EMERGENCE OF NET FORCE IN ASYMMETRIC ELECTRODE SYSTEMS –
POSSIBLE
SIGNIFICANCE FOR MIND-BODY CONNECTION VIA
TRANSMEMBRANE ELECTRIC FIELDS
Metod Škarja,
Igor Jerman
BION, Institute for Bioelectromagnetics and New Biology, Ljubljana
internet: www.bion.si , e-mail: metod.skarja@bion.si
When a high voltage (HV, ~ 30kV) is applied between two mutually fixed geometrically different electrodes, the net force emerged that pushes the whole system in the direction from greater toward the smaller electrode. The effect is known also as Biefeld-Brown effect. The effect can apparently be explained with ionic wind, caused by forces on the charges that emerge around electrodes. In the present research we represent a basic effect and various experiments to understand more deeply the nature of this effect, particularly the emergence of force and its relatedness to the presence of ions around electrodes.
Since the electric field across the membranes of living cells has similar strength that electric fields, present in above systems, this type of researches may also shed some light on possible role of such high electric fields in living systems, particularly in mediating between more subtle (quantum) levels and material level.
Today much of the effort is applied to find the connections between the consciousness, mind and brain or more generally between consciousness, some natural intelligence and matter. The connections are sought on quantum level and much effort is also applied in the direction to understand the role of various structures in the cells like microtubulus network etc. One important property, that originally inspired Froelich [1, 2] to start to consider the possibility of electric polarisation modes in living cells, are their large electric fields across the membranes. This way of research continues mainly in the direction of seeking modes of order established by endogenous electric fields and later in quantum field approach [3, 4]. Although the potential across the membranes are not high (some ten mV), the electric fields can be up to around 107 V/m due to the membranes' small width. The potential difference across the membrane is mainly seen as a consequence of different permeability of membrane for different ions combined with active transport of them (ion pumps), which in the case of neurons also keep them in a condition to be ready to trigger the action potential and thus conduct nerve impulses along them. But there is a possibility that high electric fields can also have some other role in living systems. A new emerging interest in asymmetric electrode systems [5-9], that can produce thrust, when high voltage is applied to them, indicates a possibility for new or yet unexplored phenomena that can take place in such an environment. If such a possibility proves true, that means, that such an environment can help to mediate between the more subtle levels of reality (quantum levels) and ordinary material level.
As already said there is recently an emerging interest in the asymmetric electrode systems, that can produce thrust when high voltage with corresponding high electric field is applied to them. The first who was experimenting with such systems was Thomas Townsend Brown during the 1920'. When he was working with some X-ray tube he noticed an unusual force trying to deform a part of the device with high voltage wires, when the tube was turned on. This led him to start with experiments to investigate further this effect. He discovered generally that when high voltage is applied between asymmetric electrode systems there emerged (depending also on the shape) a net force toward the smaller electrode. He filed several patents (one in 1928 [10] and several in 1960' [11-13]) but this kind of research never becomes a part of investigations covered with science journals.
One type of such devices was a so-called “lifter” [5-7], which has a thin wire as a small electrode and a flat metal sheet as a large electrode (see Figure 1). The surface of the flat electrode was parallel with the direction between it and the wire. The part of the flat electrode near the wire is rounded. When a high voltage is applied between the wire and flat electrode, the air around the wire becomes ionised and a force, directed from flat electrode towards the wire, appears. When the voltage is sufficiently high, it can even overcome the gravity force and the lifter took off.
There were several attempts to explain this force. One of them explains the force with ionic wind arguments. In short, it claims that larger electrode and hence the whole device is attracted toward the cloud of ions of opposite charge that surrounds the smaller electrode. Ions moving through the air toward the larger electrode cause air to start moving in the same direction because of the collisions of ions with air molecules.
At our institute we built such a lifter and replicated some basic experiments with it. Then we started to conduct experiments that could confirm or reject current hypotheses about the appearance of net force. We envisaged also experiments that can show anomalies in the behaviour of the lifters when current electromagnetic theory is applied to them.
The hypothesis with ionic wind claims that larger electrode and hence the whole device is attracted toward the cloud of ions that surrounds the smaller electrode [8, 9]. Electric field around the smaller electrode exceeds the ionisation threshold of air and hence the smaller electrode is surrounded by a cloud of ions of the same polarity as is the polarity of that electrode. The cloud of these ions and the larger electrode mutually attracts each other. Ions start to move toward the larger electrode and because of the collisions with air molecules also the air start to flow in this direction. Total force on the larger electrode is equal to the change of momentum gained by ions and air per unit time. The amount of ions in the air can be obtained from measuring the current, flowing through the system, and from the known mobility's of ions in the air. Thrust calculated in this way gives correct order of magnitude for the observed effect.
Other hypotheses [9] which consider only ions acceleration without air drag or dielectrophoretic effects give orders of magnitude to small forces to obtain the observed effects.
Depending on the details of the design of the lifter, lifter usually take-off at around 20-30 kV DC, the current is about 1mA and the power it consumes is about 5W per gram of its weight. To obtain the data for the thrust below the level of take-off we hung up the lifter vertically and measured the thrust via the declination from the vertical position. The thrust appears first at the threshold voltage (in our case around 10kV), when ionisation around the upper electrode (wire) starts. With increasing voltage there increase also thrust and electrical current as expected. However efficiency (thrust per watt) decreases.
Since the efficiency of the lifter decreases with increasing voltage and current, this indicates that besides the production of ions there are also other factors that affect the whole process. Through observations (also with camera) we found that the main stream of ions flow directly from the wire toward the upper part of lower electrode in a thin sheet (we refer to this as 1. mode). The speed of ions in this sheet is high and there it is also possible further ionisation of air molecules, hence this sheet starts to glow at sufficiently high voltages. Besides this flow there is also a broader and slower flow of ions, which do not further ionise the air (2. mode). Ions from this flow reach also lower parts of lower electrode. At lower voltages both modes are qualitatively similar and the differences regarding the influence on lifter performance start at higher voltages, when additional ionisation of the air started. As experiments show, this ionisation, which also produces characteristic hissing sound, diminishes the efficiency of the lifter.
According to the ion wind hypothesis more ions should produce more thrust and it is also more favourable, that they travel in a broader zone, dragging as much air with it as possible (recall that the case when only ions would be accelerated yields far to small thrust and the 1. mode when ions are accelerated in a thin sheet is somewhere between both possibilities). In exploring this relation we found some interesting effects, when we envisaged some experiments with the purpose to affect the production of ions and their flow between the electrodes.
First we covered upper part of the lower electrode with PVC straw (see Figure 2) with a purpose to hinder the ion flow on this part of electrode. The ions may still slide along the straw and reach the electrode below it. The upper electrode (wire) was connected to the positive output of high voltage supply while the lower electrode was connected to the ground. Measurements showed 41% diminishing of the thrust, while high voltage increases for 5%, current decreases for 8% and total power decreases for 3% (experiments were made at constant supply voltage, so that everything on the HV side adjusted themselves to the new circumstances). For the results see also Table I.
Second, we placed a Styrofoam bar (1cm x 1cm) directly under the upper electrode. Measurements showed 37% diminishing of the thrust, while high voltage increased for 13%, current decreased for 15% and total power decreased for 5%.
Third, we covered lower part of the lower electrode with cellophane foil (see Figure 2), first on one and then on both sides. This situation hinders the flow of ions onto the lower part of the electrode. When one side of the electrode was covered, the measurements showed 5% diminishing of the thrust, while high voltage, current and total power remained approximately the same. When both sides of the electrode were covered, the measurements showed 21% diminishing of the thrust, high voltage remained approximately the same, while current and total power increased for 2%.
Fourth, we covered the lower electrode totally with cellophane foil (see Figure 2).
In this case the result was most surprising, the thrust was diminished for 88%, while high voltage decreased for 7%, current increases for 12% and total power increases for 4%. After some time the ions broke their way through the cellophane on the upper side (in the case of cellophane it became fractured, while in the case of similar experiment with PVC, it became opaque and at the points of stronger ion breakthroughs punctured). When this happened the thrust increased for 5%.
Table I: Current I, voltage U, power P and lifted mass m of normal lifter (actual values) and various coverings of electrodes (in % of normal case) |
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Case |
I |
U |
P |
m (g) |
n |
1,3 mA |
22,9 kV |
29,8 W |
4,09 g |
1 |
92,3% |
104,8% |
96,7% |
58,7% |
2 |
76,9% |
116,2% |
89,4% |
88,2% |
3a |
100,0% |
100,4% |
100,4% |
95,0% |
3b |
101,5% |
100,0% |
101,5% |
78,6% |
4 |
111,5% |
93,4% |
104,2% |
12,1% |
Notes: n – normal lifter, 1 - PVC straw on upper part of lower electrode, 2 - Styrofoam bar under upper electrode, 3a - cellophane foil on one side of lower electrode, 3b - cellophane foil on both sides of lower electrode, 4 - cellophane foil cover of lower electrode |
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In all the cases described above, the power, current and high voltage remained approximately the same with variations of a few percents, while there were drastic effects on the thrust of the device. Since the current is proportional to the charge present in the air, that charge remains in all cases approximately equal. The case when ions punctured the foil (case 4) shows, that ions still mainly hit the upper part of the lower electrode and that despite the fractured foil on the upper part, the thrust increases only for a few percent.
To investigate this effect further we repeated experiments with covered electrodes (cases 3 and 4 above) at different voltages. In the case 4 the lower electrode was only partially covered with cellophane. The electrode was covered in the length of 5cm, 1cm and 0.5cm (the total length of the electrode was 20cm). We worked with two voltage combinations, first the upper electrode was connected to the ground and the lower to the negative high voltage (this is electrically equivalent to the case above), then the upper electrode was connected to the negative voltage and lower one to the ground. Again we obtained very surprising results. In the case of upper electrode grounded and at the covering of the electrode in the width of 5cm (25%) the thrust approximately halved at given input power. At given high voltage, the current increased to approximately doubled value as compared to the normal case and so did also the power. At the covering of the electrode in the width of 1cm (5%), the thrust decreased for about 30% at given input power. At given high voltage the current and the power only slightly decreased, thus indicating, that these circumstances mainly diminish efficiency. Only at the width of covering of 0.5cm were the changes insignificant. If lower part of lower electrode is covered one- or two-sided, the thrust decreased for about 20% and did not a significant difference between both cases. Thrust vs. power is shown in Figure 3, while current vs. voltage is shown in Figure 4.
In the case of upper electrode connected to negative voltage, the results were similar or even more pronounced.
In the case of 5cm wide covering and at given input power, the thrust fell approximately on third of normal level and in the case of 1cm covering on one half of the normal level. At given high voltage and in the case of 5cm wide covering, the current increased to approximately doubled value as compared to the normal case, while in the case of 1cm wide covering, the current increased for about 30%. If lower part of lower electrode is covered one- or two-sided, the thrust decreased for about 10% and did not show a significant difference between both cases. Thrust vs. power is already in Figure 3, while current vs. voltage is shown in Figures 4 and 5.
Above results undoubtedly show that appearance of thrust in asymmetrical electrode system is a complex phenomenon. Although the ion wind and consequent air drag hypothesis yields correct order of magnitude of the thrust there remains many still unexplainable behaviours. According to the hypothesis the lower electrode is attracted to the cloud of opposite charge in the space around the upper electrode, which also starts to move toward the lower electrode and drags air with it – hence occurrence of the wind. Also these ions maintain the current between the electrodes. When we place various objects to hinder this flow (cellophane or PVC foil on lower electrode, Styrofoam bar below the upper electrode), we observe that the flow is actually not hindered, mostly it even increases, only the thrust of the device is diminished in all cases. It is also astonishing that partial covering of the electrode (5cm and 1cm wide) so drastically decreases the thrust while at the same time it can even strongly increase the current. This can only be explained, if this covering somehow enhances the emission of ions at the lower electrode that then causes the opposite force between upper electrode and these ions, but if this really takes place should be separately thoroughly tested. In the case when this surely cannot happened (the bar below the wire) it can only be a modification of ions distribution that can affect the thrust – but here it is important to note, that the force mainly depends only on the amount of the charge in the air.
These results can neither reject the ion wind hypothesis, which rests on known physics, not fully confirm it, but they surely point to the possibility of some undiscovered or unexplained phenomena or even new forces in nature. Since such high fields and ionic environment appear also in living systems, new findings in this field should also help us to discover new principles of living systems, particularly the connection between more subtle levels and ordinary material world.