Subject: semi-perpetual motion

From: J Eyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 18:01:31 GMT

>Marge Wood asks:
> > why couldn't the wind rushing past the vehicle
> > be funneled into something with a blade hooked to a battery?

Tom Gray Responds:
>Although it is not intuitively obvious, Marge, this is a perpetual
>motion thing.  You can't capture enough energy to make up for the
>additional drag on the vehicle that whatever structure you design to
>extract the energy creates.

Nice response Tom.  If it of interest, I had many opportunities to
respond to many such inquiries as a researcher at a large un-named gas
and electric utility in Northern California.  Among my favorites were
the folks that wanted to use the Coriolis force to generate electric
power with a long tube between the equator and the Arctic; no sh&*!
More akin to Marge's question, many wonder why we cannot place
hydroelectric turbines at the outlet of irrigation pipes.
Interestingly, it IS economic to generate electric power using an
("expansion") turbine at the outlet of high pressure natural gas pipes
at power generation plants.  Keep up the good wonderin' Marge--there's
no such thing as a dumb question!

Jim; (The young curmudgeon)

                    EEEE   IIII CONSULTING
    Jim Eyer        EE  A   II
                    EEE  N  II
[email-masked]  EE    D II   Energy &
                    EEEEE  IIII Information

                E-mailOffice by MICROEX, 800-MICROEX
semi-perpetual motion                                                        R