would it ever be possible to get power from gravity?
Discussion
tvrbob said:
Hydro-electric is surely power from gravity. Extracting the energy from falling water
im talking about directly from gravity, with hydro electrict power stations you have to pump the water back up losing all the energy you got from the water falling.
if you could get power directly from gravity it would just be free energy
someone plz prove it couldn't happen
>> Edited by pony power on Sunday 8th January 15:41
pony power said:
im talking about directly from gravity, with hydro electrict power stations you have to pump the water back up losing all the energy you got from the water falling.
Some power stations use surplus power to pump water up hill overnight and then use that water during the day. Most power stations use the supply of water that is already up the hill where precipitation left it. That water uses gravity to get to sea level. Extracting that energy is free and is a result of gravity. >> Edited by tvrbob on Sunday 8th January 16:04
pony power said:Nuclear fission, caused by extreme gravity.
Solar power is power from gravity (ultimately).
how?
edited to add - sorry - fusiion obviously, not fission. Things always split apart when you compress them don't they!
>> Edited by victormeldrew on Sunday 8th January 20:34
I think it could work. Scrub that, I'd put money on us one day developing a gravity-fed power-source.
Have no idea how, but that's because any GUFT is years and years away, and then there's engineering it...after all, we've known about nuclear fusion for decades, but still can't get the engineering sorted. Gravity will be the same only more so.
OK...one blue sky idea...two micro-black holes kept suspended with a force-field, orbiting each other...that should give off all manner of fun energy (hard radiation, gravity, X-rays, bosons of all description in fact).
Have no idea how, but that's because any GUFT is years and years away, and then there's engineering it...after all, we've known about nuclear fusion for decades, but still can't get the engineering sorted. Gravity will be the same only more so.
OK...one blue sky idea...two micro-black holes kept suspended with a force-field, orbiting each other...that should give off all manner of fun energy (hard radiation, gravity, X-rays, bosons of all description in fact).
victormeldrew said:Ultimately very true. In fact following that line all current power sources are gravity powered
Solar power is power from gravity (ultimately).
how?
>> Edited by tvrbob on Sunday 8th January 16:07
pony power said:In times of high demand when some sucker will pay, they can pump it back, but usually evaporation and rainfall does it for free if you're prepared to wait. We also get energy from gravity in wave power and tidal power, in the former from vertical oscillations due to the homegrown stuff, the latter is thanks to a bit of useful mooning
im talking about directly from gravity, with hydro electrict power stations you have to pump the water back up losing all the energy you got from the water falling.
Regarding the sun and 'free' energy from gravity, it's fusion not fission but basically yes the sun wouldn't be shining as it does if it wasn't for gravity starting the path to ever higher pressures and temperatures, and now there's a neat balance between pressure from fusion processes pushing out and gravity shoving in - our star is on the main sequence. Won't last for ever mind, and I would love to be around in about 5 billion years to see what tax the socialists of the future will put forward to stop the sun evolving into a red giant and causing some f
g serious global warming 
>> Edited by turbobloke on Sunday 8th January 16:34
victormeldrew said:#
Solar power is power from gravity (ultimately).
how?
It's fusion actually...
The hydrogen gas in the sun is under such pressure due to the gravitational forces that it can undergo nuclear fusion, producing helium and (I think) neutrons. Of course, during this process some mass is converted to energy, and this is released as electromagnetic radiation (including heat and light).
The problem is that you're effectively saying you want to convert gravitational 'energy' into something more useful to us, like electromagnetic 'energy'. Unfortunately the physicists are having a hell of a time reconciling their theories of electromagnetism with currently accepted theory of gravitation. Therefore there's no theoretical way to convert a gravitational field into an electric field, for example, whereas we know how to convert a magnetic field into an electric field (motors, alternators, etc.)
Yes, enough mass creates enough gravity to compress nuclei into a state of fusion which releases energy (the Sun being a nice example), but creating your own gravity currently looks like needing to create a shit load of mass, and since mass is energy, you need to start with a load of energy.
The search for a unified field theory has a lot of serious, professional physicists working on it. I'm hoping that the answer will be found by some random pisshead after 9 pints of Stella in a village pub, it would be story of the millenium
As to free energy, there's more progress on the quantum front. The Casimir effect appears to generate a force based off exclusion of zero-point energy between the conducting plates, the theory is there but serious engineering will be needed to exploit it.
I'm not a professional physicist so there are probably errors here. But getting free energy from gravity either means 1) finding a conversion between grav fields and electromagnetic fields, or 2) established fission/fusion power (mass is energy, right?)
Incidentally there's a bunch of researchers pissing about with very large magnetic fields and *rotating* them at high angular velocities - and there have been some reports of anomalous reduction in the gravitational field above the apparatus (original researcher was some geezer called Podkletnov (sp?) IIRC) - sounds like weird science but all the big space agencies quietly picked it up and are running with it now (NASA certainly are looking into it).
If I had a decent superconducting magnet and a high-power electric supply, I'd slap it on an old record player and have a go myself. Trouble is I'd probably destroy all my Macintoshes' hard drives with the mega magnetic fields. Or implode into a black hole if I press the wrong buttons.
Yes, enough mass creates enough gravity to compress nuclei into a state of fusion which releases energy (the Sun being a nice example), but creating your own gravity currently looks like needing to create a shit load of mass, and since mass is energy, you need to start with a load of energy.
The search for a unified field theory has a lot of serious, professional physicists working on it. I'm hoping that the answer will be found by some random pisshead after 9 pints of Stella in a village pub, it would be story of the millenium
As to free energy, there's more progress on the quantum front. The Casimir effect appears to generate a force based off exclusion of zero-point energy between the conducting plates, the theory is there but serious engineering will be needed to exploit it.
I'm not a professional physicist so there are probably errors here. But getting free energy from gravity either means 1) finding a conversion between grav fields and electromagnetic fields, or 2) established fission/fusion power (mass is energy, right?)
Incidentally there's a bunch of researchers pissing about with very large magnetic fields and *rotating* them at high angular velocities - and there have been some reports of anomalous reduction in the gravitational field above the apparatus (original researcher was some geezer called Podkletnov (sp?) IIRC) - sounds like weird science but all the big space agencies quietly picked it up and are running with it now (NASA certainly are looking into it).
If I had a decent superconducting magnet and a high-power electric supply, I'd slap it on an old record player and have a go myself. Trouble is I'd probably destroy all my Macintoshes' hard drives with the mega magnetic fields. Or implode into a black hole if I press the wrong buttons.
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