myself tried to defy the law of gravity the other day, using a bananna-peal device. Alas, just as I had slipped the bonds of gravity, I fell on my tush. But this negative result will not discourage me.
Remember scientists throughout history have been laughed at, imprisoned, and killed for their beliefs/research. At one time, everyone thought the world was flat.
Graham Bell, sponsor of Michelson, was interested in testing the new Maxwell equations. The non-result forced a modification. But this case is different in that there is no Maxwell putting forth a new set of equations. This is a stab in the dark.
There has been some theoretical discussion of exotic matter that has negative energy density. It's fun to play around with the possibility and construct (in imagination) things like wormholes that you could walk through to transport instantly to another place and time. However, no evidence of exotic matter actually existing has ever been found.
Gravity is the weakest force in the universe, so it is very difficult to measure directly. The only reason we feel gravity at all is that the other forces tend to cancel out at large distances (compared to the size of an atom or molecule). Small changes in gravitational force are even harder to measure.
Like Cold Fusion, the supposed gravity shield experiments depend on measurement of very small quantities in the presence of a lot of experimental error. It's easy to make a mistake and see something that isn't there because you want to see it. There are lots of examples in the history of science: N-Rays, Canals on Mars, Cold Fusion, etc. (Dare I add the Face on Mars?)
I once had a proud inventor send me a motor design that he claimed put out 100 watts of mechanical power for 99 watts of input electrical power, giving you 1 watt of power for free. It turned out he had a very efficient design so that the mechanical power output was almost (but not quite) equal to the electrical power input. His methods for calculating and measuring the respective powers were inaccurate enough so that it looked like the output power was slightly greater than the input power, but the difference was smaller than the errors in his methods.
It may seem like traditional physicists are too quick to dismiss things that don't fit their narrow worldview, but it's actually just a function of the checks and balances at work when scientists verify each other's studies. Occam's Razor applies unless definitively ruled out. As the late Carl Sagan liked to say, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."
Ain't that the truth!
Example: (from NASA brainstorming session) "Ooh, ooh, Mr. Goldin, I have an idea!"
bet they're fallin'...ain't no setch thang as "anti-gravity"
well at least they didn't waste $6 Billion like they did on the mars landers...
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