🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <77146@ut-emx.uucp> johncobb@ut-emx.cc.utexas.edu (John W. Cobb) writes:
>     .....      It is a free lunch scenario. The energy is extracted
>from the stored energy in the magnetic field structure of the earth.

>If this is still counterintuitive, think back to the common sophomore
>physics lecture demonstration of a homopolar generator. That is, take
>a copper disk and spin it in a magnetic field. You will find a potential
>drop between  the center and the edge. 

And when you extract the current, the disk slows down.  TANSTAAFL

The voltage may be there, but if you want to do work, the work has to 
come from somewhere and in this case it comes from the mechanical 
energy of the shuttle.  Now I suppose the earth rotation changes too, 
just to conserve things, but that just compensates for the kick we feel 
here in Florida every time a launch occurs.  ;-)

--
J. A. Carr                                    |  "The New Frontier of which I  
jac@gw.scri.fsu.edu                           |  speak is not a set of promises
Florida State University  B-186               |  -- it is a set of challenges."
Supercomputer Computations Research Institute |   John F. Kennedy (15 July 60)