Comments on: Discovery of repulsive Casimir forces might eliminate friction as a concern in nanotechnology http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2936 examining transformative technology Wed, 03 Apr 2013 18:23:47 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2936#comment-805679 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 06:28:17 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2936#comment-805679 Casimir effect forces drop off with distance as 1 over R squared - exactly the same as electric forces or gravity. In fact, Andrei Sakharov proposed a theory that gravity *IS* a Casimir effect force and hence is fundamentally electrical, which, if true, would render the "grand unification" of gravity with electromagnetism a rather trivial endeavor since they would already be the same thing. At any rate, there is no magic distance at which Casimir forces suddenly become significant, and certainly not 100 nm, With sufficiently large bodies, there could be measurable effects from light-years away. The Casimir force in a vacuum is ALWAYS attractive, so it may be questionable to even label the repulsive forces in bromobenzene as Casimir forces. The repulsion measured may well be real, but that doesn't prove that the explanation of it is correct. Howard A. Landman Casimir effect forces drop off with distance as 1 over R squared – exactly the same as electric forces or gravity. In fact, Andrei Sakharov proposed a theory that gravity *IS* a Casimir effect force and hence is fundamentally electrical, which, if true, would render the “grand unification” of gravity with electromagnetism a rather trivial endeavor since they would already be the same thing.

At any rate, there is no magic distance at which Casimir forces suddenly become significant, and certainly not 100 nm, With sufficiently large bodies, there could be measurable effects from light-years away.

The Casimir force in a vacuum is ALWAYS attractive, so it may be questionable to even label the repulsive forces in bromobenzene as Casimir forces. The repulsion measured may well be real, but that doesn’t prove that the explanation of it is correct.

Howard A. Landman

]]> By: http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2936#comment-805653 Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:57:30 +0000 http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=2936#comment-805653 I am Mark J. Fiore,Harvard 1982, Boston College Law School, 1987.I'm a substitute teacher here in San Francisco. I enjoy reading about cosmology, astrophysics, and nanotechnology.Current book:The Goldilocks Enigma, by Paul Davies. Nanotech comment is as follows.I have done a little research on the net, as an amateur, and have come across more and more stories on the subject of using the principles of quantum mechanics to aid in the production and use of nanotech devices.More and more, I am coming to the conclusin that almost all advances in nanotech over the next ten years must, of necessity, take into consideration quantum mechanics . In particular, the theory of "spooky action at a distance" more commonly referred to as nonlocal quantum effects, will be used in the area of quantum computing.Also,the sum of all paths, as exemplified by the electon field cloud, where the electron orbits in all possible three dimensional orbits around the nucleus, will also be critical in nanotech advances.Finally, if the many worlds theory is correct, and the LHC ,in 2010, finds evidence of the Higgs boson, and the LHC also measures gravity as it bleeds into the extradimensional space around us(according to string theory and brane theory), then quantum theory as it relates to string theory will become of the utmost concern to the nanotech world. If, as string theory, and the many worlds, or sum of all paths, theories, state, that, indeed, there are 10 to the 500th possible Universes, while, for comparison, there are only 10 to the 80th particles in the visible, baryonic Universe, then, by implication, quantum computing at a nanotech level could make use of almost infinite storage capacity at extremely small scale. Insted of fighting quantum effects as adversaries, as one goes lower and lower in scale, one could harnes these effects.I believe ,in 2010, the LHC will have profound implications for string theory, quantum computing, and nanotech in general. I am Mark J. Fiore,Harvard 1982, Boston College Law School, 1987.I’m a substitute teacher here in San Francisco. I enjoy reading about cosmology, astrophysics, and nanotechnology.Current book:The Goldilocks Enigma, by Paul Davies.
Nanotech comment is as follows.I have done a little research on the net, as an amateur, and have come across more and more stories on the subject of using the principles of quantum mechanics to aid in the production and use of nanotech devices.More and more, I am coming to the conclusin that almost all advances in nanotech over the next ten years must, of necessity, take into consideration quantum mechanics . In particular, the theory of “spooky action at a distance” more commonly referred to as nonlocal quantum effects, will be used in the area of quantum computing.Also,the sum of all paths, as exemplified by the electon field cloud, where the electron orbits in all possible three dimensional orbits around the nucleus, will also be critical in nanotech advances.Finally, if the many worlds theory is correct, and the LHC ,in 2010, finds evidence of the Higgs boson, and the LHC also measures gravity as it bleeds into the extradimensional space around us(according to string theory and brane theory), then quantum theory as it relates to string theory will become of the utmost concern to the nanotech world. If, as string theory, and the many worlds, or sum of all paths, theories, state, that, indeed, there are 10 to the 500th possible Universes, while, for comparison, there are only 10 to the 80th particles in the visible, baryonic Universe, then, by implication, quantum computing at a nanotech level could make use of almost infinite storage capacity at extremely small scale. Insted of fighting quantum effects as adversaries, as one goes lower and lower in scale, one could harnes these effects.I believe ,in 2010, the LHC will have profound implications for string theory, quantum computing, and nanotech in general.

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