1) The load produced by the alternator is proportional to the power it is generating. Drawing any power from the electrical system will cause an increased load on the engine. There is no "surplus electricity".
2) Splitting water into H2 and O, then recombining them into H20 is a net loss. With the efficiencies involved, you would be much better off driving a small electric motor connected to the drive shaft with your "surplus electricity".
Unfortunately, this is the way it's heading in the US. Many universities in the US are running into problems with patents and IP. Even up here in North Dakota we've had an incident were NDA's had to be signed after a student presented a project he was working on.
Traditionally, the university was used to progress and disseminate knowledge. Now, due to increased administration, budget cuts, etc., all the knowledge is being locked away just in case it might be worth something.
I'm not sure what can be done about it, but it is unfortunate and wrong IMO.
I've been competing in this sport for 5 years now with the NDSU Sunsetters Solar Racing Team. Our car (first place, stock class last year) can do about 25-30mph on solar power alone. We also have batteries on board to get up hills, drive through clouds, etc. We have had it up to about 70mph on the interstate (yes, it is street legal!).
Electric cars can definately move quick, check out NEDRA, the National Electric Drag Race Association.
Also, there's the increasingly popular Tzero from AC Propulsion that has 100+ mile range, 0-60 in 4.1s, and turns the 1/4 mile in 13.2. And it's street legal.
Many highly integrated portable electronics (PDA's, some laptops, etc) actually use this already for full range sound. It gets quite expensive to implement high frequency and high power at the same time, so we don't see much of it yet in the full size appliances. It's coming though. Soon.
It matters a little bit, depending on how long you want to keep your equipment around. The general rule of thumb is that every 10 degrees C above the design temp (25C typically) results in a halving of semiconductor lifespan.
Since he's overclocking, I doubt that he's worried about any sort of lifespan more than a year or so anyway, so it probably doesn't matter much.
I don't know if the parent is funny or insightful... I can definately see this happening - they charge businesses a small fee to use the service and then charge the users a monthly fee to block it.
This seems like some sort of mafia tactic: for $X we'll protect your establishment from harm. Doesn't seem legal to me. Maybe that's just me living in my perfect world.
(browsing on my T40) I agree, the T40 is quite portable and still has lots of features. My only complaint is that it doesn't have a serial port, but does have a parallel port for some reason.
It's impressive the amount of processing power it has, combined with the long battery life (I get about 5 hours, with the wifi on) and it hardly warms my lap at all.
Considering (US numbers) it takes about 776 miles of power line to make an efficient 1/4 wave 60Hz antenna and just 2.5 feet for 100MHz, it is fairly clear that adding high frequency content to the power lines can easily cause significant radiation.
I also have a Samsung - mine survived a full cycle through a washing machine, powered on, with no ill effects. Actually, it has developed a nice fresh smell since then.
The difference here is that they are using concentrator solar cells. Where "normal" panels convert direct sunlight into electricity in the 10-18% efficiency range for terrestrial cells, these convert concentrated light that is many times as intense as direct sunlight. This allows them to be much more efficient.
A quick check at spectrolab's newest concentrator cell shows that they are getting around 37% efficient...not too bad.
So their claim of >50% may be a bit of a stretch...they were likely projecting their claims to what they expect to be available at the time they will ship. The theoritical limit of this type of cell is in the mid 70% range, so it isn't too unreasonable.
Check out North Dakota State, home of North Dakota's premier solar racing team. Racing in the stock class this year, we beat Berkeley (another stock class team) and Stanford (open class).
With a fairly small campus ~10k students, and cheap tuition, it's not too bad. Also, all of the classes are taught by professors instead of grad students, which is a good thing.
I worked stucco for a few years and I've used more Tyvek than I care to speak about. Tyvek is used as a moisture barrier to keep liquid water out, not gasses in. It is actually covered in tiny holes, small enough that the surface tension of water keeps it outside and large enough that gasses can pass, letting the house "breath." The poly vapor barrier on the other hand is what seals new houses up tight and causes all the problems (ever try to light a fire in a new house's fireplace? Sometimes you have to open a door to get some airflow).
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I guess this means we don't get an Angry Dome then.
Are you saying regenerative braking doesn't exist?
1) The load produced by the alternator is proportional to the power it is generating. Drawing any power from the electrical system will cause an increased load on the engine. There is no "surplus electricity".
2) Splitting water into H2 and O, then recombining them into H20 is a net loss. With the efficiencies involved, you would be much better off driving a small electric motor connected to the drive shaft with your "surplus electricity".
That's all. I agree.
Traditionally, the university was used to progress and disseminate knowledge. Now, due to increased administration, budget cuts, etc., all the knowledge is being locked away just in case it might be worth something.
I'm not sure what can be done about it, but it is unfortunate and wrong IMO.
Here's some links:
Our team - Sunsetters
American Solar Challenge - ASC
Formula Sun - formula sun
The other teams - teams
Electric cars can definately move quick, check out NEDRA, the National Electric Drag Race Association. Also, there's the increasingly popular Tzero from AC Propulsion that has 100+ mile range, 0-60 in 4.1s, and turns the 1/4 mile in 13.2. And it's street legal.
Many highly integrated portable electronics (PDA's, some laptops, etc) actually use this already for full range sound. It gets quite expensive to implement high frequency and high power at the same time, so we don't see much of it yet in the full size appliances. It's coming though. Soon.
Since he's overclocking, I doubt that he's worried about any sort of lifespan more than a year or so anyway, so it probably doesn't matter much.
This seems like some sort of mafia tactic: for $X we'll protect your establishment from harm. Doesn't seem legal to me. Maybe that's just me living in my perfect world.
It's impressive the amount of processing power it has, combined with the long battery life (I get about 5 hours, with the wifi on) and it hardly warms my lap at all.
Considering (US numbers) it takes about 776 miles of power line to make an efficient 1/4 wave 60Hz antenna and just 2.5 feet for 100MHz, it is fairly clear that adding high frequency content to the power lines can easily cause significant radiation.
I also have a Samsung - mine survived a full cycle through a washing machine, powered on, with no ill effects. Actually, it has developed a nice fresh smell since then.
A quick check at spectrolab's newest concentrator cell shows that they are getting around 37% efficient...not too bad.
So their claim of >50% may be a bit of a stretch...they were likely projecting their claims to what they expect to be available at the time they will ship. The theoritical limit of this type of cell is in the mid 70% range, so it isn't too unreasonable.
With a fairly small campus ~10k students, and cheap tuition, it's not too bad. Also, all of the classes are taught by professors instead of grad students, which is a good thing.
I worked stucco for a few years and I've used more Tyvek than I care to speak about. Tyvek is used as a moisture barrier to keep liquid water out, not gasses in. It is actually covered in tiny holes, small enough that the surface tension of water keeps it outside and large enough that gasses can pass, letting the house "breath." The poly vapor barrier on the other hand is what seals new houses up tight and causes all the problems (ever try to light a fire in a new house's fireplace? Sometimes you have to open a door to get some airflow).
We've been using wireless, deskless mice in our university computer labs for two years now...they can't be too new.