Horace,
Welcome back and nice citation! It does make me reconsider my past
verbalization of equivalent acceleration vs spatial velocity inside a bulk
material. I take it the velocity of this fast electron would appear unchanged
to a local observer but are they referring to the "almost free" electron of the
leads metallic bond, or an orbital electron of the electrolyte reacting with
the lead electron cloud? If they are referring to an orbital electron of the
electrolyte then this would support Naudts relativistic posit for orbitals that
APPEAR to have fractional ground states. My point being that if their velocity
is capable of relativistic effects in a lead acid battery then it will also
display Lorentzian contraction. It also lends support to the relativistic
interpretation for Casimir effect if a heavy nucleus in a lattice can induce
relativistic effects that this same phenomena can be encouraged or discouraged
by specific geometries. Unlike a spatial velocity where the contraction would
be along the axis of displacement I think this is actually an equivalent
acceleration where the contraction would appear symmetrical from any spatial
perspective available to a remote observer.
Regards
Fran
-----Original Message-----
From: Horace Heffner [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 6:03 AM
To: Vortex-L
Subject: EXTERNAL: [Vo]:Relativity and the lead acid battery
The majority of the potential of a lead acid battery is due to
relativistic effects.
Scientists found that 80-85% of the voltage of a lead-acid battery is due to
relativistic effects. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.
(PhysOrg.com) -- French physicist Gaston Plante invented the lead-acid battery
in 1859 - almost 50 years before Einstein developed his theories of relativity.
Now scientists have found that the lead-acid battery, which is commonly used in
cars, strongly relies on the effects of relativity. Specifically, the
scientists calculated that 1.7-1.8 volts of the lead-acid battery's 2.1 volts
(or about 80-85%) arise from relativistic effects.
The physicists and chemists who performed the study - Rajeev Ahuja, Andreas
Blomqvist, and Peter Larsson from Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, and
Pekka Pyykkö and Patryk Zaleski-Ejgierd from the University of Helsinki - have
published their results in a recent issue of Physical Review Letters.
"This is a new, well-documented case of 'everyday relativity,'" Pyykkö told
PhysOrg.com. As the scientists noted in their study, the finding essentially
means that "cars start due to relativity."
The lead-acid battery is the oldest type of rechargeable battery, with the main
component being lead. With an atomic number of 82, lead is a heavy element. In
general, relativistic effects emerge when fast electrons move near a heavy
nucleus, such as that of lead. These relativistic effects include anything that
depends on the speed of light (or from a mathematical perspective, anything
that involves the Dirac or Schrödinger equations).
The lead-acid battery contains a positive electrode made of lead dioxide, a
negative electrode made of metallic lead, and an electrolyte made of sulfuric
acid. Through their calculations, the scientists found that the battery's
relativistic effects arise mainly from the lead dioxide in the positive
electrode, and partly from the lead sulfate created during chemical reactions.
The discovery of relativistic effects in the lead-acid battery also sheds some
light on why no corresponding "tin battery" exists. In the periodic table, tin
is located directly above lead and has an atomic number of 50, making it
lighter than lead. According to the scientists' calculations, a tin battery
would basically be a lead battery with very minimal relativistic effects.
Although tin and lead have similar nonrelativistic energy values, tin's small
relativistic effects prohibit it from being used in an efficient battery.
As the scientists noted, relativistic effects have been found in other areas,
such as the perennial yellow color of gold and the liquidity of mercury,
although the latter is still not very well proven.
Overall, the scientists predicted that this understanding of relativity's
importance to the lead-acid battery will probably not help researchers improve
the battery; however, the insight could be useful for exploring better
alternatives, especially those that involve any sixth period element (found in
the sixth row of the periodic table, like lead).
