Harry Veeder <hlvee...@yahoo.com> wrote: He claimed to have electrical evidence that a stationary gold leaf > electroscope > does work. >
For the audience: this means "it performs work." (The English "it does work" is confusing, as it could mean "it does what it is supposed to do.") > I assume your rejection is based on a critique of the evidence rather then > just > the belief that it is physical nonsense. > Actually, it was mostly a discussion between Storms and Correa. I was mainly agreeing with Ed. As far as Ed and I could make out, the assertion was that work is performed by the gold leaf in the act of staying up, against the force of gravity. We pointed out a couple of problems, theoretical and experimental: The physics of this system are well known (better known to Ed than me!) and they do not include it doing work. Granted this boils down to the assertion that conventional theory is right and Correa's is wrong, but the point is, there does not seem to be a hole in the conventional theory. If it was producing energy, the gold leaf device would have to produce heat or an electric current or some other detectable source of expended energy, and there does not seem to be one. (In the example of the guy holding out his arms, he does do work, contracting muscles, and that produces heat. The electroscope is analogous to someone with his arms held up with ropes, or with a beach ball under each arm.) In other words, there does not seem to be experimental evidence of work. The electroscope performs work as the arms rise or descend. But not when they are stationary. That's our take on it, anyway. (Regarding an object suspended with a rope: it does, actually perform work, at extremely low power. It stretches out the rope, moving slightly, until eventually the rope breaks. It happens so slowly you could not detect the heat from molecules moving around or fibers breaking. It resembles the work done as a crack forms in stressed automobile glass. At a given temperature without rain or high wind, the crack forms and spreads at a remarkably even rate, very slowly, with some fixed number of molecules participating every day.) - Jed
