From: eckland@cs.unc.edu (Eric Eckland)
Subject: dam(xor)catalyst
Date: 27 Aug 91 19:31:09 GMT



                             dam(xor)catalysts


Consider what would happen at a hockey match if a very wide ramp was
placed in the center of the arena.  The ramp slopes upward and ends
with a 3 foot vertical drop off.  The vertical backside faces the east
goal and the slope is on the west side.  The ramp's width extends north-south,
dividing the arena into two equal areas, east and west.

Given this situation, a player in the east cannot easily hit pucks to the west,
they will rebound off the back of the ramp.  But, a west side player can
hit pucks up the ramp and over it.  The momentum a puck loses going up the ramp
is regained when it lands.  The only function of the ramp is to guarantee
one way nonreturn flights to its backside.   Note that one could easily substitute
the pucks with the number of players that can skate up and over
the ramp to either side. 

Every time I look at my neighbor's skate board
ramp I wonder if I could leap over its back wall.   Not being able to
jump very well, I settle for going around it and walking up.  The inert ramp
is a dam from one side and a handicap aid from the other side.  The ramp acts
to translate my horizontal motions to the vertical.   

Unlike pucks, atoms bounce and handicaping them to move only in a two dimensional
plane produces lost energy.   Damping of vertical bounce with an inelastic surface
must prevent bouncing over the dam.  Moreover, consider that the restriction
to 2-dimensions must occur on both sides of the ramp.  Regardless of what side a
player enters the arena from, they are immediately handicapped by their
skates and gravity, but this does not prevent them from playing.
Hence, 2-dimensional confinement may not be sufficient to invalidate
migrations in the arena.  If the energy loss results in sticking, then
"Teflon engineering" is critical.  Perhaps, weak interactions or magnetic
forces could prevent sticking.  The surface need not be cold if ions do not
have direct contact with it, otherwise large ions or buckyballs might resist
surface heat and granularity and flow freely without much bounce. 

Overall, one might hookup two vessels of ionized gas to an "arena".  An electric
counterpart to gravity would cause the ions entering from side ports to
strictly flow 2-dimensionally along the arena's floor.

Sufficient width of the arena must be provided to allow dampening of initial
bouncing at both ports.   Keeping the arrangement of the ports, and both vessels
symmetric would balance out electric potential differences incurred between the arena
and each vessel.  A suitable ramp must be manufactured or utilized.  Bouncing and
sticking must be engineered to not occur significantly.

When a dam(xor)ramp functions as a nonreturn (dammed) passage
from one vessel to the other, then as the number of molecules in each vessel
change (temperature and volume are constant), the vessels' pressures change.
Engines can operate on a differential.

If you see this as being impossible, just be careful. 
Consider the fact that 3-dimensional chaos theories no longer can use the
textbook example of high pressure restriction for the manufacture of diamonds.
Careful organization of structures and catalytic assistance is the keystone
to any spontaneous result.  

Eric Eckland
13 Frances St.
Chapel Hill N.C. 27514