From: xeno@iastate.edu (Gary L Snethen)
Subject: Re: Anti-Gravity... a question
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 21:01:32 GMT

In <woodbe.721267872@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> woodbe@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (Brian E. Wood) writes:


>Hi

>I've been reading some of the articles about the anti-gravity device here
>in the past few weeks, but being new to reading this newsgroup, I have some
>questions.  From everything I have read, and I have read all that has been
>posted lately, though not necessarily in-depth, I gather that the proposed
>device has little, if any, scientific merit.  Could some one please help me
>on this account?  Like, what does ot run on, all I seem to remember is 
>something about it being based upon a bad theory.  I'm a junior physics
>major in college, and I'm interested in ways of neutralizing and creating
>gravity (creating it without centrifugal force, that is).

>What I'm really wondering is if anyone remembers a description about a null-
>gravity device that worked on the principles of ultra-sound in a closed
>box.  What I remember about the article, in Scientific American maybe?, was
>that the sound waves created places where objects could be suspended.  It
>seems that the waves' interference pattern produced nodes where in the 
>article a steel ball was suspended.

>Could anyone please help me with any information about this experiment,
>whether it is true, where I could find information about it, or any other
>details????


>Thank you

>I just want help

>	Brian E. Wood		woodbe@craft.camp.clarkson.edu

I think you may run into a problem with the definition of 'anti-gravity'...

If you consider ultra-sound suspending a steel ball to be anti-gravity, then
you might also consider tables, chairs, the ground, rocket engines, airplanes,
birds, etc... to be anti-gravity devices.

At the other extreme, 'anti-gravity' is taken literally to mean that an
artificial gravity field, or a gravity field nullifier is used to counter
the effects of gravity.  There are some important differences between
'suspension' devices like the ultra-sound box, and true anti-gravity.  The
most notable is that every particle in an 'anti-gravity' box experiences no
net force due to gravity, and so true weightlessness is experienced.  You
would still feel the effects of gravity while standing on a chair, or a
standing wave, or whatever... ;)

Some of the devices that have been mentioned operate on a bad theory (bad
meaning that it has not been found to accurately predict the outcome of
experiment) that relates 'gravitational waves' to electromagnetic waves.
The idea being that you can create 'gravitational waves' (and thus gravity)
by correctly generating changing complex electromagnetic fields.

The device whose patent was recently mentioned operates on some principle
which the author of the patent has chosen to conceal with terms such as
'kinnemassic energy.'  Such doubletalk doesn't necessarily mean the device
doesn't work...  It may be that the inventor doesn't really understand the
principle himself, or that he wishes to convolute it so noone else can
understand it -- thus protecting his interests in the device even after
the patent has expired (which it has).

Since most of the inner-workings of gravity are still unknown, you will find
very few people in this newsgroup who proclaim that it is impossible to
create such a device, but skepticism is the heart of science, so new ideas
will meet with demands for proof.

---Xeno