First Steps Toward Artificial Gravity

CompaniaHill writes "Have scientists been able to artificially generate a gravitational field? Researchers at the European Space Agency believe so. "Small acceleration sensors placed at different locations close to the spinning superconductor, which has to be accelerated for the effect to be noticeable, recorded an acceleration field outside the superconductor that appears to be produced by gravitomagnetism. This experiment is the gravitational analogue of Faraday's electromagnetic induction experiment in 1831." The effect is very small, so don't expect to see it used in spacecraft any time soon. But the effect is still many times larger than the predictions of Einstein's theories. "If confirmed, this would be a major breakthrough," says [Austrian researcher Martin] Tajmar. "It opens up a new means of investigating general relativity and it consequences in the quantum world.""

Re:Small steps or large leaps

[spaztik]

Its one small step for man, one slightly more difficult giant leap for mankind.

i don't know about you guys,

[to_kallon]

"It opens up a new means of investigating general relativity and it consequences in the quantum world."

but i'm running scared [imdb.com]

A different approach towards artificial gravity

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been doing research on this too, but from a different angle. Instead of using spinning superconductors, I've found that by collecting a large amount of mass together in one place, I can create a gravitational field. My current experiment has collected 7.2×10^15 kg of material in one place and there is definitely an effect.

I am working on a larger test with 5.9736×10^24 kg of mass that seems to give gravitational field strengths that are roughly the same as we are used to.

Re:Forgot spaceships

[Rude Turnip]

I'm not positive, but I think this can be accomplished readily today using a cat, a large rubber band and some buttered toast.

Number Games

[jotate]

[...] the measured field is a surprising one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein's General Relativity predicts.

It's been a while since I took a math class but I believe one hundred million trillion is roughly equal to a gajillion.

Who cares?

[jaysones]

"It opens up a new means of investigating general relativity and it consequences in the quantum world."

Who cares about that, where's my flying car?!

Re:Small steps or large leaps

[rufty_tufty]

They won't be able to leap as far with it turned on though...

Re:What?

[Rob T Firefly]

but we don't call that artificial electricity.

Obviously that's because if they let on that it was artificial, elitist snobs would demand the real thing.

Like that time I got slapped for giving that lady artifical respiration..

Re:Awesome

[ozmanjusri]

Weapons fire, on the other hand, isn't so predictable.

Have you watched any Hollywood movies lately?

Re:not a gravitational field

[B3ryllium]

yes! Someone send them an email *right now* demanding that they REVERSE THE POLARITY!

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

The tachyon reverse polarity quantum flux adds a degree of unpredictability to the energy output, dumbass. Though the heizenburg compensator is at full pelt, you aren't going to get the compensatory power fluctuation to work perfectly.

Any energineer worth his brains would recognize that nanites would provide this kind of appropriate, precise energy output readout, but of course, deployment of such self-aware entities increases chances of a artificial intelligence takeover, which would suck.

Re:Forgot spaceships

[markana]

This method has never worked out in practice - it's only good for producing spinning, suspended cats.

If you try to attach a shaft to the cat to transfer the rotational energy, the cat will stop trying to land on it's feet, and cling to the shaft. Thus no work is produced.

Attempts have been made to glue magnets to the cat, which is then suspended in a coil. However, it appears that the natural static charge produced by the cat seems to cancel out the expected induced current.

Experiments are continuing with *shaved* cats. I'm thinking about publishing some preliminary results, in hopes of winning an IgNoble.

Re:Awesome

[SnarfQuest]

but of course, deployment of such self-aware entities increases chances of a artificial intelligence takeover, which would suck.

You must have missed several episodes.

All you need to do is ask it to do something impossible, like calculating the last digit of pi, find an intelligent actor, or correctly fill out a tax form, and it will self-destruct.

Be sure to stay far away when it does, because it usually makes a large mess. You do know that computers are always built out of explosives, don't you?

They're holding out...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they've discovered more than they're letting on, as you can clearly see in this picture [esa.int], they have to hold the testing apparatus down with sandbags to keep the antigravity from floating it away. Don't forget to pay your gravity bill.

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

You owe me a new keyboard.

Re:More spinning superconductors

[drinkypoo]

The problem usually comes when someone wants to see the experiment replicated. For some reason the effect always seems to go away when other people are looking.

Of course! Don't you know that one of the basic tenets of quantum physics is that the observer always affects the experiment?

Re:Forgot spaceships

[pegr]

Experiments are continuing with *shaved* cats.
 
Step one: Shave Shrodinger's cat with Occam's razor...

Who Invented the E-man?

[TiggertheMad]

If true, this would be pretty much the biggest breakthrough since Einstein.

And what a breakthrough he was! I don't recall who invented him, but man, they don't build jews like that anymore...

Re:Forgot spaceships

[markana]

We used to use mice. The cats ate all the mice, so....

Re:not a gravitational field

[ozbird]

Don't worry - artificial gravity is less flattening than the real stuff.