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MIT Researchers Create New Tiny Energy Harvester
RogerRoast writes "Researchers at MIT have designed a device the size of a U.S. quarter that harvests energy from low-frequency vibrations, such as those that might be felt along a pipeline or bridge. The tiny energy harvester — known technically as a microelectromechanical system, or MEMS — picks up a wider range of vibrations than current designs, and is able to generate 100 times the power of devices of similar size."
But I fear that advances in vibrator technology will leave me at even more of a disadvantage.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
MEMS actually refers to any microscopic-scale electromechanical device, such as microscopic motors or other such devices, and not specifically to the device described in TFA.
Actually, predating Tiberium, and I think much closer to what this device actually does..
Frederick Pohl's Heechee saga makes mention of piezoelectric energy generation.. if I recall things right.. which basically operated with the same concept as this device.
My memory of anything more specific is a bit shady. I last read those books nearly 20 years ago.
For the record, they're a little over the head of a 5th grader, but not by as much as you'd think.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Harleys don't need to be fast. They just need to look and sound like Harleys.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
If you equate physical motion with vibration, at it's stripped-down essence, then ostensibly, yes. Especially when swinging your arms while walking, which could be defined as an oscillation of sorts...just at a really, really, low frequency-- 1Hz or less.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Finally, through the use of a hybrid regenerative powertrain, it might be possible to make Harleys as fast as other motorcycles! :-P
Not possible. As part of their campaign against perpetuum mobiles the physics society passed a law that taking energy out of a vibration will also dampen the vibration. In other words: A fixed Harley would neither feel nor sound like a Harley. Which defeats the point of owning a Harley, one might as well buy a decent motorcycle.
Build a better mousetrap and Slashdotters will tell you that mousetraps have already been invented...
While the vibration part is still mostly true (rubber mounts have helped, but at the end of the day, it's a Vtwin, and the nature of them is to be a bit rough, particularly when you don't have balance shafts and such), the leaky part is a bit out of date: The latest Evolution motor and the new Revolution motor (The engine in the VRod, which is a radical departure from HD's Revolution) are, by all accounts, fairly good mills.