Explanation

Resonant cavity thrusters such as the EMDrive and the Cannae drive have been in the popular media the past few years. The designs all share some similarities: a magnetron that pumps microwaves into a cavity in some sort of blunted shape. This supposedly produces an anomalous thrust (violating conservation of momentum), typically explained by some handwavey process involving "quantum".

In the paper "Testing quantized inertia on the emdrive", ME McCulloch proposes that this thrust can be explained by quantized inertia. McCulloch also provides a formula for force calculation that, when compared with experimental results so far, is correct within an order of magnitude.

This calculator uses McCulloch's formula to provide a calculator for resonant cavity drives, along with the table of experimental data from that paper for reference.

Disclaimers

• For entertainment purposes only. Not to be used for mission-critical calculations.
• Microwave radiation can be dangerous. Use caution when working with magnetrons.
• Breaking the laws of physics probably isn't a good idea, either.

Inputs

Power: Watt kW MW GW

Q:

Length: mm cm m

Big end: mm cm m

Small end: mm cm m

Calculate

Result

Force:

Reference

Reference table from McCulloch, table 1.