A reactionless thruster that (apparently) really works - no, seriously!

On 11/09/06, Lucio de Souza Coelho wrote:
> Lets suppose that the effect being measured in that machine is real
> and confirmed by several independent sources,

It isn't though. Only one guy has done it, and the measured effect is
small; and all he needs is more money to make the effect big. Honest!

> and apparently it is
> violating conservation of momentum, action and reaction, etc. Could it
> be that in fact the machine *is* transferring momentum to something,
> but through indirect and difficult to detect means?

There's nothing in his machine that could do that. It's basically just
an oddly shaped microwave oven that he claims he has calculations that
show it will rise into the air; and he has an experimental apparatus
that he claims gives a few milli-Newtons of lift. I claim he has just
messed up his calculation and the experiment.

> What I am trying to say is that if this "reactionless" thing works

That's not the way to bet.

> then the conservation laws are probably not being thrown away; they
> are just being obeyed in subtler ways. Think of how the neutrino was
> discovered based on an apparent violation of energy conservation.

The idea that everybody would have missed something like this in well
over 100 years of Maxwell's equations is so unbelievably remote. He's
just claiming to have solved Maxwell's equations and gained lift from
nowhere.

--
-Ian Woollard

"Victory can be perceived but not created."
For your own security, the Department of Homeland Security is watching you.