Natural Science Forum / Physics / New Theories / August 2004

I'm interested to know where and when this editing is taking place. Does it
take effect immediately, or after a short duration?

 Are you talking about the thread "The Zero Point Field"Andrew
Cunnungham started?

 If so, in spite of the objections I raised there, I'd like to
mention a possible ZPF tap technology I thought up after reading some
papers Robert L. Forward co-wrote about the Casimir Effect. (The
papers were available as pdf's on Forward's website until he died, but
I haven't been able to find them online recently.)

 Forward et. al. pointed out that the usual arrangement of two
parallel conductive plates is a special case of a general effect;
another special case is the conductive hollow six-sided right prism,
or box.

 They also point out that the form factor of the box (from long and
skinny, through cube, to "pizza box") determines the signs of the
internal energy _and_ the internal energy density. They are opposite
for the two extremes mentioned, which serendipitously combined in my
mind with a text I'd just read on resonant microwave cavities.

 It seems reasonable to extrapolate that if one (or arrays) of each
extreme of box (presumably of equal volume) were fitted with
externally-accessible field probes (in other words they're resonant
cavities at one of those "loud frequencies"), and an electrical load
were connected between them with properly constructed lines, the load
ought to draw power directly from the ZPF. It should even work if the
entire apparatus is within a Faraday shield.

 As for sizing the cavities, ISTR the "loud" end of the ZPF spectrum
is the short-wavelength end, so little tiny cavities are indicated.

 "Checkerboarding" arrays of the two shapes of cavity might minimize
the hazardous side-effects I mentioned by cancellation.

 Unfortunately, this implies by symmetry that putting a power
_source_ in the connecting line should pump power _into_ the ZPF,
producing the inverse of my alleged side-effects. This baldly equates
to an RF source coupled through circulators (to prevent awkward
reflections) to two opposite kinds of cavity and producing something
other than hot cavities, something exotic. I don't know that this has
been tried except accidentally, but I strongly suspect any "exotic"
effect would be easiest observabed with expensively-small hardware.

 Still, if there's a gravitational side-effect, a properly arranged
set of driven cavities should self-accelerate by reacting against the
ZPF.

 Anybody got access to a semiconductor fab facility?

 Mark L. Fergerson