They're starting to lose me.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
—#3 of Arthur C. Clark's Three Laws
—#3 of Arthur C. Clark's Three Laws
From ScienceDirect:
Date:October 19, 2020
Source:University of Rochester
In order to make a car run, a car's engine burns gasoline and converts the energy from the heat of the combusting gasoline into mechanical work. In the process, however, energy is wasted; a typical car only converts around 25 percent of the energy in gasoline into useful energy to make it run.
Engines that run with 100 percent efficiency are still more science fiction than science fact, but new research from the University of Rochester may bring scientists one step closer to demonstrating an ideal transfer of energy within a system.
Andrew Jordan, a professor of physics at Rochester, was recently awarded a three-year, $1 million grant from the Templeton Foundation to research quantum measurement engines -- engines that use the principles of quantum mechanics to run with 100 percent efficiency. The research, to be carried out with co-principal investigators in France and at Washington University St. Louis, could answer important questions about the laws of thermodynamics in quantum systems and contribute to technologies such as more efficient engines and quantum computers.
"The grant deals with several Big Questions about our natural world," Jordan says.
PHYSICS AT A SMALL LEVEL
The researchers have previously described the concept of quantum measurement engines, but the theory has never been demonstrated experimentally.
In the microscopic quantum world, particles exhibit unique properties that do not align with the classical laws of physics as we know them. Jordan and his colleagues will use superconducting circuits to design experiments that can be carried out within a realistic quantum system. Through these experiments, the researchers will study how the laws of energy, work, power, efficiency, heat, and entropy function at the quantum level. These concepts are currently poorly understood in quantum mechanics.
MICROSCOPIC POWER TASKS
Quantum measurement engines may work in microscopic environments for very small power tasks such as moving around an atom or charging a miniaturized circuit. In these capacities, they may be important components for quantum computers....
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I think I'll just hang out with my fellow easily amused primates and not think about entanglement as fuel:
