posted on Sep, 23 2004 @ 05:39 PM
Okay. Here's the deal (as far as I understand it, at least. quantum mechanics is tricky that way. I suggest stephen hawking's books for a better
explanation, with pretty pictures and such, if you aren't into hardcore math).
One of the basic tenets of Quantum Mechanics is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. This essentially says that it is impossible to know the position
and momentum (mass*velocity) of a particle (we're talking subatomic here, this doesn't apply to us, obviously) simultaneously to an arbitrary
accuracy at any given point in time.
Now, skip back to electrodynamics - all of space is permeated by the Maxwell field, a mathematical construct in which electromagnetic waves (eg. radio
waves, light waves) and their particle equivalents travel and oscillate. When there is no wave, the momentum of the wave/photon is zero.
But wait, here's the trick. Zero is a definite number - for something to be zero would violate the uncertainty principle. So the wave actually
oscillates in an infinitesimally small manner around zero. Thus all of space is permeated by energy - the quantum "fuzz". ZPE proposes methods for
using this energy - but as far as I can tell, none of them work, and to get any amount of usable energy out of this, you'd need a method for
collecting the ZPE out of several cubic kilometers of space.
However, there is one effect, the Casimir effect, that actually shows that this may one day feasible. Essentially, two large metal plates are held a
micron apart. Since a smaller number of EM wave frequencies (there are infinitley many, but thanks to lotso mathematical tricks, this all works out)
can fit in betwen the plates, the plates are 'pushed' inwards. The force is millions of times weaker than gravity, but we may be able to one day use
it - I'm thinking nanoscale machinery