----- From: "Mike Hord" <mike.hord@

> > The "Casimir effect" (firts proposed in 1948 afaik) is one such. Two plates
> > are placed VERY close together. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle says
> > that the gap cannot be empty as if it was we'd know there was nothing there
> > and it wan't moving :-) so virtual particles are compelled to appear and
> > annihilate continually. These have an effect on the plates. Only particles
> > whose wavelength is an integral submultiple of the interplate spacing have
> > any net effect. Energy density increases as spacing decreases. The plates
> > are pulled together by a force which should be able to be utilised. Pulling
> > them apart again may be difficult :-)
> 
> Is this related to Hawking radiation, where pairs of particles are constantly
> appearing and annihilating, but occasionally one appears a little too close
> to the event horizon of a singularity and its antiparticle zooms off into the
> universe, causing the singularity to appear to emit radiation?
> 
> That's a long dig out of my very short memory.
> 
> Maybe we could make use of that...I've heard that at CERN they think that
> they will be able to make very small artificial singularities before too long.
> All we have to do is trick probability into creating a very large number of
> pairs very close to the singularity.  Maybe that where an "infinite
> improbability drive" could come in handy... ;-)
> 
> Mike H.
We may be close but, at this time we can not seem to get the tea hot enough ;-)

KF4HAZ - Lonnie

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