From my understanding of your description, your proposed propulsion violates conservation of energy and momentum.
This is a vague wordy description. Discussing topics that are highly unituitive and poorly understood. (Casimir effect, entropy of vacuum) And claiming that something breaks conservation of energy.
This is multiple clear signs that you are mistaken.
If you come back with detailed equations for exactly how this might work, I’m pretty sure there is a proof of energy conservation in quantum field theory. So if you have a proof that this works in quantum field theory, you have a maths contradiction. But at least looking for the error is a clear and specific task.
If you have a new theory of fundamental physics, please explain what this theory is.
(I was making an extremely similar mistake about 9 years ago. )
Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to read through my theory.
This propulsion system won’t work like traditional systems that rely on a reaction mass and, therefore, conservation of momentum. Instead it will work more like reverse osmosis.
In the reverse osmosis analogy, the “solution” is space-time and the “solute” is the vacuum fluctuations. In osmosis, the solution will try to equalize the concentration of solute. In doing so, it will set up a gradient that will cause a “push” from space-time as it tries to equalize the concentration of vacuum fluctuations.
Or we can think of it in terms of thermodynamics, where a system tends to proceed from low entropy to high entropy. If we can create a low entropy zone (fewer vacuum fluctuation modes), then higher entropy space-time (many more possible vacuum fluctuation modes) should try to bend around it, and in doing so provide the “push” needed by our propulsion system.
I realize the forces produced by the Casimir effect are very, very tiny, but I’m not depending on a force like traditional propulsion systems that use a reaction mass. I’m relying on entropy gradients to provide the “push”.
I’ve been scouring the internet looking for other people exploring similar ideas and have found a couple different guys. Dr. Harold White (formerly of NASA) and Charles Chase (formerly of Lockheed-Martin Skunkworks) are both exploring propulsion systems that leverage the Casimir Effect. I’ve reached out to them and am waiting to hear back. Here are links to their website: https://casimirspace.com/ and https://unlab.us/
This propulsion system won’t work like traditional systems that rely on a reaction mass and, therefore, conservation of momentum. Instead it will work more like reverse osmosis.
Reverse osmosis devices are used to make fresh water. They also conserve momentum.
Conservation of momentum isn’t just how conventional rockets work. It’s a law that we suspect applies universally and without exception.
In the reverse osmosis analogy, the “solution” is space-time and the “solute” is the vacuum fluctuations. In osmosis, the solution will try to equalize the concentration of solute.
Wordy analogy based reasoning of this kind does not reliably produce correct answers.
At best, reasoning like this can be used to generate a suggestion for what equations to consider. Because if the upside is a nobel prize, and the downside is wasting a few hours, it’s worth a go even if it’s probably wrong.
This relies on a person that understands the maths of quantum field theory.
In practice, there are a lot of people going “I have the ideas, I just need someone to add the maths”, and not that many people who understand the maths.
Looking at your equations, I think I can spot at least 1 mistake.
You say F=TdSdx from “Verlinde’s entropic gravity”. Verlinde’s work isn’t something I am familiar with, so I can’t say whether this is correct or not.
But, if it is, this is the force at 1 point. To calculate the overall force, we must take the integral.
If S tends to a constant (the background entropy of empty space) sufficiently fast as the distance from your spacecraft increases, then we can use the gradient theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradient_theorem to show that all the forces must inevitably cancel out.
Consider this diagram.
The entropy needs to be the same at the far left and far right of the graph, because empty spacetime, far from any influence, has a fixed entropy. Your spacecraft sits in the middle. A small amount of your spacecraft on the far left experiences a steep gradient, and so a strong rightwards force. A larger amount of your spacecraft in the middle and right experiences a weaker leftward force.
And so it all adds up to 0 force in total.
This sort of everything cancelling out behavior is an inevitability assuming the equation F=TdSdx and
Flat spacetime
T and S are converge to a constant (and do so at least cubically fast, 2x the distance means at most 1⁄8 th as much variation in T and S.)
From my understanding of your description, your proposed propulsion violates conservation of energy and momentum.
This is a vague wordy description. Discussing topics that are highly unituitive and poorly understood. (Casimir effect, entropy of vacuum) And claiming that something breaks conservation of energy.
This is multiple clear signs that you are mistaken.
If you come back with detailed equations for exactly how this might work, I’m pretty sure there is a proof of energy conservation in quantum field theory. So if you have a proof that this works in quantum field theory, you have a maths contradiction. But at least looking for the error is a clear and specific task.
If you have a new theory of fundamental physics, please explain what this theory is.
(I was making an extremely similar mistake about 9 years ago. )
Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to read through my theory.
This propulsion system won’t work like traditional systems that rely on a reaction mass and, therefore, conservation of momentum. Instead it will work more like reverse osmosis.
In the reverse osmosis analogy, the “solution” is space-time and the “solute” is the vacuum fluctuations. In osmosis, the solution will try to equalize the concentration of solute. In doing so, it will set up a gradient that will cause a “push” from space-time as it tries to equalize the concentration of vacuum fluctuations.
Or we can think of it in terms of thermodynamics, where a system tends to proceed from low entropy to high entropy. If we can create a low entropy zone (fewer vacuum fluctuation modes), then higher entropy space-time (many more possible vacuum fluctuation modes) should try to bend around it, and in doing so provide the “push” needed by our propulsion system.
I realize the forces produced by the Casimir effect are very, very tiny, but I’m not depending on a force like traditional propulsion systems that use a reaction mass. I’m relying on entropy gradients to provide the “push”.
Here is a link to a white paper I wrote with some minimal supporting math: https://archive.org/details/entropy-gradient-propulsion-system-whitepaper-rev-c
Here’s a link to a more simplistic overview of the concept (no math): https://archive.org/details/entropy-gradient-propulsion-overview
I’ve been scouring the internet looking for other people exploring similar ideas and have found a couple different guys. Dr. Harold White (formerly of NASA) and Charles Chase (formerly of Lockheed-Martin Skunkworks) are both exploring propulsion systems that leverage the Casimir Effect. I’ve reached out to them and am waiting to hear back. Here are links to their website: https://casimirspace.com/ and https://unlab.us/
Thanks again for your interest in my idea.
Reverse osmosis devices are used to make fresh water. They also conserve momentum.
Conservation of momentum isn’t just how conventional rockets work. It’s a law that we suspect applies universally and without exception.
Wordy analogy based reasoning of this kind does not reliably produce correct answers.
At best, reasoning like this can be used to generate a suggestion for what equations to consider. Because if the upside is a nobel prize, and the downside is wasting a few hours, it’s worth a go even if it’s probably wrong.
This relies on a person that understands the maths of quantum field theory.
In practice, there are a lot of people going “I have the ideas, I just need someone to add the maths”, and not that many people who understand the maths.
Looking at your equations, I think I can spot at least 1 mistake.
You say F=TdSdx from “Verlinde’s entropic gravity”. Verlinde’s work isn’t something I am familiar with, so I can’t say whether this is correct or not.
But, if it is, this is the force at 1 point. To calculate the overall force, we must take the integral.
If S tends to a constant (the background entropy of empty space) sufficiently fast as the distance from your spacecraft increases, then we can use the gradient theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradient_theorem to show that all the forces must inevitably cancel out.
Consider this diagram.
The entropy needs to be the same at the far left and far right of the graph, because empty spacetime, far from any influence, has a fixed entropy. Your spacecraft sits in the middle. A small amount of your spacecraft on the far left experiences a steep gradient, and so a strong rightwards force. A larger amount of your spacecraft in the middle and right experiences a weaker leftward force.
And so it all adds up to 0 force in total.
This sort of everything cancelling out behavior is an inevitability assuming the equation F=TdSdx and
Flat spacetime
T and S are converge to a constant (and do so at least cubically fast, 2x the distance means at most 1⁄8 th as much variation in T and S.)
Donald, thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. I can see now why this won’t work.
I can’t thank you enough for patiently explaining the errors in my reasoning. Your thoughtful analysis is exactly what I was hoping for.
I had suspected that if it were this easy someone else would have surely thought of it by now and pursued this angle. And now I know why they didn’t.
I’ll leave this stuff to the physicists and mathematicians and get back to renovating our old house—I know that would certainly make my wife happier!