It is hypothesized that the attraction between two metal plates in a vacuum -- the Casimir effect -- is due to either zero point energy or created by a delayed van-der-waals force. Either way it may be possible to exploit this for what seems to be free energy.
If zero-point energy or quantum foam is responsible then it should be possible to hold a metal plate close to another, much thicker plate. Half-existant particles will then behave differently on one side than the other, and should create pressure on one side of the pair of plates.
If it's simply a delayed van-der-waals force we can take the same pair of plates, one thicker than the other, and vibrate one of them at relativistic speeds. (I imagine a fluxuating current on one of the two plates may create the same effect without physical movement) If the attraction is due to this effect then to preserve the speed of light the plates must be unequally attracted to each-other, and therefore create thrust. This preservation must happen because the van-der-waals force cannot attract something faster than the speed of light, but must act as a wave form.-- Voice, Nov 25 2019 What's the innovation here ? This seems to be just a re-stating of theory and research already under examination by numerous theoreticians and experimenters.
[suggested -for-deletion] , not an innovation, redundant, WKTE.-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2019 I shan't! I, for one, have never heard of that research. It's certainly not WKTE.-- Voice, Nov 25 2019 It is by NASA; a search through back issues of Physica, Nature and New Scientist will turn up more references than you can shake a stick at.
Casimir vacuum as a mechanism for a reactionless drive has been the subject of a special programme on Discovery Science, and the ubiquitous Prof. Brian Cox has banged on endlessly about it.-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2019 The map is not the territory. The Casimir effect can be explained in different ways, not all of which require regions of negative energy or zero-point energy.
All of our understanding of physics (at every scale) is an abstraction, a model, which is successively fine-tuned to fit the evidence, but it should not be mistaken for an actual “true” description of the finest workings of reality.-- Frankx, Nov 25 2019 // The map is not the territory. //
Actually, at the quantum level, it is.
If you have the description of a particle in terms of spin, mass and momentum to a useful degree of accuracy then what you have is more than a description ; it is the actual particle.
Now you have it, you can send it off to travel through two slits anf diffract with itself ...-- 8th of 7, Nov 25 2019 //it is//... I disagree. What you have is a very fine-tuned mathematical model that describes some physical behaviours with a high degree of accuracy, within some bounds.
Newton’s laws described force-mass behaviour very successfully, within certain bounds.-- Frankx, Nov 25 2019 I'm not following where the assymmetry or free energy comes from. My (limited) understanding is that the attractive force exists between two closely-opposed conductive plates because certain wavelengths of "virtual" doohicky are too long to fit in the gap; hence there's a net force from outside pushing the plates together. I believe the force is independent of the thickness of the plates, and is only attractive.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 25 2019 How about a casimir flashlight, just use IC technology to make a bunch of 300 mm IC wafers, when you get a square meter then at 3nm feature size you have more than 100 billion || casimir plates, if they all have mirrors on the back and are rolled into a cone then you have a cornucopia of photons, put a collimating lens at the front and you have a beam making flashlight.
That is not a casimir drive though-- beanangel, Nov 26 2019 ^A sister of light sail though.
If the plates could be held perfectly still , a switch to turn on and off still would be better, the force caused by the virtual particles wavelength difference has to go somewhere. A vacuum-ship with a scaled up number of plates directed in all directions could control which are hard surfaces and which are soft.-- wjt, Oct 16 2020 Yes, indeed, very good. We'll be seeing you in orbit around the third planet of Alpha Centauri, then, next Tuesday teatime ?
We'll bake some chocolate chip cookies.-- 8th of 7, Oct 17 2020 In answer to one of your earlier questions, yes, of *course* there are poppadums </AsynchronousInterstellar HospitalityProtocol>-- pertinax, Oct 17 2020 random, halfbakery