No, no, no. Silly. It comes from the sky.
See?
Posted on 07/18/2006 12:05:31 PM PDT by LouAvul
If you're fed up with paying high gas prices, Hybrid Technologies says it has a solution for you.
The company is out with an "electric smart car" that runs on a lithium battery.
The company's co-founder, Richard Griffiths, pointed out to The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler Tuesday that that's the same type of battery you'll find in cell phones, PDAs, computers, "pretty much anything we use now that's a portable electronic device."
Griffiths showed Syler how you simply plug the car in, literally, to a conventional 110 volt outlet.
"If you completely drain the battery," Griffiths said to Syler, "it's like your cell phone, if you drain the battery, a full charge is five to six hours. Normally, people won't drain the entire battery, so maybe one to two hours at night. Basically, it's like, 'Honey, did you take out the garbage and plug in the car?' It's kind of a new way of thinking. It's a plug-in hybrid. It uses absolutely no gas.
"On a single charge, you can go up to 120 miles and, depending how you drive, 150 miles."
"It's very, very small, though," Syler observed. "I am thinking safety. How does it crash test?"
"It has a three-star crash test rating," Griffiths responded, "and it has air bag systems, five air bags, three in the front. It's like a walnut. It's actually a very safe car. This is a city commuter car, so it's not a car that you'll necessarily be driving on the highway every day. So we're not looking at high speeds, necessarily."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
yeah, you gotta pay attention enough for BOTH of you. I have had cars try to share lanes with me LOTS of times. It get's were it's kinda fun. Especially when you are prepared for it.
Sorry, but they forgot to mention the sail and the footholes for the Flintstone Shuffle. :>)
I loaded sixteen tons and what do I get
Another day older and deeper in debt.
Saint Peter don't call me cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store...er, um, electric outlet.
:)
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/sixteen2.html#
Doesn't work. Each turbine is lower than the one before it. So every turbine that gets spun also represents more distance you have to pump the water back up.
Assuming a 100% efficient water lifting system, call the amount of energy it takes to raise one kilogram of water by 1 meter, E(1). That is also the maximum amount of energy that could be extracted by letting the same water fall back down that 1 meter. The reason they are the same is that potential gravitational energy stored in the kilogram of water as a result of raising it one meter is the amount of energy released when you let it fall.
Now, start with that water above a single turbine (and say each of your turbines only needs to have the water fall 1 meter to run the turbine). The turbine cannot produce E(1) of energy because the turbine is not 100% efficient. But to transport the water back up takes the full E(1) of energy (actually, it takes more as real pumps aren't 100% efficient). You lose net power every time you pump the water back uphill.
Ganging the turbines together doesn't help. Each turbine uses up the potential energy in the water that passes thru it that is represented by raising the water the height of the turbine. That is, the only turbines that can use the water already used by another turbine are below that other turbine.
It's not perpetual motion because you do have to use energy to run the pump.
It is if the total energy to run the pumps (regardless of source) is less than the total energy generated by the turbines.
It's a lot like Zimara's self-blowing windmill (designed in 1518) that ran a set of bellows. The bellows then blew the windmill sails round.
Do you have a url for this magical system? It sounds like it needs a boost from Teddy Kennedy's magic reality altering wand :)
"That could be accomodated. Plug the car in, swipe your employee ID card and the power comes on....metered. The kilowatt-hr charge appears as a deduction on your paycheck."
Heh, heh. That takes away the whole advantage. ;)
Lithium batteries have been getting news about catching on fire. There's supposed to be two new types of lighter weight lead acid battery technologies. Why aren't they on the market yet?
Environut answer:
[But, but, but what about the salmon and other fish, what about them? -- whiny enviro type]
And of course the environazis are working to remove all hydropower, especially on small dams in the NE, which were originally constructed for the mills and usually in areas of natural dams.
The mutual attraction between masses won't cost you anything, but you still have to separate them to harness the energy. That isn't free. Just climb the stairwell of a 100 story building and ask if you feel tired. You've just converted food energy into gravitational potential.
"There's supposed to be two new types of lighter weight lead acid battery technologies. Why aren't they on the market yet?
"
Some of them are. But them durned bass fishermen is buyen 'em all up to run they trollin' moters.
Seriously, go to a boat place and have a look at the new generation of deep cycle batteries. Lighter, by far, than the old ones and better, too.
Although many environmentalists may think electricity comes from magic, the people pulling their puppet strings know differently. Electric cars means more control over the populace -- "Sorry, today is a brownout day. Only emergency vehicles are allowed to drive. Be prepared to show your papers..."
"Think of it this way. Is one turbine enough to pump it back up? Two? Three? Eventually you hit a break even point and then any added after that is profit.
Unless there's a problem with velocity or something... I've wondered why you can't just keep putting turbines in a river and create endless power."
No, no, no, no, and no.
In order to turn the potential energy of water in a high place into electricity, you must first tap into that potential energy by allowing the water to fall and pick up speed (or you use the "head" of water to create pressure, shooting it out of a nozzle at high speed at a turbine), converting the potential energy into kinetic energy. Turbines (or waterwheels or whatever) then tap into that kinetic energy to produce electric energy, consuming an equal (actually larger, due to inefficiencies) amount of kinetic energy from the water. That kinetic energy that was bled off is no longer available for turbines further downstream. You can have one really big drop with larger energies available, or a series of smaller drops with proportionally smaller energies available. It may be a little more efficient to use several low-head (low pressure) turbines than one high-pressure turbine, but the total amount of power available from a given amount of water falling a given distance is fixed.
Regarding an important step left out.
Perhaps these mines are very deep, so the fall between the multiple generators can utilize the energy of gravity to maximize the energy when it hits the generators. What do you think?
Your setup would be great but where do you get those efficient machines you describe?
"Environut answer:
[But, but, but what about the salmon and other fish, what about them? -- whiny enviro type]"
Fishies? I'll give you fishies! I've never had any problem catching fish in the impoundments for small hydroelectric facilities. In fact, they're great!
Salmon? They're nice, for sure. They're not the only fish, however. Catfish are much better for food production.
Nobody told me I would need my waders/hip-boots today. It rarely gets this deep here.
The energy for a large dam comes from sunlight evaporating water. Clouds rain down precipitation at a higher elevation (gravitational potential). The water flows downhill or down though a water turbine/electric generator facility. It's not perpertual motion. Just a transformation of solar energy.
Yes the law of conservation of energy tells you, even with 100% efficiency the best you could ever get is the water down the hill and back up again, it would not be able to throw any off for any other use...
Of course there is no such thing as a 100% efficient mechanical system either, thanks to another little thing called FRICTION.
So it is impossible to drop water down a hill, convert its energy to power, then use that power to pump all the water back up.
See the earlier explanations. It doesn't matter how deep the mine is or how many or what kind of turbines and generators are involved.
Those gruff/crotchety types do have a strong hold on logic. My favorite crotchety quote is "Well, guess you best be putting some gasoline on those socks...so the ants don't crawl up and get your candy ass."
I am moving toward the crotchety stage and want to do it with excellence.......no fun to be average. Thanks for the quote.
No, no, no. Silly. It comes from the sky.
See?
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