Zero Point Energy Threads?

Hey All,

I did a search on Zero Point Energy and Zero was eliminated, so I couldn’t easily see if there were any threads on Zero Point Energy. I’m wondering if there is anything to it, or if its synonomous with cold fusion?

Chronos?

I wouldn’t call it the same. There is theoretical zero point energy but that nasty old second law of thermodynamics prevents any easy way of getting it and even if that were not the case there isn’t a useful amount. Similar threads come up once in a while but I have yet to see anything new.

Zero-point energy is most closely associated with free energy. Cold fusion isn’t quite free, even ignoring the fact that it’s impossible, so it isn’t quite as nutty.

Zero-point energy is the idea that you can get free energy from quantum fluctuations in a hard vacuum. While it’s true that any hard vacuum will have virtual particles coming into existence before annihilating each other, it’s impossible to harvest that energy in a useful sense. (To be more precise, the system’s net energy remains zero, even if it does pass through states with a nonzero energy level. The conservation rules still apply, even though quantum mechanics makes them apply in a statistical, rather than absolute, sense.)

ZPE is most useful as a pons asinorum for the tinfoil hat crowd: If the guy has a theory on harvesting ZPE, he’s so nutty his other ideas probably aren’t worth listening to.

Here is a website (not a kookfest) on virtual particles.

Search for Casimir. (As in the Casimir effect, an attractive force between closely spaced objects that arises from fluctuations in the quantum vacuum). I got 33 threads on the subject. Including, now, this one, you should find 34.

This guy pasted in an email he received about said topic (in General Questions), Then asked a few quesitons about said topic.
"Zeropoint energy a solution or a urban legend? "
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=249868

It appears he was banned shortly after. :dubious: Perhaps the Consortium for the Advancement of Scientific Hope did away with him.

Hey,

I started this thread a while back.

Jim