Is it possible to create an inexhaustible energy source?

You can't meaningfully refer to an infinite energy source as 'burning' anything. If you want, you can have inexhaustible space rock power plants; just don't say that it's magic coal that can't be burned away by anything less than the heat of the sun, because that's going to yank anyone with any understanding of chemistry right out of suspension of disbelief.

... Knight and Day was about a battery that never ran out of energy. It was never explained except for "science" by a "really smart mentally handicapped dude". Just say it does whatever it needs to do, and not explain everything. Maybe you would go mad from the revelation, and thats why you can't explain it.

Well the purpose of the rocks was yeah, it's valued for its ability to keep trains and engines active non-stop, but at the same time only two trains have it, both which become mecha.

Steampunk mecha trains?

Dude.

Your avatar is perfect for post.

Well, not Steampunk. More like Cattle Punk (set in Wild West). Main character pilots a delivery train business handed down by his father while the secondary mecha is piloted by a Chinese immigrant and requires his stagecoach (with robotic horses disguised as real horses) to connect to his train, with the coach acting like a cockpit.

edited 26th Apr '12 12:04:01 PM by Ookamikun

Well it sounds like the story isn't supposed to be hard scifi anyway, so just handwave it as magic and call it a day.

Meteorite it is then.

Do plasma from solar winds and polar winds count as inexhaustible?

As already mentioned, fusion reactors are functionally infinite because of the sheer amount of hydrogen that exist in the universe.

If you want a more exotic type of energy production how about the GN Drives from MobileSuitGundam00. Aside from the space magic of the MinovskyPhysics offshoot, those reactors are based on baryonic decay or more precisely proton decay. The process is similar to nuclear fission just with subatomic particles. Because hydrogen is basically everywhere, it gives those reactors a semi-perpetual operation time.

Here is a link to someone, who tried to ground this into real physics: http://z11.invisionfree.com/gundam00/index.php?showtopic=699

If you want really weird stuff, why not use time crystals that were theorised a few years ago and maybe created last year. Time crystals rest still in space, but move in time and therefore generate tiny amounts of energy even though this should be impossible in ground state (zero-point-energy).

edited 15th Feb '17 10:42:13 AM by FictionAddiction

Okay, but is it possible to mine for plasma from the two aforementioned sources?

Well, plasma is, if I remember it correctly, just the gas of a material (in most cases hydrogen or helium) ionised to such a extreme degree that the electrons are completely separated from the protons and neutrons in the nucleus. This process can be accomplished by heating the gas to extreme temperatures or subject the gas to the force of an exceptionally strong electromagnetic field. Both of these methods can be utilised with current technology and electricity from an energy source.

In the case of baryonic decay, the energy produced comes out in the form of gamma rays. According to the link the radiation can be used to create electricity with solar panels that used the full spectrum of light and therefore also gamma rays. This is actually not a scientific fantasy. Many scientists in real life are working on such projects to create full spectrum solar panels.

In the case of time crystals, I have no clue myself. It is just a concept I have read about.

I imagine, if scientist could take advantage of the motion in time to build a device that can convert said motion into a viable energy format and increased the energy yield of the motion in time, we could create something akin to perpetual motion reactor, if the movement in time is functionally eternal.

If the converter creates electricity you have a something like a hydroelectric dam that replaces the stream of water with the flow of time. If the converter creates heat you have something like a time furnace. If the converter creates light just use some futuristic solar panels. I think these are some nice ideas.

edited 16th Feb '17 1:34:29 PM by FictionAddiction

Would zero-point energy count as inexhaustible?

It depends on the context ergo what are we talking about.

The Zero-Point-Energy (ZPE) is the energy of the ground state, which means the lowest possible state of energy of any system. If we are talking about matter it is something like its potential energy in resting state.

What you are probably talking about is the ZPE of quantum vacuum. This vacuum consists of no particles (Note: it is not equal to nothing in the philosophical sense), but it still has according to quantum mechanics the characteristic of a wavelength, which could be utilised for energy production.

It is still a very fantastical concept and like the time crystals, you have to increase the energy yield. I mean increasing the energy of vacuum sounds like Magic from Technology or even flat out magic. Technically, yes, the ZPE is inexhaustible, but not very practical in the sense that it is very unlikely to be possible.

I am no physicist, just a sci-fi nerd, so take my words with a grain of salt.

edited 16th Feb '17 1:29:55 PM by FictionAddiction

Isn't zero-point energy impossible to harvest by definition?

Not by definition.

Zero-Point-Energy is not absolute zero energy, it is the lowest possible state of energy. The weird thing is that, because of fluctuations in quantum mechanics, even vacuum has an energy level and even at absolute zero there is kinetic movement. This is all caused by the wave-particle duality nature of any matter.

But I stress this again, it is still a very fantastical source of energy that is definitely in the realms of Clarke's Third Law. This is a technology that only makes sense in some sci-fi settings with FTL and such.

Take my words with a grain of salt because I am not a physicist.

edited 17th Feb '17 8:35:37 AM by FictionAddiction

...so it cannot be harvested, because doing that would put the system in a lower state of energy, which by definition does not exist. Right?

Actually it can be harvested. Any form of energy (movement, heat, etc.) can be converted into another form of energy, for example electricity.

Zero-Point-Energy (of vacuum actually) is already the absolute lowest state of energy, you can not go further. The mind-boggling part of ZPE is that theoretically the absolute zero of anything should not allow any energy in any form such as motion to exist, yet the Casimir Effect proves that even quantum vacuum has an energy level.

So you could theoretically draw energy from quantum vacuum because of Zero-Point-Energy exist and this concept of sucking energy from nothing makes it technically inexhaustible. I think a few governments are endorsing scientists in researching it.

I recall that in one of the new X-Files episodes, Mulder and Scully encountered a spacecraft powered by zero point energy (that was the term that was used by the human builders) , which they didn't elect to define beyond "free energy." This, of course, was using it within the confines of fiction, where the theoretically possible is, of course, entirely possible.

Considering we still don't what what over 95% of the universe is made of, I'd not worry too much about adhering completely to the laws of physics as we currently know them with our limited understanding of the universe. Heck, you could make it so that there's some special space rock that does something similar to nitrogen fixation, except it takes in energy lost to entropy and stores it in itself.

Except there's something called the correspondence principle. Any new theory must give the same answers as the theory it replaces everywhere the old theory has been confirmed by experiment.

For example, there's no significant difference between newtonian mechanics and special relativity as long as the velocities involved are much smaller than c. However, Newton's theory of gravitation could not explain Mercury's orbit, but general relativity can.

So, getting rid of entropy while remaining consistent with everything we know about energy and heat? Good luck.

I like madoka magica's approach to dealing with entropy. Mild world spoilers: Aliens have machines that convert emotion to energy. Emotions are basically limitless, therefore they surpass the entropy of the entire universe. They enslave teenage girls since their emotions fluctuate the most among humans

edited 24th Feb '17 6:20:24 PM by LambentSoul

Emotions are not physical, so that's still making energy from nothing.

How about a plane of unlimited energy? The manga Dimension W deals with society if businesses had the potential to access a dimension of limitless energy and extract it.

Or maybe guilty gear, which touches upon a dimension called "The Backyard." That dimension contains the programming for their world, so it contains limitless energy. Hypothetically if you alter the variables of the notepad++ dimension, you could create limitless anything in the real world.

Psychic energy could be a thing, no? And in a lot of settings, psionics and mind powers are affected by emotions, and since psychic power can act directly on the world, that would be making energy from emotions.