Can inertia be used as a force for propulsion?
In: 9
Yeah. A flywheel.
You get a large, heavy wheel spinning and it will keep spinning for ages.
There are losses from friction, but it is a way to mechanically store energy.
One was used for a little while in the ANU in Canberra, Australia to power the particle accelerator. It wasn’t a great idea, as it was used to accelerate sodium, which ended up with debris flying everywhere and blinding a poor lab assistant. The flywheel itself is still on the campus as part of an artwork out the front of a physics building
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