A while back I posted a question to Physics.SE about a hypothetical (and likely impossible) Artificial Gravity device. I thaught about constraints, so my AG device would not violate known laws of physics (beyond existing). If existing, what non-obvious applications would be possible?
Suppose you have a Device that creates an 'artificial gravity' (AG) inside a Box, with these properties:
- the system does not use inertial forces (like centrifugal force) or a huge mass to create AG
- the AG 'feels' just like gravity/inertia over most of the volume of the box - to be more precise, there's no experiment to tell the difference without looking outside
- the Device, the Box and its content are still subject to any gravitational forces that may be present, but the AG force adds to other gravity/inertia forces, net force may be zero
- Matter, Energy and Information can leave and enter the box
- there is a smooth but strong gradient in the AG at the walls of the box - the field does not extend outside the box
- conservation of energy still holds: if the AG does work, this energy has to be supplied to the device in some way, vice versa for work done against the AG. Some percentage of this energy (both ways) is lost as low grade heat.
- conservation of momentum still holds: for every force due to the AG on an object, there is a corresponding counteracting force on the device
The obvious application would be to dampen gravity/acceleration in a rocket, or to provide gravity in space; or to provide weightlessness on earth (or Jupiter). The less obvious application would be to simulate existing machinery (pump, press, gun ...). I'm not interested in these.
A ' weird' use of AG would be
- not replicating known machinery
- playing with the time dilation and red/blue shifting aspects of gravity
- be at least nominally useful
What woiuld this look like?