Amateur Science

I am working with piezo ceramics, 5.5 mm thick. I need to know the rate of a shock wave as it travels through the material. James Woodward, et al are developing a piezoelectric Mach thruster device they are claiming develops propellantless thrust as a physical analog to the Shawyer engine. The materials to do a few simple tests are cheaply available so I figure it could be an interesting side project. Thanks for any help if you know that detail about ceramic piezos or have an interest in mach thrusters in general.

The concept of polarization is an established phenomenon associated with the theory of light as a wave. It is all about vibrations and their direction. It is also quite incompatible with Huygens' Principle which states that every element of a wave contributes to pushing the wave indefinitely until it meets an obstacle. Huygens was quite adamant about the fact that side processes did not diminish the energy necessary for the wave to keep going forward. It was, as far as he was concerned, the only reasonable assumption that did justice to the idea that light could travel indefinitely through space. Later on, those side processes, or "wavelets", acquired more pronounce…

Now, you may have reached the conclusion that the universe will eventually contract itself, in, say, 10 trillion years or whatever. All of the atoms and energy around us (as well as within us) will be gravitationally attracted to the center of the universe, and like before, form an omega black hole, until once again, the weight reaches critical mass, and it causes the ULTRANOVA (do you like my nomenclature? XD) All of the atoms and energy - well, does it all explode out the same way? Does all of this happen again? Will your life repeat itself once more? And how many times has this all happened? Am I a bad person for freaking you the heck out? Hit m…

First some background to my reasoning. I am interested in different methods of ionisation of gases. Typically gamma rays and X-rays including extra high frequency radio waves can be used as well as very high voltage DC. I recently read a very old physics book written by JJ Thompson, he pointed out at the instant switch contacts are opened a bunching effect of charges occurs due to inertia. This can create an extremely large momentary EM impulse, and explode wires or electronics if the current does not find an alternative path. A parallel pair of wires is the easiest way to envisage, my question, various other configurations could be used. Thinking of 2 long para…

Now im sure some of you have seen these magnetic electrical generators claiming to produce electrical energy non stop, and i know that these machines generally do not exist PERPETUALLY... Here is my question If I were to test magnetism in a vacuum on the earth, would the magnetic properties be affected? ive looked online and cant seem to find any practical data or an experiment which has been produced

I don't know if this subject belongs here, since it concerns less experiments than some observations I cannot explain using the laws of Optics. Only one sun reflected on the surface of a pond Why is that? Shouldn't we see an infinite number of suns on the surface of the water? Only one tree on the surface of the water This is the same problem. We can see the single reflection of the tree. We can even go around it, and it will show us the same tree, seen from another perspective. Can anybody explain how this is possible?

The Wright brothers’ patent: "Plane stabilized in roll by a pendulum" (US Patent no. 1,075,533). It seems impossible. "The pendulum rocket fallacy is a common fundamental misunderstanding of the mechanics of rocket flight and how rockets remain on a stable trajectory." Robert Goddard fell into this trap as late as March 16, 1926 when he tested a liquid fuel rocket. The Wright brothers filed their US Patent no. 1,075,533 in February 1908, tested the stabilizer in December 1913 and it worked flawlessly. Orville Wright even got a prize for his achievement (see the book below). How is it possible? A pendulum with its pivot in an accelerated movement (like inside an…

I want to know can an amateur scientist have a home business or being self-employed. Do you know of successful scientists that are amateurs in this world, today?

For any scientists who are skeptics of Bigfoot. It's not that we don't understand Occam's Razor. We just disagree on what is more likely. Bigfoot exists or every single report in the past 200+ years is either a hoax or misidentification. Take into consideration that reports of Bigfoot throwing things at people, dates back to at least 1849, but it wasn't a known behavior of apes until the 1960s

Question; is someone on this science forum that is in to amateur satellite archaeology and if so have you ever seen or hear of [ Nazca ] type of lines in the western part of the USA.

I followed this circuit diagram for making my ignition Circuit and connected it to an ignition coil of a car but it does not produce any spark at the spark plug?? Where do I get it wrong??? Also I didnt had 3 in qty 22000 ohm resistors that is why i used 27000 ohm resistors in place of the two resistors connected at pin 2 of NE555 IC! the other 22000 ohm resistor is correct! Also I am using a 12V 80 Amps Car battery for powering this circuit! Plz help me on this!!!!

I am a amateur but had some free time and was curious about immortality and population growth. I created a spread sheet with a guesstimate of population growth with immortality. Population Growth. I did some ballpark numbers and found that our entire planet would be transformed into a continuous cityscape in a thousand years. I then played around with subterranean cities, with a million people, a storefront floor, with floors that are discrete such as one for trash and sewage, another for electricity and communications lines, another for residents only, etc. It could even have like 15 floors of hydroponics that use LEDs and carbon dioxide enrichment. This would make us sc…

Hey all, new user here. I mainly created an account to offer this idea: Is it possible that the earth's magnetic poles could be evidence that the solid inner core, made mostly of iron, spins in a way as to generate magnetism, causing magnetic pull throughout the whole planet, much the same way a refrigerator magnet magnetizes to most any magnetic substance? I mean, I'm in no way a scientist. But to me it sounds possible that all the magnetism on earth is centered around the idea that (atomically) electrons spin in an orbit, causing magnetism. So, what if earth's magnetism is due to it's mostly iron mantle/crust spinning orbitally around the iron core? Like an enor…

Hello! For some time, when I am eating vegetable or fruit, instead of throwing seeds to trash, I am putting them to container with soil. And waiting to see what happens. I did it with f.e. - lemon. So far 5 new trees are growing. Pretty poor rate between plants/seeds. I am eating/drinking one per day with tea, so every week there is ~70 new seeds. Just 2 days ago, 2 of them appeared after nearly few months after placing them in soil (together with my chokeberry, so they were every day properly irrigated "accidentally") - grapes. 4 new plants grew from a few hundred seeds. - red sweet pepper. Nearly every seed grew to plant. This is photo taken from my red …

Anybody else on SFN an amateur (or professional?) fermenter? I've been making beer (malt extracts only so far) for less than a year, and think it would be cool to start making cheeses - though this sounds a lot tougher. Who else dabbles in fermentation?

I'm planing to operate a plant nursery in future. now I can only dream. I read that some green house input carbon dioxide. So I'm looking into the cheapest, cleanest and safest way to produce some CO2. I can burn some paper or dried leaves. but it may create monoxide, and probably dioxins. In enclosed space, it can be hazardous. The aquarium people use sugar and yeast to ferment in a bottle. I probably need something with a bigger scale. They are burning some oil or fuel to create CO2. However, it seems to be quite wasteful.Some oils are quite cheap actually, however I will consider cheaper options if there is one. What do you think of the above methods ? and …

Hello sciencefourms.net, it's nice to meet you (collective sense). I'm just some Bloke from the forest who's interested in science - feel free to derive profundities from my name, if you want. That's the introduction out of the way... So, I'm not actually writing a scientific paper for a journal; not yet. I am going to though. A few weeks ago a Eureka moment hit me and now I think I have a scientific theory! It is about physics. And no, (cliché) I'm not going to "reveal" what it is because I would be worried that someone might...steal it. And so, I want to get it down into a paper and (hopefully) get it published. The only thing is (cliché) I'm not very g…

I am going to be conducting an experiment in which I need to cool approximately 55 liters of air per minute to as close to -40C as possible. If I can't hit that target, as cold short of that as possible. The air needs to be breathable. If the solution is not pre-cooled or compressed air, I will be starting from an ambient temp of around 20C (standard room temp) Does anyone have any suggestions on a low budget way, or for that matter ANY way, to accomplish this? The solution needs to be portable enough to take to an office building to deploy with a quick set up time. This will be a 3 or 4 event experiment.

Collaborator Needed for Density-Driven Spacetime Expansion (DDSE) Model Body: Hello, fellow enthusiasts and professionals, I’m currently developing a thesis on a novel concept I call the Density-Driven Spacetime Expansion (DDSE) Model. This model links density, time dilation, and localized expansion to explain phenomena such as dark energy and spacetime curvature. While I've made significant progress in areas like the mathematical framework, simulations, and conceptual diagrams, I’m looking for a collaborator to refine the model further. Ideally, I’m seeking someone with expertise in: Advanced mathematics (tensor calcul…

Hello folks, Does anyone here know a method to make a mirror entirely without the use of metals? Cheers, Mike

Hi all, I'm new here. My professional background is in computers and airplanes, but about a year ago I started getting really curious about how telescope mirrors were made. I know that typically they are coated with aluminum in a very good vacuum. What follows is a dreamed up alternative process that is almost certainly less effective (or totally useless?), but since this is far out of my profession I need some help coming up with some reasonable hypotheses for what might happen if this were tried (not just what I wish would happen). Right now I live in a hotel room for work, but perhaps later this year I will have a garage again and may try it myself. Most hobb…

I would not name it amateur science at all due to me not structured and science is a highly structured biz. I test out different shapes of mouth pieces for lip reed instruments like Trumpet like new instruments. Very laid back non ambitious just for fun "sci" not real science. It is really fun. Take the trumpets they have way back in time. Baroque Trumpet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_trumpet Here is a Trumpet guy on internet giving all the right dimensions. Making a PVC Natrual Trumpet he mispelled natural there. He gives both inch and metrics to help us with different thumbs I bought such pvc at a local mall cost almost nothing. The exp…

We have wind power generators here which are skyscrapers pretty much but I want to know if it is possible to convert the already exsisting towers hull into solar panelling to provide heated water to the surrounding villages which currently run on water heated by dwindling fossil fuels.

I am wanting to install a battery assisted solar array that provides a dc line to small (500 watts or so) passive resistance space heaters throughout the house. Since 120 vac converts to 84.84v RMS, wouldn't that be the voltage in DC to deliver an equivalent heating effect?

for beggining astronomy you should already know that the earth is 93000000 miles from the sun so then you can know how far pluto is from the sun and it is 3000000000 miles from the sun and our solar system is very huge:eyebrow::doh:all feelings