An Earth saving idea. Will it work?
by Robert Hartley · in General Discussion · 02/04/2011 (3:18 am) · 6 replies
Hey guys first of all I'm not sure if this is where this post belongs.
The reason i'm posting this on the GG forums is because i needed the smartest bunch of people i know and well here i am.
As I'm sure you've been told the polar ice caps are melting etc etc etc... if you ask me its been happening since the ice age and will happen till it starts to get colder.
But if we are killing our planet with our carbon emissions than we need a renewable energy source that is permanent, not like solar hydro and wind which though renewable, can stop.
So here's my idea (it came to me the day before a grade 8 science lesson,
the date it came to me was 16/07/2010)
I thought to my self what been happening for a long as humans have recorded? That big sphere of rock we call the moon has been spinning around us.
So i figured that if the moon has been orbiting the Earth for so long why cant we make something similar that allows us to harness the energy it creates?
It works like this:
The larger sphere (scale to the earth) has a smaller sphere (scale to the moon) rotating around it they are attached to one another via two arms that run off the top of a shaft that is pierced through the center of the lager sphere. As the smaller sphere rotates around the lager sphere due to gravity it turns the shaft which rotates in a chamber of conductive wire, as per usual, thus generating electricity. As you may have gathered it needs to me in space...
Don't know if it will work but it sound as thou it may work. Just need to know what you guys think and if you to believe it could work how do i take my idea further?
Thanks,
Robert Hartley
Sorry about the triple post.
The reason i'm posting this on the GG forums is because i needed the smartest bunch of people i know and well here i am.
As I'm sure you've been told the polar ice caps are melting etc etc etc... if you ask me its been happening since the ice age and will happen till it starts to get colder.
But if we are killing our planet with our carbon emissions than we need a renewable energy source that is permanent, not like solar hydro and wind which though renewable, can stop.
So here's my idea (it came to me the day before a grade 8 science lesson,
the date it came to me was 16/07/2010)
I thought to my self what been happening for a long as humans have recorded? That big sphere of rock we call the moon has been spinning around us.
So i figured that if the moon has been orbiting the Earth for so long why cant we make something similar that allows us to harness the energy it creates?
It works like this:
The larger sphere (scale to the earth) has a smaller sphere (scale to the moon) rotating around it they are attached to one another via two arms that run off the top of a shaft that is pierced through the center of the lager sphere. As the smaller sphere rotates around the lager sphere due to gravity it turns the shaft which rotates in a chamber of conductive wire, as per usual, thus generating electricity. As you may have gathered it needs to me in space...
Don't know if it will work but it sound as thou it may work. Just need to know what you guys think and if you to believe it could work how do i take my idea further?
Thanks,
Robert Hartley
Sorry about the triple post.
About the author
#2
Perpetual motion doesn't really exist, but a company in I think New Jersey is using vacuum-chambers with fly wheels to store energy as kinetic energy. In this way, power companies don't have to waste energy that isn't used- it gets stored into these cannisters that have tens of thousands of RPM and take very little to keep spinning once they are up to speed. When the energy is needed, they tap it in the same way as regenerative braking on car brakes.
I think where we're going to get energy out of the environment is via solar, wind, and tidal, and simply figuring out cheaper materials to harvest it and in form factors that are more convenient (there is a solar-panel-based road currently about to enter testing, as well as speed bumps that generate large amounts of energy).
And if that all fails- there's still that alcohol ;)
02/05/2011 (3:14 pm)
Quote:And what you are describing is what some fringe scientists are trying to do with magnet motors. The problem is the perennial one faced by all "perpetual motion" devices... trying to get more energy out of the system than you put into it to get everything running in the first place.
Perpetual motion doesn't really exist, but a company in I think New Jersey is using vacuum-chambers with fly wheels to store energy as kinetic energy. In this way, power companies don't have to waste energy that isn't used- it gets stored into these cannisters that have tens of thousands of RPM and take very little to keep spinning once they are up to speed. When the energy is needed, they tap it in the same way as regenerative braking on car brakes.
I think where we're going to get energy out of the environment is via solar, wind, and tidal, and simply figuring out cheaper materials to harvest it and in form factors that are more convenient (there is a solar-panel-based road currently about to enter testing, as well as speed bumps that generate large amounts of energy).
And if that all fails- there's still that alcohol ;)
#3
The future really is about harnessing more of our natural resources and developing tech that is more energy efficient as we can't just keep continuing to drain the planet of its energy at the rate of growth that's been seen this last 20 years.
02/06/2011 (12:23 am)
As the other guys have said there isn't such a thing as perpetual motion you can only really convert it from one format to another.The future really is about harnessing more of our natural resources and developing tech that is more energy efficient as we can't just keep continuing to drain the planet of its energy at the rate of growth that's been seen this last 20 years.
#5
Also, gravity doesn't create orbital motion - it stops the orbiting object from flying away. The moon, and any other orbiting body (the Earth, the Sun even) are in a permanent state of falling towards the body they orbit, but have the precise velocity so that they never strike it.
Interestingly though, we do already use the moon for power - via the tides it creates.
(...Now I'm worried that excessive use of tidal generators will eventually bring the moon crashing down on our heads :P.)
(Also, I'd like to go on record saying that solar energy is the best source of renewable energy and once we've commercialised space, solar energy will be THE energy. The amount of radiation that strikes Earth's surface every second is simply staggering. Of course, capturing it is another matter.)
EDIT:
Gravity is just a sketchy area in general, especially since we're still not entirely sure how it works :P. It does seem like a sort of 'free-energy' generator, since gravity always acts - you don't need to power it, it just exists when two masses exist. But the problem with gravity is that it's only energy in potential. Gravity itself doesn't give something energy - it is a force acting upon something. But for a force to create energy, it must act over a distance, and that's the problem with gravity. Because as gravity acts over a distance (pulling something towards the centre of gravity), its force decreases.
If we were to dig a tunnel to the centre of the earth and drop something down it, we could calculate exactly how much energy we'd get out of that - the potential of gravitational attraction would be converted into kinetic energy of the falling object (which is a type of energy we know how to harness).
With orbits, like I said above - gravity doesn't create the circling motion. That's the kinetic energy of the orbiting object. As soon as you attach wires to it to try to get energy off it, you're sapping its kinetic energy. This will cause it to lose that perfect speed required to keep it in orbit.
The constancy of energy is probably the most depressing thing I've learned about the universe :P.
02/06/2011 (10:11 pm)
Just to be a wet blanket: energy cannot be created, nor destroyed. You just move it around. So you'd input energy into such a system in creating it and starting it spinning... and you could only ever recoup that amount of energy out of it. While using something spinning to generate a current seems like a good idea, that process introduces resistance (like a kind of friction) which will eventually slow the rotation down - your 'moon' would stop orbiting.Also, gravity doesn't create orbital motion - it stops the orbiting object from flying away. The moon, and any other orbiting body (the Earth, the Sun even) are in a permanent state of falling towards the body they orbit, but have the precise velocity so that they never strike it.
Quote:Perpetual motion doesn't really existIt does in theory - it's just that theory tends to ignore friction :P. (In saying this, I'm agreeing with you, Ted... just clarifying!) There's pretty much always some form of resistance to motion, wherever you happen to be in the universe.
Interestingly though, we do already use the moon for power - via the tides it creates.
(...Now I'm worried that excessive use of tidal generators will eventually bring the moon crashing down on our heads :P.)
(Also, I'd like to go on record saying that solar energy is the best source of renewable energy and once we've commercialised space, solar energy will be THE energy. The amount of radiation that strikes Earth's surface every second is simply staggering. Of course, capturing it is another matter.)
EDIT:
Gravity is just a sketchy area in general, especially since we're still not entirely sure how it works :P. It does seem like a sort of 'free-energy' generator, since gravity always acts - you don't need to power it, it just exists when two masses exist. But the problem with gravity is that it's only energy in potential. Gravity itself doesn't give something energy - it is a force acting upon something. But for a force to create energy, it must act over a distance, and that's the problem with gravity. Because as gravity acts over a distance (pulling something towards the centre of gravity), its force decreases.
If we were to dig a tunnel to the centre of the earth and drop something down it, we could calculate exactly how much energy we'd get out of that - the potential of gravitational attraction would be converted into kinetic energy of the falling object (which is a type of energy we know how to harness).
With orbits, like I said above - gravity doesn't create the circling motion. That's the kinetic energy of the orbiting object. As soon as you attach wires to it to try to get energy off it, you're sapping its kinetic energy. This will cause it to lose that perfect speed required to keep it in orbit.
The constancy of energy is probably the most depressing thing I've learned about the universe :P.
#6
Wow thats a mind bender thanks for clearing that up.
Thanks for you comments guys.
02/06/2011 (11:11 pm)
Quote:
Also, gravity doesn't create orbital motion - it stops the orbiting object from flying away. The moon, and any other orbiting body (the Earth, the Sun even) are in a permanent state of falling towards the body they orbit, but have the precise velocity so that they never strike it
Wow thats a mind bender thanks for clearing that up.
Thanks for you comments guys.
Torque 3D Owner Gerry "Hermetic" Smith
Alcohol Can Be A Gas
Read the Busting the Ethanol Myths section before jumping in with things like, "But if we do this we won't have anything for food!"
And if it doesn't work... well you've still got the alcohol.
/edit
And what you are describing is what some fringe scientists are trying to do with magnet motors. The problem is the perennial one faced by all "perpetual motion" devices... trying to get more energy out of the system than you put into it to get everything running in the first place. But hey, if you can get someone to fund you... more power to you. ;)