Perpetual energy

 

 

Consider this: a battery than never ran out of electricity. It would revolutionise the world, the way we think about conserving energy and wireless utilities. Imagine never having to fill up your car, never having to pay another gas or electricity bill and never having to recharge your phone.

            Unfortunately, it is not possible, according to The Law of Conservation of Energy.

 

 

Energy cannot be created or destroyed energy can only be changed from one form into another form of energy

- Law of Conservation of Energy

 

 

This theory has never been disproved, but could this be because nobody has even thought of trying? After all it was made not as a scientific law but as a philosophical speculation in the 16th century. before the huge advances in technology that we have experienced recently, before we were able to walk on the moon, before we could develop machines capable of making 40 trillion calculations per second and talk to people on the other side of the world. So we arrive at the question, can it be done, after all it isn’t a law of Physics, it’s a theory.

 

 

An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.

- Definition of “Theory”

 

 

            Einstein’s law of relativity, however tries to show how matter can be changed into energy, E = MC2, the energy produced is equal to that of the mass destroyed times by the speed or light squared. This means that if you took a kilogram of earth and destroyed it, you would create 1 x 299 792 4582 which is 8,987,552,446,911,584 joules. 12,083,104,800,000,000,000 joules of electricity would be enough to supply the entire United States with electricity for a year, therefore you would be able to produce enough electricity to the worlds leading superpower with 1.3 tonnes of soil, although we would expect this to be slightly more because the conversion unit would most probably be unable to perform a 100% efficient conversion.

 

 

 

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

- Albert Einstein

 

 

            How would we be able to convert matter into energy, while keeping the change in controlled conditions? We already know that very little matter can create a lot of energy, but still we find it hard to comprehend the physics of this conversion. However some physicists have been fascinated by a unique state of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). To make it, a group of atoms, usually rubidium, are trapped in a vacuum by use of electromagnets. They are then cooled to the edge of absolute zero, eventually, when the thermal activity of the atoms dies down they fall into lock-step. At this point they begin to move as one, as if they were a single “super-atom.” Even at one billionth of a degree Kelvin above absolute zero the atoms still have vibrating energy, known as “kinetic zero-point energy.” This overcomes the attractive forces between the atoms and prevents them from imploding. However if these forces could be changed the atoms could be encouraged to grow or to shrink or in extreme conditions would overcome the zero-point energy causing the BEC to implode. This is exactly what has been achieved by Elizabeth Donley and colleagues. They used a technique known as “Feshbach resonance” to overcome the zero-point energy.

 

 

 

“When the BEC was forced to implode, asymmetrical bursts of atoms were ejected, leaving behind a small BEC remnant. Some atoms suffered an as-yet unknown fate, disappearing from sight in the apparatus”

 

-          Elizabeth Donley and Colleagues

 

 

 

            These, “disappearing,” atoms and the asymmetrical bursts of atoms from temperatures only fractionally above absolute zero could be the beginning of a new era of matter to energy conversions. If we can harvest this energy, and keep the right conditions constant for this implosion to take place, then we will soon be able to stop burning fossil fuels and look the future much longer lasting and cleaner fuels.

 

 

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