Zero Point Energy

Here are some words of wisdom from your old St. Nik...

Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe. This idea is not novel... We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians... Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic? If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic - and this we know it is, for certain - then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature. ---Nikola Tesla, addressing the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1891

First the "Facts"...

In a quantum mechanical system such as the particle in a box or the quantum harmonic oscillator, the lowest possible energy is called the zero-point energy. According to classical physics, the kinetic energy of a particle in a box or the kinetic energy of the harmonic oscillator may be zero if the velocity is zero. Quantum mechanics with its uncertainty principle implies that if the velocity is measured with certainty to be exactly zero, the uncertainty of the position must be infinite. This either violates the condition that the particle remains in the box, or it brings a new potential energy in the case of the harmonic oscillator. To avoid this paradox, quantum mechanics dictates that the minimal velocity is never equal to zero, and hence the minimal energy is never equal to zero.

Got all that? Me either. Look I am no slouch but this math is way over my head...

But if Zero-point energy refers to quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic force fields that are present everywhere in a vacuum. That's energy in a Vacuum? Free Energy! Whoo Hoo! Right? Well obviously this hasn't happened. When I originally put together a Zero Point Energy page for this site, ZPE's promise to be a viable source of power was unclear at best. More recent knowledge in the area makes it clear that although ZPE does exist (maybe) it's probably not the kind of thing your going to power a car with let alone a StarGate. Current research points to the total amount of ZPE that is harnesable being very low, perhaps being zero. The rest of ZPE in the universe is by it's very definition not something you can tap into. If you are looking for more detail, there is a fairly readable page on the subject over at the Scientific American web site. (if it seems a little much jump to page 3) This is not to say that very very small amounts of power aren't just the thing in certain applications. Quantum Fields LLC is doing research toward using ZPE to power microscopic electro mechanical systems. So the field isn't dead yet, just don't expect to replace you car engine with a magic ZPE engine. So here is that thing they are working on over at Quantum Fields, they call it a MEMS oscillator. No clue what it is or even if they have built a real one or not, but there you go. It sure is bouncy.

Then again I was looking at one of the more popular ZPE sites and came across this quote "There is enough ZPE in a volume the size of a coffee cup to boil away all the Earth’s oceans" Hmmm, interesting. Of course on the same page was, "When ZPE are modularized in a connected realm or conceptually segmented in a continuum, we get something called ZPEM (ZPE modules) floating in the abstract mode of consciousness.
",so are they talking about real energy you can do work with or something more like transcendental meditation here? Things can get a little fuzzy on the internet sometimes so here are some books you can order to keep things straight.

And now the fiction.

Zero point energy has worked its way into many works of fiction including: 3001: The Final Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke, The television series Alias, and other video games and movies.

Most notably the television show Stargate SG-1 and the spin-off, Stargate Atlantis also makes references to zero-point energy in the form of Zero Point Modules or ZPMs. These ZPMs extract energy from small artificially-created subspaces are used to power the technology of the Ancients, such as the energy shield which protects the city of Atlantis and powering the Stargate with sufficient power to allow travel to the Pegasus Galaxy. The Ancients also attempted to extract zero-point energy directly from their own universe in Project Arcturus.

Here are the best shots i could find of the Stargate ZPM stained glass thing.

A television series called ZERO.POINT is currently in development that centers on the machinations of a quantum physicist searching for zero-point energy technology and a drifter who wanders in perfect synchronicity.