- Attachments : Nanocantilever.
- The “Uncertainty Principle in Particle Physics” says that pairs of parameters are connected. The more you know about one the less you can know about the other. Time and Energy are such a pair. Position and Velocity are another pair. According to this theory even a perfect vacuum is filled with wave-like fields that fluctuate constantly. These wave-particles pop in and out of existence constantly creating a “ zero-point energy” that is non - zero.
- Zero-Point Energy comes from the idea of the lowest temperature being - 273 C, or Absolute Zero, does not bring the atom’s vibrations completely to rest. Atom’s still vibrate at the quantum level, which is the lowest energy level. From the Uncertainty Principle with paired position and momentum(velocity) the momentum can not be zero unless the position is infinite. Therefore, some momentum must always remain.
- Close study of atoms shows that vacuum fluctuations is jostling orbiting electrons thus altering their energy levels. In some cases electrons can spontaneously jump between orbital levels emitting a photon of light of the exact frequency as the energy gap.
- Hendrik Casimir in 1948 experimented with two metal plates in a vacuum. The two plates when brought close together limit the vacuum fluctuations in between them. Outside the plates vacuum fluctuations can have any wavelength they choose. With more waves outside than inside there is a “ Vacuum Pressure “ pushing the plates together.
- The two plates were only 10 nanometers apart. Measuring his force was an extremely difficult thing. Electrostatic attraction between charges in the plates could have the same effect.
- To over come problems measuring the force between parallel plates in 1996 scientists made vacuum pressure measurements using a metal plate and a spherical lens. this geometry had tougher math but avoided the difficulty of keeping 2 plates perfectly parallel. Again , they found a tiny residual force pulling them together, the Casmir Effect.
- February , 2011 scientists confirmed that the size of the vacuum fluctuations grew with rising temperatures.
- In 2012 nanoscale research is considering building nanoscale machines of switches, gears, bearing, motors that could take advantage of the vacuum forces. These machines are on the scales of 1,000 atoms. At these scales surfaces are not smooth, their crystal-like surface confine vacuum fluctuations in very different ways.
- In 2009 the repulsive (versus attractive) Casimir Force was measured on a gold cantilever suspended in bombazine liquid over a silicon surface. The force measured was 10 piconewtons. ( 10^-11 Newtons). The gravitational pull of the Earth of a nickel coin is 5.1 *10^-2 Newtons. The force between an electron and the proton in a hydrogen atom is 8 *10^-8 Newtons. This force is 1,000 times smaller, unbelievable.
- Many scientists want to account for the Casimir Effect as quantum interactions of charges. The debate goes on! It gets especially energized when science attempts to describe “ Dark Energy” as vacuum energy, a mysterious anti-gravity force that is expanding the Universe at 47,000 miles per hour for every million lightyears of vacuum space.
- The embarrassing calculations made is that the Vacuum Energy in space would have to be 10^120 times smaller than we measure in order to explain the Expansion of the Universe. ( Vacuum energy is 120 orders of magnitude too great ) The Casimir Effect to Dark Energy has a long way to go to make up that much ground.
- Truth be known, science still needs to prove the reality of vacuum fluctuations creating a force in space. But, exactly what do these observed effects come from? Is there really a Dark Energy responsible for the expanding Universe? We are using the very small to explain the very big and the gap leaves a lot for us to learn in between. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
----------------------------------------------
(1) To learn more about the Casimir Effect request Review #1237 1-8-11
---------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------
RSVP, please reply with a number to rate this review: #1- learned something new. #2 - Didn’t read it. #3- very interesting. #4- Send another review #___ from the index. #5- Keep em coming. #6- I forwarded copies to some friends. #7- Don‘t send me these anymore! #8- I am forwarding you some questions? Index is available with email and with requested reviews at http://jdetrick.blogspot.com/ Please send feedback, corrections, or recommended improvements to: jamesdetrick@comcast.net.
or, use: “Jim Detrick” www.facebook.com, or , www.twitter.com.
707-536-3272, Thursday, February 23, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment