Anonymous asked:

Aren't you being closed minded about the emDrive? There is a theory paper, and now three independent results verifying it. It's like your thing with Yudkowsky, you decide on a conclusion and then rationalize it.

…No.  Not at all.  Here is the thing- the “emDrive” paper claims to only use standard physics to show that his reactionless drive is possible.  This means he must have made a mistake, because momentum is conserved in those theories.  So the theory paper is nonsense.  

Now, is it possible this guy accidentally discovered a place where momentum isn’t conserved by making erroneous calculations? I guess, but it isn’t very likely.  

So on to the experimental verifications,which  involved dumpinging a lot of microwave energy into a cavity and measuring less “thrust” then you get from one of these things. 

After this was pointed out, they did their best to do the experiments in vaccuum, but a good vaccuum is hard to maintain.  In their vacuum they get a large reduction of their thrust effect, but it doesn’t get totally down to 0, which probably means the thing is getting some tiny thrust from the occasional air molecule,etc.