Levitation via Quantum Mechanics

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
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Nov 27, 2006
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Scientists have figured out a way to levitate very small objects using quantum mechanics forces. They hope to leverage this knowledge into the creation of nanotechnology machines. Watch out for a scientist with a syringe that looks like he’s running from something.

"By reducing the friction that hinders motion and contributes to wear and tear, the new technique provides a theoretical means for improving machinery at the microscopic and even molecular level," Dr. Duane Alexander of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development said.
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Sort of a reverse-Casimir Effect. Nifty. Apply this to the bearings of a room-temperature-superconducting motor, and you could pull some serious shit.
 
Dr. Duane Alexander of the NIH's National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
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Wait, why is the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development reseaching nanotechnology and quantum mechanics?

I'm not sure I like where this is going...
 
Yes, that was indeed a reference to Innerspace and it was in regards to the nano piece, not the levitating piece. :)
 
am I the only one who thinks we're going to kill ourselves not with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, but with all this nano-crap, and not purposefully! How long did we use asbestos in everything because it was the wonder non-flammable fiber? Whooops sorry causes bad shit if you inhale the fibers...
 
wait

so they measured and detected? lol

That goes against the very thing that prevents Quantum Mechanics/Physics from ever being truley measured or used in the macro world... Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle!

Regardless of who he worked for (Bell Lab's, Havard now), see the sentence above this one why I don't buy it.
 
MartinX said:
Wait, why is the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development reseaching nanotechnology and quantum mechanics?

I'm not sure I like where this is going...
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so parents can remotely care for their child from their workplace.

levitate child to toilet
levitate child to diaper changing bed and change diapers
levitate child away from television
 
That goes against the very thing that prevents Quantum Mechanics/Physics from ever being truley measured or used in the macro world... Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle!
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Quantum Mechanics does not work that way. the Uncertainty principle does not prevent detection outright, it means that simultaneous and accurate detection of position AND velocity of a particle is not possible. That is, the more accurately you know the position the more uncertainty there is of the velocity, and vice versa.
In fact, in the macroscopic scale, the Uncertainty principle simply does not apply!
 
quantum%20box...maybe.jpg
 
EdZ said:
Quantum Mechanics does not work that way. the Uncertainty principle does not prevent detection outright, it means that simultaneous and accurate detection of position AND velocity of a particle is not possible. That is, the more accurately you know the position the more uncertainty there is of the velocity, and vice versa.
In fact, in the macroscopic scale, the Uncertainty principle simply does not apply!
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duh!

that is why it does apply in the macro world. We can not measure accurately two properties on one particle yet we are supposed to get NUMEROUS particles to do the same thing?? For it to apply to the macro world. The quantum world has to be understood, COMPLETELY. As things stand right now, heisenberg's uncertainty principle does not allow for that.

protias...

lmfao.. lovely, the cat is alive! :D Schrodinger's cat paradox....
 
figgie said:
duh!
that is why it does apply in the macro world. We can not measure accurately two properties on one particle yet we are supposed to get NUMEROUS particles to do the same thing?? For it to apply to the macro world. The quantum world has to be understood, COMPLETELY. As things stand right now, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle does not allow for that.
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Oh dear. The integration of quantum and relativistic theory (i.e. the theory of what happens at the atomic scale, and what happens at the macro scale) is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest, unsolved problem in physics at the moment (probably even bigger than the Higgs Boson). Many interpretations of quantum mechanics, such as the Many Worlds theory, exist in addition to the standard Copenhagen Interpretation simply because of the various huge implications that small changes on quantum theory will have. Never mind that the uncertainty principle in no way prevents you from measuring a particles position OR velocity, just not at the same time. That is because 'particles' are neither particles or waves, but wave-functions, a representation of all the possible states that 'particle' could be in, at any time, and their associated probabilities. Macroscopic objects can have wave functions, but due to their composition (i.e. not just one or two, but BILLIONS of atoms at a minimum) it only takes a few photons to collapse the wave function.


If you want an introduction to the interesting an non-intuitive world of the quantum, I suggest reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, along with The Universe in a Nutshell for some of the things we still don't know or can't prove, like supersymmetry, branes, or M-theory.
 
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