It seems to me that the reactionless type of drive does seem to violate common sense. By this statement I mean that if we assume that internal energy is converted into kinetic energy by using the drive then the mass of the spaceship would appear to be different according to different observers. For example, an observer at rest with the ship before it activates the drive will measure a certain value of mass. If we assume that this observer watches the ship speed up relative to him without emitting exhaust he comes to the conclusion that energy has appeared out of nowhere and is imparted to the ship.
A second observer who is at rest with the ship after the drive is enacted will wonder why its mass has decreased. The energy associated with this mass loss seems to vanish into thin air. This system leads one to conclude that the conservation of momentum as well as conservation of energy and mass becomes violated. If you think of this behavior as effecting individual atoms, how and why would it be appropriate to obtain different values for this parameter? This problem appears to eliminate the real likelihood of reactionless drives. Dave -----Original Message----- From: H Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> To: vortex-l <vortex-l@eskimo.com> Sent: Fri, Nov 21, 2014 11:31 am Subject: Re: [Vo]:They call me a moron. A reply. On Thu, Nov 20, 2014 at 4:18 PM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: In reply to H Veeder's message of Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:27:00 -0500: Hi, [snip] >> ?Newton's laws of motion are effectively violated unless the reaction of >these virtual particles can be observed in another way. ...it just means you are pushing against the mass of the universe. Effectively, all the energy absorbed is returned as kinetic energy of the craft. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html What I was wondering is if the reaction of the quantum vacuum has other observable effects besides the thrust. For example, the thrust generated by a standard engine results in an exhaust which can be seen to disturb other bodies nearby. If one can push against the quantum vacuum will this disturb other bodies as well? Harry
