Question about a new form of propulsion...

The Earth's magnetic field is very weak, maybe something like 10,000 times weaker than a typical bar magnet. It's not hard to say "use electricity for propulsion," or "use gravity for propulsion," but saying that leaves a few details to figure out.

It works with trains (Do a Google search on "Maglev") but not so much with planes. The plane would need a magnetic field to oppose that would be strong enough to lift it's weight and the earth itself doesn't provide that sort of energy (and it is probably good that it doesn't! ).

But you would also need something to power the generators that would be on-board the plane and I don't know of any way of safely doing that where you wouldn't be more efficient to just burn jet fuel as we do know.

Also, don't forget about the law of conservation of momentum.

If you want to propel an object with mass (i.e. that weighs something) forward, you need to propel an object with mass backwards.

Magnetic rail-guns have been proposed for boosting payloads into space high enough for something to 'pick them up'.

Re: Question about a new form of propulsion...


Certain toys already use electricity for propulsion (fans and propellers) with batteries. What problem are you trying to solve? Space flight? Near Earth Orbit? How much flight time do you want? How much payload do you need to lift?

There are certain energy efficiencies associated with storage and weight which make different types of fuel sources viable.

im not trying to solve anything im just curious.....if electricity on its own can propel something, or make it float...instead of turning fan blades and such. i know static electricity couldnt do it, a giant spark coming from the bottom wouldnt send it anywhere, also i was trying to search also on the subject of antigravity but to no avail:(...if anyone understands antigravity or has a really good link...help me out plz:D, cause i think that would help with this topic...

You propel yourself forward by pushing something else backwards.

Since electricity is often defined as moving electrons, shooting a large number of electrons at a high velocity would do the trick.

Or the electricity could be used to propel something else backwards. The fan idea uses electricity to push air backwards. There are lots of other ideas on this.

But the basic principle (Newton's third law) applies in any case.

((addendum... static electricity will absolutely do the trick. A large spark can send a metal ring flying as is demonstrated in most every science museum.))

Electricity alone can't propel something. Electricity must interact with fields or forces outside of itself.

Maglev trains don't just lift themselves intrinsically. They interact with external fields which result in forces being transferred to the ground.

Anti-gravity is a technology which doesn't exist yet (at least for us humans). We don't even have an understanding of physics which allows us to manipulate inertial (gravitational) fields, much less a technology to do it. We would need to be able to alter the curvature of space around an object in order to alter its gravitational/inertial signature, and we don't know how to do that yet (if it's even possible at all).

Electricity is electrons.
If you want to make something move purely by the power of electricity then you have to eject the electrons.
Same as you eject a rocket exhaust to make a rocket fly.
You strip electrons off a material and use magnetic fields to propel them away from your little craft.
It's the old equal and opposite reaction thing.

The problem is that an electron is fantastically small and while it does have a mass it is a very, very small mass.
So in order to generate a force that can actually move something you have to make the electrons travel extremely quickly indeed. And by quickly I mean in excess of 99.999% of the speed of light.
To make electrons move that quiickly you need to have a very large and powerful generator.

All this is adding weight to the craft and before you know it you have a craft that can produce masses of electrons at very high energies/speeds but it doesn't go anywhere much because it's too heavy.

If you still want to build a craft then you need look no further than your television.
Here's how you do it.
Get your TV and take the tube out.
Take the power supply out too.
Crack the front of the screen off the tube being very careful not to do severe damage to yourself with the imploding TV tube. There's a very high vacuum inside the tube.
So now you have a big glass funnel with the magnetic coils around the sides and the electron gun at the bottom of the funnel.
Wire the power supply back up again.
Now you have to get yourself into space.
You need that vacuum back again.
So now you're out in space.
Use some handy solar panels that you brought to generate a voltage which you turn back into 110V mains. You then plug your modified TV into this mains voltage.
Use some duct tape to attach the solar panels to the TV tube.
Power up the TV.

You won't see anything but what will be happening is that the electron gun will be generating electrons and the magnetic field coils will be directing them out of the open end of the TV tube where the screen used to be.

Now let go of the apparatus and get back into your spaceship.
Measure the position of your TV craft very precisely.
Then go home for a while.

Come back up into space in about 100 years and measure the position of your TV craft.
You'll find it has moved a bit.
All those electrons that have been shooting out of the open end of the tube have caused the tube to move away from it's previous position in the opposite direction to the electrons.

There you go.
You've just created an electricity powered spaceship.

Unfortunately it takes millions of years to go anywhere really so it's not practical.
For the time being lets stick with rockets and the messy stuff.