From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Tue Apr 20 1999 - 22:00:21 MDT
Ross A. Finlayson wrote: Does shooting a laser from a laser generator not
generate opposite force of the beam output?
It does.
> Do photons from a laser upon impact of a reflective surface cause an
> inertial reaction, no matter how infinitesimal?
They do.
> If lasers have no "kick" upon firing, and photons from a coherent laser
> do cause an inertial reaction, then lasers could be used as reactionless
> propulsion.
Im not sure I understand the question, but lasers (or any light source,
coherent
or otherwise) can be used as a propulsion device, altho not an energy
efficient
one. All you need to know is that momentum is conserved in such as system,
just as in a traditional propulsion system, and that the momentum of a
photon
is hn/c and the energy of that photon is hn where h is Planck's constant
and n is the frequency of the photon. With just that information you can
show that it is possible to push a mirror with photons, but it takes a lot
of energy to make just a small amount of delta V.
If we had nanotech, we could create extraordinarily thin mirrors in the
form of a lightsail, which could reflect sunlight (or laser light) for
propulsion.
As for your copyright, sorry Ross. You and I are at least a century too
young to be the first to think of these things. {8^D spike
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