In reply to David Jonsson's message of Mon, 13 Dec 2010 02:36:13 +0100: Hi, [snip] >> If one were to use a plasma of molecular ions suspended in a DC mag field >> (to >> orient them), spun up with a superimposed EM field, it might have quite >> some >> effect. :) >> >> ...however I suspect that the real problem lies in that the "end point" of >> the >> centrifugal force is the center of rotation, not the center of the Earth. >> :( >> > >No, rotation can be in regard to anything, not just one point. Rotation is >just acceleration and it can be arbitrary.
...maybe. Consider the case where v=0. You have an ordinary centrifuge. It doesn't fly off in any particular direction because all directions are equal. So where does the force come from that tries to move it away from the center of the Earth? > >There are practical problems to do what you suggest. To align molecules like >that is very hard. That's what the mag field is for. You just have to have a lot of them aligned, most of the time. > >And there is no C2 gas molecule. > Given the trivial binding energy I calculated, it should be obvious that there are many orders of magnitude of leeway here, so you are free to choose just about any molecule you like. I would suggest something that is easily ionized. Typical molecular binding energies are on the order of eV, so you have about 15 orders of magnitude to work with. This also helps to compensate for the difficulty in keeping them aligned. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Project.html
