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Zero Point Energy

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By Aadarsh 4 min read

The energy consumption of the world was about 13.3 billion toe (ton of oil equivalent) by the 2016 data on energy consumption and population. We now have the world average consumption of 57 kWh of primary energy per day per person. So we are in huge demand for energy. A lot and a lot and a lot more…

So how about grasping the energy from the thin air? We were taught that the vacuum is an empty space. Remember? But that’s not exactly true. As if you dive deeper into the quantum world, below the level of molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, and subatomic particles like quarks and more and more the vacuum is not truly empty. It’s randomly pops in and out of existence and the most important thing is that they generate energy.

Whats exactly does Zero Point Energy mean?

It can be formulated in different ways, but to be simple it is the lowest yet non-zero energy of a quantum mechanical system. The ZPE has taken into research since the discovery of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. In quantum mechanics, things behave differently from classic physics. For example, you can’t even know where a particle is until you observe it. What’s more, the more accurately you determine the position of the particle the less accurately you can determine its momentum. It’s called the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and it applies to particle duration and energy as well. What this uncertainty principle tells that zero-point energy exist and we just want to find a way to collect it. According to the research done in the quantum field theory, the vacuum holds an infinite amount of energy. If we could find a way to use it just a cup full of this energy might hold enough power to boil all the earth’s oceans.

How to extract ZPE?

The vacuum of space is really cold and to transfer ZPE you simply need a colder source to receive that energy. The problem is it is not possible with the technology that we have today. We can’t pull energy out of nowhere unless we can reduce the vacuum energy in a region of first. According to the second law of thermodynamics, the vacuum would try to fill in the gap, and that’s where we could interfere and get the ZPE. But this method wouldn’t be that effective as we’d spend more energy trying to get ZPE.

Assume that we have harnessed ZPE? Everything is free right? unlimited energy, free public transportation we all would drive electric cars and everyone will be accessible to the cutting edge technologies and the internet.

The non-renewable energy resources and even the renewable energy resources we use today will be obsolete. Why need other energy resources as we could automate the extraction of ZPE. But as it is in excess we all could start overusing the energy too. The planet will be free of emissions from fossil fuels but it doesn’t mean that there would be new threats from energy consumption. Maybe it’s too good to explore the space with the ZPE. We’d be able to travel across the solar system in a matter of hours. we could also start mining the asteroids and terraform other planets and maybe one day we would relocate humanity altogether.

In any case, regardless of what the response to the zero-point energy puzzle is, there are two realities we can’t deny. The first is that dark energy is genuine, validated by a large number of autonomous lines of proof that our Universe essentially can’t manage without. It is predictable with having a consistent worth wherever in space and all through time: it carries on in a design that is vague from space having a non-zero, steady zero-point energy. The subsequent reality is that, whatever the arrangement is, we despite everything must deal with the nearness of quantum fields — ordered by the laws of material science — penetrating our Universe. Until we realize how to ascertain that esteem, any proposed arrangement necessitates that we make an unwarranted suspicion for whatever that worth is. The ZPE of void space is conflicting with an estimation of zero. There are numerous potential inceptions of this non-zero worth, however, its definitive reason despite everything stays a puzzle.

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Science, Energy
zero point energy
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