There you have it. I'll have tangible updates for this thread in a few months to 9 months. Not so bad!Nebel's polywell team isn't due to announce anything until some time between November of this year and May of next year. However, the chief of the Office of Naval Research recently gave a presentation to high level military brass about future naval power, propulsion, and weaponry, and among other things, talked briefly about Polywell remaining on track and giving positive results so far and will be able to meet the Navy's needs for power for its future railgun and other energy weaponry needs. So this is encouraging even if there's no science released as of yet.
Those interested in the Mach effect may find this latest paper interesting. It shows that a model assuming inertia is due to Unruh radiation can explain the Pioneer effect and why disc galaxies have a minimum mass. The paper claims that as accelerations decrease, the inertial mass of an object deviate significantly from its gravitational mass, causing accelerations to quantise.
[1004.3303] Minimum accelerations from quantised inertia
Readable layman take on the paper:
Can the Pioneer Anomaly Be Explained by Inertia Modification?
And lets not forget:
Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: New Quantum Theory Separates Gravitational and Inertial Mass
[1006.1988] Inertial and gravitational mass in quantum mechanics
"Inertial and gravitational mass in quantum mechanics
Authors: E. Kajari, N.L. Harshman, E.M. Rasel, S. Stenholm, G. Süßmann, W.P. Schleich
(Submitted on 10 Jun 2010 (v1), last revised 15 Jun 2010 (this version, v2))
Abstract: We show that in complete agreement with classical mechanics, the dynamics of any quantum mechanical wave packet in a linear gravitational potential involves the gravitational and the inertial mass only as their ratio. In contrast, the spatial modulation of the corresponding energy wave function is determined by the third root of the product of the two masses. Moreover, the discrete energy spectrum of a particle constrained in its motion by a linear gravitational potential and an infinitely steep wall depends on the inertial as well as the gravitational mass with different fractional powers. This feature might open a new avenue in quantum tests of the universality of free fall."
Hmmm, now the comment that "the spatial modulation of the corresponding energy wave function is determined by the third root of the product of the two masses" sounds very familar. Oh yes, I know, it's in one of Dr. Woodward's Mach-Effect derivation expansions that indicate that the M-E mass fluctuations are proportional to the cube of the cap dielectric energy wave's voltage. Looks like the QM guys are finally starting to catch on...
- scientist working on grav inertial experiments to prove the theory
Nebel and the Polywell folk aren't talking. Go poke around the focus fusion site instead as they are getting close to proton+Boron fusion and they can talk about it. Focus Fusion Society: Developing an environmentally safe, clean, low cost, unlimited energy source for everyone.
Edit:
You can find reference to the Naval presentation at talk-polywell.org but there are no concrete details because Polywell is a naval project and very much subject to press/data embargo. I didn't mean to imply that what was said about Polywell wasn't actually said, it was. I don't know if the Navy is blowing smoke but the Navy has a pretty good track record over the last 60 years of pushing technology into its warships so I grant them some credibility on such fantastic claims.
just some chatter on a different forumAssuming they can get WB-8 operating at beta=1, if losses scale at something reasonably close to B^.25*r^2 and the power scales at B^4*r^3, then there's a reasonable chance they'll be able to fund a full scale reactor in May.
Rick has said it's best to have two machines going at a time, so May 2011 could see the start of a WB-D/100/9 reactor to go along with the optional WB-8.1 if the WB-8 results look really promising (that would sort of make sense, because then the p-B11 results from WB-8.1 lead naturally into a second reactor for p-B11). If WB-8 results are very disappointing, then we probably won't even see the WB-8.1 built.
So in eight months, we should at least know SOMETHING.
Slashdot said:It has been said that fusion is 50 years away for quite decades, but now work has actually been started. Digging has begun in the south of France on the planned site for France's first fusion reactor. A tokomak is a torus shaped magnetic confinement device which is necessary to withstand the temperatures associated with fusion that are so high, solid materials can't hold them. As such, the building represents the future core of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.) It will be interesting to see if it takes 50 years to build it.
"Navy will save money." "Game changing fusion."
I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but given past examples, do you really think either statement above is valid?
Anyone here thinks it makes sense to spend $50 billion on fusion research so that we can drop the price of a KwH by $0.04 cents? If that. No? Besides, do you think Edison Power will pass on the savings unto the consumer? Do you?
Elites (zomg there's that dirty werd) often make claims of "life changing wowbang" but really all we get is a faster aircraft carrier.
Perhaps with the amazing technological progress we've experienced for the past 150 years, we are starting to hit some dead ends? Yea maybe.