The Interconnectivity of Quantum Propulsion

I know what you’re thinking: “Zach + Quantum Propulsion = what?”. It’s ok, I really haven’t shown my theoretical physicist side to many people over the years.

My love of physics began in high school and propelled me into a world of physical understanding and inventing things on paper. I’ve got a binder full of ideas back in Illinois. These are the things I would dream about, get inspired by in the morning, and run calculations on during the day. This eventually led me to study Computer Engineering at UIUC. I’m a huge nerd, ok?

Today, a fast company article caught my attention: “Mustafa’s Space Drive: An Egyption Student’s Quantum Physics Invention”.

Aisha Mustafa, a 19-year-old Physics student in Egypt, patented a quantum propulsion system that takes advantage of the Casimir effect, a cavity between two charged plates that generates a repulsive force around it. It isn’t completely known why it works. To add to the confusion, it also appears to defy Newton’s laws.

So why is this crazy? For one, it’s a friggin’ quantum propulsion system! Oh, and secondly, I diagramed this exact engine six months ago on a late-night physics bender. I’ll post some pictures later if I can find the diagrams. I will also explain the ideas at the end of this post. Either way, you should have seen my face when I first read the article.

So now I sit here, hanging out at the Bloc / ClassConnect house in Palo Alto, thinking about what to do…

I thought about the complications of this engine for a really long time - I almost certainly could help Aisha if put in contact. So I just sent the writer of the article a tweet. Hopefully he can connect me.

What about the patent and the IP? I don’t care about ownership of the idea/execution. To me, patents have become a force against open innovation. In addition, as many commenters on Fastco have stated, this whole thing hasn’t even been peer reviewed. Nonetheless, I want to help.

The Tech

So how did I even think about this? Late-night physics benders are pretty strange, and brainstorming ideas means a lack of fact-checking. That’s why I never took much of this seriously. Therefore, if you see some “bad physics” below, realize it isn’t meant to prove causation. Also, the bullet points order is bad. Sorry.

First, I was inspired by the idea of an engine powered by gravity. Anyone who talks to me about physics will realize that I am obsessed with gravity. It’s almost like I’m pulled to it… (bad pun).

• Movement via a gravitational field would require
  • A large mass at the destination, which would pull you to it.
  • A reduction of mass within your area.

With my electrical engineering background, I figured it would be fun to relate this to electricity.

• In terms of an electric field, you can represent the space-time in which electrons are observed as a bar —-. Naturally, there are boundaries in between materials and space that inhibit free-flowing election movement --_-_. When an electric field is applied, the potential soy the areas that are lower can be risen via a voltage, which will raise them, and allows electrons to basically fall down and move, thus creating current.
  • What if atoms are similarly organized and the field’s applied can be conditioned via gravity. Gravitational potential would therefore be applicable to electric potential and electron density.
  • Just how a positive electric potential is categorized by an abundance of electrons, what if a negative gravitational potential can be achieved with antimatter placement and anti-matter generated fields?

These thoughts led me to go on a wikipedia rampage. After juggernaut/hulking through 50+ articles, I stumbled across the Casimir effect.

• The Casimir effect that takes advantage of Van Der Waals forces has show that a point in space can become mass-negative, and shows signs towards repulsion of that around it!
  • In a point in space, it’s mass is not only calculated by the particles, but also the stress-tensor coefficient, or the forces spreading the space apart. In the case of the Casimir effect, particles and space seem to bend together from Van Der Waals forces, thus making a space-negative region.
  • If you could make a bigger region with this same effect, it would exert a repulsive force on everything around it. Theoretically, it seems possible to make an engine with such forces by enclosing an area of vacuum with material and exerting large force on the internals.

Boom. Here is how I tried to rationalize these findings:

• Space-time can be visualized as a 2d plane that bends according to mass, or energy if referring to super relativity.
  • As energy pushes this plane downwards, things naturally move towards these depressions - thus, gravity?
    • What if you could do the reverse and create a mountain?
• It appears that the conditions from the Casimir effect, whereas a point in spice is split more than a vacuum, somehow accumulates a negative energy balance. This negative energy balance on the 2d plane can be visualized as a peak, which pushes everything around it away.
  • So two plates create this small peak between themselves. If they successfully push themselves apart, then there is no more Casimir effect :(
    • What if you hold the plates together? Force them to remain at a consistent distance from each other and create a perpetual Casimir effect?
• Because the Casimir effect generates this negative-energy space, then the repulsive force applied to objects around the peak affects more than just the plates.
• Forcing two plates together will generate a net force where the plates remain in their static positions but any objects around the Casimir peak, where the plates end, will be repelled.
• Thus, the driving fuel for this reaction cannot simply be the plates existence. This system either creates perpetual energy or the fuel source is something not currently observable.
  • Anti-matter creation? Small amounts of matter/anit-matter collisions?
  • Hmmm, the scientists who discovered the effect believe it may be used to stabilize wormholes
  • What the hell am I getting into.

What the hell indeed. Nevertheless, I produced a physical mockup of what the engine may look like and ran some calculations. Then I went to bed and continued my normal life.