Quantum flywheel could be fashioned from super-sized charged atoms

Two charged atoms could be used to build a quantum engine and store the energy it produces in a quantum version of a flywheel.

Engines are designed to generate mechanical energy, or “work”. But they only do so in bursts, which makes it challenging to use them for constant motion, like spinning a car’s wheels. An engine’s output can be smoothed by adding a flywheel, a device that has enough inertia to spin at a near-constant rate, allowing it to pass along its …