Key to figuring out gravity and all of its secrets

[griffin]

I was reviewing some of the old posts in the Ion propultion thread and ran across the Lifters referance. I checked it out, and I was dumb-founded. I can only say that I have been studying Aerospace engineering and some fields of physics for nearly 3 years and in none of my travles or research had I heard even a wisper about it. And worse yet, most of my classmates and even professors knew nothing of it. :surprise:

anyway, what are your opinions on the current state of that technology, and where it may be helping us in the future.

I will start this off by saying that If utalized correctly it may be the key to figuring out gravity and all of its secrets.

for thoughs of you who haven't seen or heard anything about lifters just google "antigravity" and it will lead you in.

 

[russ_watters]

I will start this off by saying that If utalized correctly it may be the key to figuring out gravity and all of its secrets.

No. The part they won't tell you on an anti-gravity site is that lifters have nothing to do with anti-gravity. I can't remember the explanation (ionizing air?) but there is another thread on it floating around here somewhere.

 

[arivero]

"ionizing air" sounds very much as "ion propulsion" to me.

 

[Njorl]

"ionizing air" sounds very much as "ion propulsion" to me.

Does "acceleration due to gravity" sound like "gravity drive" to you?

It is the most likely explanation. Ions are created around the round wire, and around the sharp edge of the foil. Those created around the foil experience larger fields, and therefore larger acceleration.

The ions around the wire experience a slight net-acceleration upward. The ions around the foil experience a strong net-acceleration downward. There is a net downward acceleration of ionized air, resulting in a net upward force on the lifter.

It sounds reasonable, but it hasn't been well tested. Nobody is paying for this work you see, so a lot of scientists, engineers and entusiasts try to figure it out on a low budget.

My office mate wanted me to stick one in my evaporator (a high vacuum chamber with high voltage feed throughs). No air would mean no accelerating ions. Broken evaporator would mean no job for Njorl! No way!

There are other attempts at explanations, one involves the Earth's magnetic field, but the resulting forces are way too small by any calculations I've seen.

Njorl

PS - I've actually been waiting for lifters to show up here. I am amazed at how long it took.

 

[Hurkyl]

I read an article that NASA did try an experiment with a lifter in a vacuum, and, lo and behold, once the vacuum was sufficient the lifter would not fly.

(As a side note, it had to be a very good vacuum to keep the lifter from flying)

 

[enigma]

I've barely given these things any consideration (as I do with anything which sounds like magi-tech).

Do they actually have versions with T/W ratios greater than unity?

 

[NateTG]

I've barely given these things any consideration (as I do with anything which sounds like magi-tech).

Do they actually have versions with T/W ratios greater than unity?

I suppose that depends on whether you consider the power supply to be part of the W. This type of technology is similar to the ion drive on Deep Space I. In general, ion drives enjoy very high specific impulse (delta-v) but have lousy thrust.

 

[griffin]

I can't remember the explanation (ionizing air?) but there is another thread on it floating around here somewhere.

Acctually you are very close. The word is Ionized wind. And this is a very good explination for most of the lift generated by lifters, but the equations that use Ionized wind as the exclusive source of thrust, give one number for thrust, and the actual experimental value is a little bit higher. I read an article once about a test in a vacuum chamber once, and all the people would say was that there were still too many variables to assume that there was somthing actually going on. I assume that this meant something was observed (Although the site didn't explicitly say what if anything had happened). So it is still quite possible that something is lying just beneath the surface.

 

[arivero]

Does "acceleration due to gravity" sound like "gravity drive" to you?

Hmm we are touching a deep marketing trick here.

PS - I've actually been waiting for lifters to show up here. I am amazed at how long it took.

I subscribed early to the lifters yahoogroups, and by the age they were maturing -internetwise- physicsforums was very young, if barely existent. Still you could find some reference in the archive of old postings.

 

[SunSword]

Reference to aggregated Lifter information

Go here:
http://www.grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?f=3&i=2084&t=2084
for aggregated Lifter information.