On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 9:24 PM, Bob Cook <frobertc...@hotmail.com> wrote:
If a pulsed magnetic field is involved in the EM drive it may be that > effective momentum is sent off into space as a pulsed magnetic field with > some effective mass associated with the average intensity of the magnetic > field pulse—energy associated with the pulse. > This is along the lines that I was thinking. Consider a simple thought experiment. We have a microwave waveguide with the output focused in a single direction sitting out in the middle of space where there is little in the way of an external field. Attached to it is a battery sufficient to drive a magnetron at 10 W for some period of time. We turn on the magnetron remotely. Microwave photons with a total power amounting to 10 J per second are now being emitted in a preferred direction. For the sake of argument we will go with the well-accepted assumption that photons have no mass. Nonetheless they have momentum, and in order for the system to conserve momentum it will move in a direction opposite the majority of the photons. We have yet not specified what the system is pushing off of, but I don't think we need to in order for the thought experiment to work. Eric
