Honey, I Finished The Internet

11 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. I haven’t a clue what they are going on about! I can only hope it will be of some kind of use to the betterment of mankind – perhaps extend life? Of course, Trudeau would cut off my retirement pensions.

2. I think it is referring to vacuous brain cells emulating from a cone head on a sunny day.

3. I read elsewhere, sorry, cannot provide a link, that the M-drive device becomes very hot in operation, and that also, the thrust does not commence instantly as power is turned on, but builds slowly. That leaves open the possibility that the “thrust” measured is in fact just thermal expansion of the component parts of the device.
   So far, the measured thrust is tiny, so that most of the energy consumed goes into making heat. Unless the efficiency of the device be vastly improved, it does not seem to be of any use, even if the thrust is real.

4. Could we get Trudeau to explain this for us? He knows about that quantum stuff.

5. Beat me to it Tim. Super Prime Minister Poopwater must take a crack at this one. He’s unbelievably smart.

6. If the thrust is real (a big if, we’re talking micronewtons) then the EM-drive is huge. The specific impulse is effectively infinite.

7. This could be quite useful for satellites and deep space probes. Using a solar panel to generate electricity would give you the ability to use emthrust to keep a satellite on station without depleting a limited fuel supply. Alternately, you can use a small reactor to provide electricity to propel a probe out of the solar system.

8. They could use a small cold-fusion reactor to power it – much cleaner than rockets.

9. “Unless the efficiency of the device be vastly improved, it does not seem to be of any use, even if the thrust is real.”
   There’s an apocryphal tale of Wilbur Wright trying to sell aircraft to the French Army c.1908. One of the hide-bound generals looked at the fragile, 60 kph construction and sniffed, “It’s interesting but of what possible use is it?” Wright replied, “Of what use is a baby?”
   If – if – this turns out to be real (as opposed to your plausible explanation of misinterpretation), then its potential would seem to be great. Keep in mind that, were it not for the wingspan, the entire 1903 flight of the Wright brother’s Flyer could have taken place inside the cargo compartment of a USAF C5 Galaxy cargo aiplane designed just 60 short years after Kitty Hawk and it was just two generations after the first flight that a manned aircraft broke the sound barrier.

10. There is an assumption that the engine will suck in the particles as it travels through the empty space to use them for the propulsion.
    As the wise guys tell everybody, the space is mostly empty, it may be a wide concept where to suck in enough particles to work with.
    The wise guys assuredly have an answer for that.

11. Just suck in the dark matter. There’s lot of that up there so I heard.