Zero Point Energy doc
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| ZP OWER C ORPORATION PAGE OF 352 Z ERO P OINT E NERGY electromagnetic waves. To be sure, the radiation from individual particles dissipates in an extremely short distance. But because these elements of radiation are generated constantly and everywhere, space is filled by an enormous amount of energy. The energy density of the vacuum exceeds that in the nucleus of an atom. The American physicists John Wheeler and Richard Feynman have calculated that the energy in the vacuum of a single light bulb is sufficient to bring all the water in the oceans of the world to the boiling point. At the same time this tremendous energy cannot be felt. The reason it permeates the universe equally in all directions. Thus, matter is held in balance between equal forces. Nevertheless, this vacuum energy leaves its trace in certain physical phenomena. According to classical physics, every oscillator, like a pendulum, eventually comes to rest because of friction. Quantum theory, on the other hand, states that an oscillator never comes completely to rest, but will continue to oscillate in microscopically small random motions around its rest point, even when it has been cooled to absolute zero so that molecular heat motion is not a consideration. Cause of the unpredictable vibration is the so-called zero point energy. The source of the vibrations, in turn, are the energetic fluctuations of the vacuum. These provide the virtual particles with their electromagnetic radiations. Particles that are embedded in this ocean of radiation are caused to tremble by the constant impacts of the virtual particles. (This trembling has serious consequences in many physical systems. For example, the unavoidable noise of a microwave receiver. Even the most perfect cannot suppress this noise, since it is caused by the zero point energy that creates the radiations in this wavelength. As early as 1940, US physicist William Lamb discovered that fluctuations of the electromagnetic field can easily disturb the paths of electrons around the atomic nucleus. This results in the "Lamb displacement" photons that are created by the shifting of electrons into a different path show a frequency displaced from the normal value) The simple fact that an electron orbits the atomic nucleus on a stable path is a great puzzle of physics. Classical theory describes the atom like a small planetary system electron planets orbit the sun of the atomic nucleus. Electromagnetic fields work on charged particles. The particles are forced out of their path and react by radiating light. The photons (light particles) carry off the energy picked up from the electromagnetic field. One would therefore expect electrons which are forced into their orbital paths by the nucleus charge, to send out radiations and fall in a spiral path into the nucleus like a satellite falling to earth. Quantum theory does not explain why this |