Engineering Challenge: EmDrive Maglev System.

[IDMclean]

Here is the challenge, because I lack sufficient funds to produce this myself.

 

Setup a p-magnetic Levitation track. Such that the track is a smooth curve (like they have for Nascar). kind like this: 0.

 

The Both the Train and the track need to be constructed with P-Magnetics in the Halbatch Array configuration such that static levitation is met.

 

Here's the hard part. The train needs to be constructed such that it has a miniture version of the EmDrive. A conical internal cavity and a magnetron.

 

The person building this will need to research both of these technologies intimately and will need to keep the mind set that it can work. Assume innocent until proven guilty. Keep critical though, but open minded. Documentation will be critical.

 

I have a sneaking suspision that the Emdrive doesn't actually alter (and therefore break conservation of) momentum, much in the way that magnets don't alter (and therefore break conservation of) energy. I am thinking that if this experiment works what will drive the train around the track will be a change merely of direction. Energy following a geodesic or magnetic field line.

 

I would be glad to serve as researcher to help with designing, and providing feedback.

[CraigD]

Somehow, despite being a maglev enthusiast, I missed this thread!

Setup a p-magnetic Levitation track.

I’m not familiar with the term “p-magnetic”. Can you provide an overview?

… The Both the Train and the track need to be constructed with P-Magnetics in the Halbatch Array configuration such that static levitation is met.

Every Halbach array based maglev system I’ve heard of (such as the Inductrack System, my personal favorite maglev approach), don’t levitate the train when it’s stationary. These trains require “landing wheels”, and have a “takeoff speed” at which they achieve levitation. To avoid this, it would be necessary for the train to have moving permanent magnets, or an electromagnet system, defeating one of the main strengths of the system, simplicity, low mass, low cost, and low or potentially zero power required by the train

Here's the hard part. The train needs to be constructed such that it has a miniture version of the EmDrive. A conical internal cavity and a magnetron.

:)

Although Roger Shawyer claims to have constructed a prototype EmDrive producing 0.088 N (9 grams) of force from 700 W of power, he’s never demonstrated it to an impartial audience. He’s not published in a peer-reviewed journal (The New Scientist is not peer reviewed, and, expecially since the 9/8/06 article on Shawer’s EmDrive, is increasingly considered no longer a popular science magazine, but a tabloid).

 

A simple read of Shawer’s “A Theory of Microwave Propulsion for Spacecraft” shows that, despite the assertion of many supporters that its hypothesized effect is due to a complicated Relativistic effect, his argument that photons in a conical chamber will produce more force in the direction of the small end than the large is actually purely mechanical. His argument is purely and simply geometrically flawed - John Costella’s 10/5/06 paper gives, I think, a good explanation of why, and agrees with my own – but just taking Shawer’s paper at its claims, it should be possible to demonstrate the hypothesized net force using something as simple as trapezoidal frame on a pool table, an easier approach than building your own microwave cavity.

 

Rather than attempt to combine maglev, a fairly well-proven technology, with EmDrive, an unproven and arguably fraudulent idea, I think its wise to keep them apart, if for no other reason than that a terrestrial train doesn’t need a reaction mass-less drive. Conventional electromagnets in the track, or any sort of propulsive motor in the train (propellers and jets have been proposed to allow Inductrack trains to operate far from available electrical power) work, and are far more efficient than the most optimistic claims for the EmDrive.

 

After years of procrastination, I’m planning to build a small model Inductrack using lots of hollow U-shaped scrap aluminum plates, plastic spacers, hotglue, plastic HotWheels track, some moderately-priced, nearly cubical permanent magnets, epoxy cement, and some wheels and axles from a few HotWheels cars. If a straight, 13 m (the longest I can fit in a comfortable room of my house) track works – that is, has a takeoff speed that isn’t impractically high, I plan to make some corner track, then tackle the tricky business of making a small synchrotron accelerator like the one in Livermore’s bigger prototype, to allow it to run continuously. :)