A relativistic thought-experiment on energy

[Reiyuki]

 A relativistic thought-experiment on energy.


One day, we find ourselves standing on a very interesting planet.  This planet is far, far from Earth, and orbits VERY close to a black hole.  As such, their perception of time and energy is very different from the rest of the universe.

To solve their world's energy problem, the people on this planet launched a very special satellite in a highly-eccentric orbit.  This satellite comes very close to the planet during a small part of the year, and quickly slingshots far away for the rest of the year.  It is in its own stable orbit and requires no additional energy once launched.


When the satellite is close, they charge its internal capacitors with almost no losses.  The satellite absorbs over 1 megajoule of energy.

Now, as the satellite flies away from the planet, it experiences strong relativistic effects.  Because it is further from the gravitational well of the black hole, the rate-of-time on the satellite changes, and from the point-of-view of the planet, it appears to speed-up substantially.

When the satellite is a long way from the planet, it begins beaming focused microwaves toward the planet at 10ghz.

Due to the nature of special relativity, these waves become refracted as they approach the planet, which causes them to upshift in frequency manyfold.  This formerly 10ghz microwave signal has now been up-shifted to 500thz, and is received on the planet as visible light.


Because this blue-shift has increased the energy of the incoming waves thanks to relativity, the planet is now able to use much more power than it transmitted to the satellite in the first place.  Naturally, they set aside a small amount of power to recharge the satellite when it is back near periapsis.

A few crazy inventors on that planet are hard at work trying to recreate the same effects with simple circuits, since relativistic shifts in frequency are much easier to create using coils and capacitors rather vs expensive, bulky satellites.  One of them was occasionally heard muttering that frequency *is* energy, while another went crazy complaining about kings and electrons...



Hopefully this story will convey the concepts intended.

[Reiyuki]

In this example, the blue-shift is the source of the increased energy, and the black-hole's gravity well is the source of the blue-shift.  The satellite is the 'modulation' between low and high energy states.


What we are doing is cycling between a high and low density environment and synchronously adding/removing energy at certain points of this cycle.
* Energy is added to the satellite at a low-point in the cycle (without changing its mass)
* Satellite proceeds to a higher-orbit
* Satellite beams the same energy back
* Blue-shift refraction causes the frequency (and thus energy) to increase.

--------------------------------

Dimensionally, we would do the same thing on earth by cyclically varying inductance/capacitance of a system while adding/removing at certain points of the cycle.

Imagine a lossless LC tank circuit consisting of an inductor and variable air capacitor.  We add 1 unit of energy and it shuttles between dielectric and magnetic domains at a certain frequency (standard LC resonance).

Now if we decrease the capacitance of this circuit, the same energy is now resonating at a higher frequency (as if it had been blue-shifted ).  This change in C does not necessarily take any energy, as this parameter can be changed at the point in the cycle when the capacitor is nearly empty.

To gauge the amount of change in total energy, we would use:
*  E=HF to compare the min+max frequencies of the system
*  the initial amount of energy that was added to the circuit
*  and the phase-angle of modulation to the charge/discharge cycle.

Now if such a system were ran in reverse (starting with a high-frequency oscillation and increasing capacitance), one would instead red-shift the resulting EM wave and decrease the total energy contained in the system.

[shylo]

Hi,
I've been following on the our site.
So are you guys saying that 2 identical cap banks,1 at 30v is heavier than 1 at 0v?
If so what about when your bank goes into the negative, it should start to float no?
artv

[Reiyuki]

Hi,
I've been following on the our site.
So are you guys saying that 2 identical cap banks,1 at 30v is heavier than 1 at 0v?
If so what about when your bank goes into the negative, it should start to float no?
artv

Thanks for the question Shylo,

The example is not so much a blueprint for a working machine, but more of a way to explain a potential loophole in Quantum Mechanics.  (If such an experiment were to be made in reality, the capacitors would probably have to be the size of small buildings to measure any difference )

* If a capacitor does not change its mass, then this means that parametric impedance can indeed result in asymmetric energy exchanges (Dollard/Steinmetz mathematics).  ie: 'Blue-shift' can be used as a source of energy as in the original post, but using an inductor/capacitor as a modulated impedance instead of gravity.

* If a capacitor does change its mass, then gravity can theoretically be 'gated' and act as a source of energy.  It means that mass can be moved without performing work, which should be just as impossible.

(IMHO a capacitor does NOT change its weight when being charged, because the amount of strain on both sides of the capacitor directly cancel each-other out.)


These threads are meant to serve as a logical roadmap, to give math people a means of understanding the mechanism by which symmetry might be broken.

Another analogy is understanding the difference between throwing a ball while standing still vs throwing a ball from a fast-moving car.  The ball might travel faster or stop entirely depending on the direction it is thrown:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLuI118nhzc