Reply to post: EM Drive is an impossible idea

EM Drive is an impossible idea

The paper has met with criticism, however. The naysayers believe EM Drive is an impossible idea, as the lack of propellant violates Newton’s Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Is there a degree or doctorate in "naysaying" ? No. Then who gives a shiny shit what they say ?

Even in the quote above, there is no inconsistency. For a start, the EmDrive definitely uses *energy*. So a priori there is no reason why movement could not result.

What is really confusing the scientists is the non-Newtonian nature of any resultant thrust.

Now, as any fool who actually studies science beyond the Daily Mail headlines knows, there are instances where Newton falls down, and Einstein takes over. In the case of the EmDrive, this could be the place to start looking.

Now my grasp of relatively is only as far as A level, however from what I recall, the definition of gravity was "a force which distorts spacetime. Other objects move in accordance with the distortion."

Which means the hypothesis that the EmDrive is somehow causing a subtle distortion in spacetime (by the application of microwave energy) is not unreasonable. And if that distortion were to shift the centre of gravity of the containing structure ever so slightly, then the structure would be forced to move to accommodate the shift. Thrustless motion.

I have no idea if this *is* how the EmDrive works. But I also know noone has (yet) said it isn't.

All I know is I hear a lot of "that's impossible" without any depth of explanation - always a sign of prejudice and ignorance in equal measures.

Remember 20, 30 years ago. It was impossible that stomach ulcers in humans were caused by a virus ? Hello Heliobactor pylorii !

Knowing there are a lot of top boffins in El Regs readership, what's the thoughts about the above ? I am quite happy to be shown what a bunch of crap it is ...

Let's do science !

Incidentally, if you can put up with the lets-make-a-30-minute-programme-fit-into-60-minutes approach of BBC documentaries since the 1990s, there was a fascinating look at the EmDrive as an antigravity drive in a Horizon about Project Greenglow

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0752f85

(p.s. many years ago, Omni magazine devoted an entire issue to antigravity. One of the more intriguing suggestions was that in the same way electricity and magnetism were linked, gravity and mass were, if you could pump a *really* dense substance around a circuit fast enough, you could "generate" gravity. The problem was because gravity is so weak, the density of the substance was effectively a neutron star. So even if the theory is sound, the practical applications are somewhat restricted.)