Slashdot Mirror
An Intelligent Speed Bump Uses Non-Newtonian Liquid (businessinsider.com)
turkeydance quotes Business Insider: A Spanish company has designed a speed bump that won't hinder slow drivers but will still stop motorists driving too fast. The speed bump is filled with a non-Newtonian liquid which changes viscosity when pressure is applied at high velocity. They've been installed in Villanueva de Tapia, Spain and there has also been interest from Israel and Germany.
There's a video on the site showing the speed bump in action.
There's a video on the site showing the speed bump in action.
I bet these speed bumps are easier to remove than standard ones. So good.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Can we stop saying that things like this speed bump possess intelligence? Just because the pressure causes it to change viscosity, so it behaves differently for high speed vehicles, does not make it intelligent. It does not possess intelligence. And based on this headline, I am convinced that Slashdot editors don't possess intelligence, either.
In what sense is this quantum?
Kudos to the guys who came up with this. Like all great ideas, once explained everybody can grasp it.
It's going to cost too much and not be durable enough. Regular speed bumps are extremely cheap and made of asphalt; slightly fancier ones are cheap and made of rubber and metal.
Also, if it doesn't hinder slow drivers, the people installing them won't be satisfied. Speed bumps are a tool installed by hateful people to make driving suck more; reducing the suck defeats the purpose.
It's patented by some spanish company, so you won't be seeing installations in the US any time soon. ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I have yet to see a "non-Newtonian liquid" that like freezing.
niche vapor ware
this has maybe one real world application inside a parking garage with no sunlight
> fluid filled rubber sacs don't stand a chance in in direct sunlight.
> pocket knife or a bit of glass embedded in tire would tear the sacs
> any hadened coating defeats the intended purpose or some solid plate mechanism over it is likely to jam up defeating the purpose
> leaked fluid is likely quite lubrous>> oh shit i tried to turn in this parking garage but my front tires did shit because it had speedbump cum all over it.
wait we now have to sue the building manager cause he put road boners all over the place?
I mean, if you have to be travelling at relativistic speeds, what is the point in that?
Add to it studded winter tires.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
so it will never be accepted. I live in Seattle, and a couple of car repair places have tremendous political power so they get horrific obstructions made to damage carts installed on our roads. I've always wanted a Corvette, but even my Subaru has frontend bumper damage from speed bumps on my street. The rims are warped and impossible to balance because they were damaged by speed bumps near where I used to work. That's fine since with traffic, I got months without going faster than about 35 MPH. My muffler is hanging low from being beaten by speed bumps. It's hanging with a crappy wire hanger I wrapped around it. I got tired of paying money in repairs.
Nope. This will never fly since it doesn't damage cars.
This has nothing to do with relativity. The precise term is a non-Newtonian fluid (because a fluid doesn't necessarily have to be a liquid; there is such a thing as a non-newtonian gas), but we're splitting hairs on that one. The term refers to a fluid that doesn't follow Newton's Law of Viscosity. This isn't about relativity, just about Newton's Law of Viscosity.
These liquid-state speed bumps will never survive real world conditions. Solid-state ones, since well designed, work just as well. They need to be sufficiently long (> 1.5 m) and have a sinusoidal shape.
But looks like they're hard as hell to build and made of solid gold, because they're f*king hard to find.
How long will it take for just one disgruntled driver drain that sucker?
Soft to the touch but can stop a bullet?
But it might be street smart.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
This idea was on halfbakery back in 2001,
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Custard-Filled_20Speed_20Bumps
As the saying goes - speed bumps are no problem if you take them fast. Like "washboard" roads this is really true, a car's dynamic suspension can even out the double bump if you moving fast enough.
But speed dips are another story entirely. Mostly these aren't really put in for speed control, usually it is for surface drainage, but they work really well to make people slow down. A memorable occasion I recall in one such town was a caddy that went into the dip excessively fast, and the front of the car pitched forward and hit the macadam with a shower of sparks, then rocked backed and the rear did the same thing, then the car rocked forward and hit the pavement again, with another spark shower. I doubt the driver did this again.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Whooosh, I think.
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
Cornstarch and water?
Cab drivers NEVER slow down for speed bumps. The cab shocks are destroyed within the first few weeks on a new cab. The cab still rides great, even better than before. When you go full speed over a speed bump with a broken in cab, you can't even feel the bump. Time is money to a cab driver. I know, I drove one in Las Vegas.
So those security cameras will start getting a work out. I'm sure the mischief charges, destruction of property and vandalism will make you much more employable.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
So I read the article and have a basic understanding of the technology. I can see how "reversible" applies at the low level, but it is a poor choice for a description of this process. Adiabatic computing might be better, but people who have never taken thermodynamics probably don't understand that word. I'd suggest something like "No Waste Computing" or "No Heat Computing" might be a better description (neither is strictly true, but the potential waste heat is extremely low, i.e. just saying "low heat" doesn't seem adequate). My descriptions are not necessarily a better description in terms on understanding what is going on, but a description of what the benefit of the process is, which I think is more appropriate in this case.
That joke flew over him at light-speed I think.
I saw a something from the 1920s where kids had this exact idea at a high school science fair. Probably wasn't a new idea then either.
How adjustable is the fluid/goo inside these?
The most annoying this I find about speed bumps is that you can't drive over them comfortably at the ADVERTISED SPEED LIMIT. These things are supposed to be used to discourage speeding, which means driving ABOVE the advertised limit, but that's never that case.
So can these be adjusted so that driving over them at 50km/h in a 50km/h zone will be a smooth ride, but when driving at 60km/h it'll harden?
Because fuck you if you didn't slow down before going through their town.
And the question all emergency service personell want the answer to is: how does it get out of the way of my damn emergency vehicle?
The public just do not understand what speed bumps mean when you're trying to get a fire truck to an incident, or transport an emergency spinal case. I've been there. It sucks.
Found the same video on youtube from 2010.... had no idea /. was going this far back for "current news"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fng6gCjl58
And boiyoryoryoring cars go flying sky high.
... it is still a liquid. Which means if you poke a hole in it, the liquid will leak out.
Can't see these surviving too long under anything but the most controlled conditions.
Instead of a bump, it would open a portal and send the speeder to Unknown Kadath.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
We need a solution that will let emergency vehicles on alert pass at high speeds while slowing other forms of fast traffic.
Speed bumps kill dozens every year in avoidable deaths by delaying emergency services.
Speed-bumps-as-a-solution need to be binned
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
The video says speed bumps hinders even slow drivers, but it's only partially true. Speed bumps are made to make you slow down and work with your car's suspension, but many people stop just before going over it. If you're going too fast, your suspension will reach it's limit and it'll be a rough ride, same if you don't go fast enough and your suspension doesn't give at all. If you're going at the right speed, the suspension makes it almost smooth. Speed bumps neat pedestrian crossings could be replaces by those though.
The whole point of speed bumps are to promote safety, ostensibly by forcing drivers to slow down, but in reality all they do is reduce safety by creating large numbers of speed changes which wastes energy and harms the environment as cars have to brake and accelerate, accelerates wear in car suspension causing them to fail earlier, and just increases the chance of an accident in busier locations as some cars slow down and some don't, causing tailgating and traffic jam pulses to pass back through traffic.
If you want cars to slow down, you need to engineer the road design to encourage people to slow down; Sticking speed humps on a wide road is not going to make people want to slow down. Narrowing the road (e.g. by adding parking bays or cycle lanes), making the road less straight, and adding road side features like increased street-light density so drivers feel they are moving faster, are far more effective and safer.