NASA broke physics. Way to go, NASA!

[midwayfair]

The EM drive -- no, not the underengineered boost pedal -- might actually work. Or rather, it actually did work inside a vacuum.

http://io9.com/new-test-suggests-nasas-impossible-em-drive-will-work-1701188933

It works by bouncing microwaves off a surface and generating momentum without being subject to the laws of conservation of momentum. It's frigging magic.

It's not warp drive but I'll take it for now, if only because it shows that pesky physical limitations might not be such a worry after all.

[alanp]

This is a good example about how what people think of as the "Laws of Physics" aren't REALLY so, they're more like "Laws of Physics that we can prove right now and haven't come up with experiments that disprove them."

Pterry's Science of Discworld 2 is a good read to understand this.

[lincolnic]

This makes me feel like a little kid again, all full of wonder about space and the world and magic.

canigotospaceyetcanigotospaceyetcanigotospaceyetcanigotospaceyet

[HKimball]

Actually, it might work because it operates like a warp drive lol

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/nasa-says-emdrive-does-work-it-may-have-also-created-star-trek-warp-drive-1499098

They're not sure but the microwaves might create propulsion by warping space-time ever so slightly. Which means the same principle that heats your food may one day facilitate faster than light travel

Again it's way above my pay grade but it's really cool to read about

[rullywowr]

I liked the comment.....


Caterpillar drive?

Yesh.

[Rockhorst]

It works by bouncing microwaves off a surface and generating momentum without being subject to the laws of conservation of motion. It's frigging magic.

There is no such law. There is however conservation of momentum. To further AlanP's comment: the laws of physics are the laws of physics. We don't know 'em all. What NASA may have found is that our current model of the laws of physics is incomplete (which we already know it is).

Still could be very cool of course. Over the recent years, I've become quite sceptical about this sort of news. It's a great way for NASA to seem relevant to the general public and demand funding from say the department of defense. For anyone interested in the politics of that, watch The Challenger Disaster, a movie with William Hurt based on Richard Feynman's view of events in his book What do you care what other people think?, also a great read.

I've taken casual bets a few times with students of my physics class, for instance when neutrinos supposedly travelled faster than light. Media hyped it to the max: Einstein's relativity was ready for the scrap heap. Students rushed into class to tell me physics had just become a bogus subject for them (in fact, I had already told them I don't teach the truth, I teach a decent model of the truth). So I said: "Could be, but I think within 6 months it'll work out just fine". And so it did.
In fact, the original paper by the researcher's said: "Here we have a suspicious result, neutrinos seem to be going faster than the speed of light. What are we doing wrong?" Half a year later is turns out their GPS system is not connected properly. Mind you, GPS wouldn't even work without relativistic corrections due to Einstein's theory.

[pickdropper]

It works by bouncing microwaves off a surface and generating momentum without being subject to the laws of conservation of motion. It's frigging magic.

There is no such law. There is however conservation of momentum. To further AlanP's comment: the laws of physics are the laws of physics. We don't know 'em all. What NASA may have found is that our current model of the laws of physics is incomplete (which we already know it is).

Still could be very cool of course. Over the recent years, I've become quite sceptical about this sort of news. It's a great way for NASA to seem relevant to the general public and demand funding from say the department of defense. For anyone interested in the politics of that, watch The Challenger Disaster, a movie with William Hurt based on Richard Feynman's view of events in his book What do you care what other people think?, also a great read.

I've taken casual bets a few times with students of my physics class, for instance when neutrinos supposedly travelled faster than light. Media hyped it to the max: Einstein's relativity was ready for the scrap heap. Students rushed into class to tell me physics had just become a bogus subject for them (in fact, I had already told them I don't teach the truth, I teach a decent model of the truth). So I said: "Could be, but I think within 6 months it'll work out just fine". And so it did.
In fact, the original paper by the researcher's said: "Here we have a suspicious result, neutrinos seem to be going faster than the speed of light. What are we doing wrong?" Half a year later is turns out their GPS system is not connected properly. Mind you, GPS wouldn't even work without relativistic corrections due to Einstein's theory.

That Feynman book is very interesting.  It certainly shed some light on the overwhelming bureaucracy of NASA.

[dont-tase-me-bro]

If you put astronaut ice cream in the Hadron Collider, it makes a very expensive milkshake.