Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: Deltajackal77 on 11/10/2014 16:12:45
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Out of curiosity, being said that dark energy is like the opposite of gravity, would it be possible if we could harness dark energy in some way, could it be possible to make something fly/float, like a floating car perhaps, by creating a balance of gravity pull, and the reverse effect, created by dark energy, to make something float or fly?
Edit: please keep in mind, i am a 9th grader, but i can understand complicated ideas and concepts,so dont get too indepth, unless of course, i ask you to. Thanks!
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Out of curiosity, being said that dark energy is like the opposite of gravity, would it be possible if we could harness dark energy in some way, could it be possible to make something fly/float, like a floating car perhaps, by creating a balance of gravity pull, and the reverse effect, created by dark energy, to make something float or fly?
Welcome to the forum! [:)]
It's not known yet if dark energy can be harnessed that way. If it had certain properties such as it consists of particles which repel other particles which have normal gravitational mass, then yes, it's possible. However it doesn't appear to be that way at this point in time.
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It is thought that Dark Energy is only visible on a cosmic scale, between galaxy clusters.
It is thought that the gravitational attraction between the Earth and a car, or between the Earth and the Sun, or between the Sun and the rest of the Milky Way galaxy is so strong that Dark Energy is not able to overcome it.
At least, that is how we see the universe at present - it may be different in the far future, depending on whether dark energy gets stronger over time.
A flying car might sound an attractive proposition, but if Dark Energy can break the gravitational attraction between a car and the Earth, it is likely that it will also break the attraction between the Earth and the atmosphere - with sad consequences for life on Earth.
Of course, if we were able to control Dark Energy - to shield and concentrate it, we may be able to create a more precise "anti-gravity machine". However, we do not know what causes Dark Energy, let alone how to control it. Plus, anti-gravity machines break some fundamental laws of Physics as we understand them today (eg conservation of Energy).
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Real energy can balance gravitational pull (it's the only way we use now), it just takes a lot of it to counteract a planet or star sized mass at or near the surface.
If we could find a way to convert dark matter or dark energy into useful energy, that would be quite remarkable.