Reactionless drive critique.

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21 comments, last by Lucidium 18 years, 9 months ago
Squirm - You've sorta gone over my head there.

Isn't force the same amount as energy? (F = MA?)

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No

Force is NOT the same as energy.
When you push a magnet through a metal tube, it generates a current, and an opposing magnetic field in the tube (Lenz's Law). This slows the magnet down by providing a force opposing it's direction of motion, but it means the tube is pushed away as well.

You're saying the machine will be pushed forward when the left mass hits the end bumper. But the machine will also be pushed backwards as the magnetic mass moves through the tube.
The force with which it is pushed forward depends on the difference in speed between the two masses. And the difference in speed between the two masses depends on how much of the magnetic mass' momentum is transferred to the tube.

Both masses will end up transferring the same amount of momentum to the tube, in opposite directions. It makes no difference how it's transferred, whether by collision or magnetism.

They cancel eachother out, and the machine would just jerk forwards and backwards.

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