Great post!Welcome to the forum.
insteresting...considering NSF user Stardrive (Paul March) works with Dr. Sonny White at Eagleworks Lab, specifically at the Q-Thrusters experiments (though if I am not mistaken he attributes the effects to Woodward Effect), I wonder if there would be any chance of him answering that.
AcesHigh:You can inform Dr. Rodal that most of the observed forces in the Eagleworks Lab frustum devices were prompt with the same rise and fall times as our electrostatically derived calibration forces and therefore are not thermal in origins. That's not to say we didn't see thermal effects, especially with input RF power levels greater than ~35W, but the thermal effects with these large copper plus dielectric test articles, (2.5 to 5.0kg), always take tens of seconds to develop and are easily distinguished from the prompt E&M or more interesting force inputs since they always exhibit exponential rise and fall times.BTW, the copper frustum's temperature never rose more than 1.0 degree F. when using the above average power levels and test articles.Best,Paul March
I have concluded that thermal transient effects are a likely explanation for the measured deflections and forces in NASA's torsion pendulum experiments of the Q drives. Explicitly, that they are the result of a shift in material location of the center of mass due to differential thermal expansion resulting from heating of the dielectric resonator which is positioned unsymmetrically. ...I hope that these considerations, convince you ... that thermal transient effects are important and therefore that it merits strong consideration that the measured deflections and forces in your torsion pendulum experiments of the Q drives are the result of a shift in material location of the center of mass due to differential thermal expansion resulting from heating of the dielectric resonator which is positioned unsymmetrically, as explained above.
@John Fornaro: I just posted an answer by Paul March, who works with Dr Sonny White, regarding Radal's questions.
However, I have wondered how air convection could be responsible for the reproducible and fairly consistent levels of measured force pulse, as well as the fact that the experimental pulses are so well defined (and that it took practically no time to achieve the measured forces and to go back to zero upon ending the microwave pulse), and that turning the Q-drive around by 180 degrees resulted in practically the same force in the opposite direction.
You can inform Dr. Rodal that most of the observed forces in the Eagleworks Lab frustum devices were prompt with the same rise and fall times as our electrostatically derived calibration forces and therefore are not thermal in origins.
@aceshigh: answering your off topic question, my first name is a geographic accident of being born in a country where (at that time) there was a law that everyone born there had to be given names chosen from a Government-provided list. . The "J" is pronounced as an "H"
I attempted to do a quick model of the system with your ideas. Using a few assumptions:.....I got a tangential torque ... in the opposite direction, and two orders of magnitude less than the net force on the system.