OOPS - part of the answer already in your citation " the scientists found that the battery's relativistic effects arise mainly from the lead dioxide in the positive electrode" so the question should have been is the fast electron part of lead dioxide bond or almost free electrons in the lattice?
-----Original Message----- From: Roarty, Francis X Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 9:42 AM To: 'vortex-l@eskimo.com' Subject: RE: EXTERNAL: [Vo]:Relativity and the lead acid battery 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:hheff...@mtaonline.net] 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).