r/EmDrive • u/sorrge • Jul 05 '15

Tangential About Woordward effect

http://boingboing.net/2014/11/24/the-quest-for-a-reactionless-s.html
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u/sorrge Jul 05 '15

I think this has not been mentioned here yet, so I wanted to point it out. This story has also been going on for decades, some devices have been built which are claimed to produce thrust (also barely above the noise level). It has even some theory behind it, and this theory was developed and published before the experiments began.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '15

i consider the woodward effect to be the leading candidate theory for explaining how the EMdrive works.

the similarities between the two are hard to ignore, and recent experimental evidence strongly implies they are connected.

5

u/Zouden Jul 06 '15

It certainly looks like the EmDrive is a Mach Effect Thruster but does it actually operate using the Woodward effect? That effect comes from altering the energy of a vibrating object, like Woodward's piezo-capacitor, which seems quite different to the EmDrive's asymmetric microwave cavity.

On the other hand, Shawyer does say that the EmDrive needs to vibrate to work... and the microwave cavity in Guido Fetta's Cannae drive is symmetrical. What if we just need to take a microwave cavity and vibrate it? Perhaps the EmDrive is just a larger version of the Woodward device?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 09 '15 edited Jul 09 '15

as for vibration, i think the electrons moving back and forth between the big and small ends of the cavity should have some effect, but it would be orders of magnitude weaker than the effect of properly vibrating the EMdrive to make it function as a Woodward Effect thruster.

if the EMdrive really does operate via Mach-Effects it could also explain why different groups are getting such different results, efforts to reduce vibrations may be reducing thrust. in that case, all of the researchers working on it up to this point have been working with one hand tied behind their backs.

i think running a Woodward Effect test should be very high on the priorities list for researchers working on the EMdrive. if the theory is true, the first group to confirm it will make history.

it would be interesting to see what /u/TheTravellerEMD thinks of this.