"Quantum pendulum trick explained" Immersed in a special ultracold liquid, swinging is faster By Alexandra Witze Friday, January 28th, 2011 http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69281/title/Quantum_pendulum_tric k_explained
"Physicists have explained yet another quirk of the quantum world: why, if you swing a pendulum through a quantum fluid, it speeds up rather than slowing down. Tiny "quasiparticles" ricocheting around in the fluid are to blame, Finnish researchers report in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters." "The effect is the opposite of that experienced in the ordinary world. Immerse the pendulum of a grandfather clock in water, for instance, and it will slow down." Comment: why is a pendulum "speeding up" not gainful - and indicative of a slight OU if everything else is engineered to highest PerpMo standards ?<g>? There is no friction, presumably, or else it would not speed up - so no heat is added by the pendulum's movement, and the initial liquid can stay as cold as aero-gel or near-perfect insulation will allow. Better yet, convert the pendulum into a flywheel with a magnetic bearing - does the speed of rotation keep increasing after an initial push? Doubt it. It is pretty clear that this is poor science journalism, and the pendulum does not really "speed up" but instead slightly decreases its oscillation rate - which is not the same thing. IOW it still slows down over time but at a lower rate than before. Guess we will have to await the publication of the main article to find out for sure. but one suspects Alexandra should move over to say - the Wall Street Journal where nowadays they pay top dollar for sloppy journalism.
