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From: minsky@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: anti-gravity?
Message-ID: <1991Jun18.225759.23654@news.media.mit.edu>
Date: 18 Jun 91 22:57:59 GMT
References: <1991Jun18.004625.156@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil>
Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: MIT AI Laboratory
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In article <1991Jun18.004625.156@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil> bkottmann@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil (Brett Kottmann) writes:
>
>	A researcher in Scotland has developed a device that harnesses
>gyroscopic energy to lift a device against gravity--antigravity...
>
>	In demonstrations, the apparatus lifts against gravity (it is balanced
>beforehand with an equal weight via balance arm).

Well, this is good for a contest.  Balances are easy because one can
make the required lift arbitrarily small.  So you can use

   a surreptitious airflow
   how 'bout running current through an electromagnet fied along the
balance arm.  this will produce torque in the earth's field.  (Called
a "dipping needle".
   simply putting a few KV of DC between the hardware and the balance
is almot sure to deflect the beam one way or the other, unless the
environment is symmetrical.