Engineering

Since the parachutes may be too heavy for each seat, why they don't provide each passenger with inflatable balloons? The airbags would be strapped one in the front and one in the back, front pack plus back pack, this wouldn't assure 100% survival of the victims, but at least it can soften the impact on the ground.

say i have 500 cfm flowing thru 2" pipe and i have an adapter to 3" pipe will that change the cfm or velocity or both and what equation(s) would i use to calculate the pipe diameter change?

I was reading an article about space based solar power and it got me thinking how useful wireless power could be for planes. So how plausible do you think the title of this post is? Ground stations connected to the grid along the launch path from the space port transmit wireless power to a microwave rectennas in the wings. I tsucks in air to ionise into plasma for tyhe first stage up to about mach 6 in the upper atmosphere then it switches to its own tanks for reaction mass to propel it to orbit still powered by microwaves from the ground stations. Not needing any fuel in the atmosphere and need no oxidizer and having the high impulse of VASIMR to orbit it should have a h…

We Now From Information Theory That Entropy Of Functions Of A Random Variable X Is Less Than Or Equal To The Entropy Of X. Does It Break The Second Law Of Thermodynamic?

is Burning wood directly or making wood into wood gas more energy efficient ? i made a wood gasifier in home but i read some articles saying syn gas have very low heating value and i'm little bit confused which process can give more heat burning 1 kg air dry wood or making 1 kg wood into wood gas then burn

Hi guys and gals, I play guitar occasionally and sometimes hear a local radio station playing from my amp while I am plugged in. I'm no engineer nor do I have a clue about magnetism off the surface. My question is: what is it about the magnetic pick-up in my guitar that allows it to transmitt radio waves through my speakers? And secondly (2): can it be replicated with an isolated magnetic pick-up with a biological electrical source like a potato or something? Thanks.

Why haven't they made not even see able factory's or machines and to revolutionize us then being able to have small things or the first nanobot that would then duplicate, even one that a little bigger and just use that multiplying jem for now...? ***Anyhow more importantly, indeed, why haven't they made a bigger than wanted nanobot that is still small and can't see, even almost in the wanted size range, but morrrreee bigger so well we can build one for now, and then have it multiply and cure lots of stuff including ageing...And then just have the fisrt little bigger nanobot, by wireless commands, duplicate....?????

I remember reading about a new form of communication where lasers are used in place of radio waves with one of the proposed applications being transmissions between space probes and such. For one it would not be faster. But would it be more accurate? Could it carry more information than radio? Why or why not?

Does solar power get feed back into the grid ? Why does the power co. send you a check ? If if it feeds to your neighbor how does the power meter know which is from you or the power co. ? Help needed to settle argument.....

I was wondering if anyone knew of any obstacles that researchers or scientists ran into when designing machines to manipulate the pressure at the bed of the ocean into energy. I though of a design and then did a search of the internet for any designs similar to see other obstacles that may have been discovered and ran into this site http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Using-Water-Pressure-at-the-Bottom-of-the-Ocean-to-Store-Energy.html which uses the same concept as mine but mine integrates other machinery which already compensates for their issue.

Hi, I am a student looking for a material for a project at school. I am currently studying mechanical engineering so the chemistry and materials aspect is a bit over my head. We're working on a concept to develop a more ergonomic chair and would like to find a material that would be comfortable to sit on. My vision would be a bunch of gel-like spheres that could be electrically stimulated and move around due to a current passed over them. Also maybe create heat as a by product. Basically a comfortable thing to sit on that would be able to vibrate a bit. I've been trying to find stuff online but my limited knowledge of gears and beams isn't helping too much. Any h…

I was wondering about what would happen if an air cushion hovercraft had an air-intake fan that spun at 500,000 RPMs. Would that cause the craft to malfunction, or would it give it more lift and faster acceleration?

Hello everybody! I imagined and prototyped this brake long ago for the deployment mechanisms of a satellite I never built. In essence, it's clean, it can work in vacuum and in a wide temperature range, and it can wait for long without maintenance, so other uses must be possible, like semiconductor, food, optics processing... It compresses a viscoelastic element and lets it roll to brake the relative movement of two parts, so that an alternate deformation results and dissipates energy. My viscoelastic element was a seal ring and the other parts were cylindrical - but feel free to make them flat or elliptic if it brings anything. Two gentle slopes help a lot in…

Hello, Obviously I'm not a science person, but I have a question that one of you geniuses can probably help me with- say you had a container with a thin gooseneck spout (about .5cm diameter) that restricted the pouring flow rate of water out of the container, would the initial amount of water in the container affect the flow rate? if so, what if you were dealing with only 250g or 700g of water in the container, for example- would the flow rate change significantly between these two initial amounts? how much would the flow rate decrease as the volume inside the container decreased? I'd like to know if the time it takes per gram of water to be poured wi…

Did anyone see the recent documentary called "Pandora's Promise"? It is about the history of nuclear power and nuclear disasters. Most of the 1-hour documentary shows in great detail the effects of nuclear disasters at Fukushima, Chernoble, and 3-Mile Island. All of these reactors were inherently unsafe. The FOURTH generation of nuclear power plants are designed to be very safe. In fact they are impossible to melt down, no matter what happens. Does anyone else believe that nuclear power is a great potential for safe, clean energy? See "pandoraspromise.com", since I cannot copy and paste links any longer. Does anyone else have that problem?

In 2008, according to Wiki, over 10% of world power generation was from geothermal. (2008 approx. sources: OIL 34%, COAL 27%, NAT GAS 21%, GEOTHERMAL 10%, NUCLEAR 6%, HYDRO 2%) If you tunnel deep enough under ground, you reach high temperatures. Why not just tunnel deep enough, inject water, and harness the resulting steam? In hot areas, such as near volcanos, you don't need to tunnel very deep to get to hot stuff.

Hi, Why is not nitrogen (a widely abundant element which, so far as I'm aware, is not too costly to extract) used as a fuel in automobiles and power plants? Thanks, pyroglycerine

I want to move manure a considerable distance, 200-1000 miles. A tracker trailer dump truck could hold 42k pounds maybe 17k more with an extra axle in the back. (I can provide lift assist if needed) I want to haul 40 million pounds to ten different locations. The common coal car has volume and mass capacity. It is not awfully soiled by manure or other 'feces'. According to the wikipedia this is how the coal is deposited. I've read stories about trap door bottoms. I am physically moving manure for profit however. The average age of a coal car is ~24 years. What's the outlook on leasing space at the local coal power plant? Anyone ha…

http://www.ansys.com/staticassets/ANSYS/staticassets/resourcelibrary/article/Robust-Race-Car-Design-academic-AA-V8-I1.pdf

Any suggestions for a trowelable product like the foam-in-a-can for sealing gaps, cracks and insulating ? This product, after applied out of the can, cannot be troweled/molested at all until dry, as it collapses to nothing: ---->http://img2-2.timeinc.net/toh/i/a/tools/foam-spray-00.jpg

That autonomous submarine searching for the missing Boeing 777 aircraft in the south Indian sea; tracing a search pattern can steer by its compass/autopilot, and maintain or change headings, read its water-relative speed; but how does it know its position coordinates ? Marine currents can produce a sustantial position deviation specially after several hours spent only in descent/ascent. Or is its position known from external tracking by its mothership sonar linked to time 'stamps' ?

This will become a huge problem, soon or later. ---->[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPJMk2fgJU]

If we use cotton, straw, or sheep's wool to insulate homes, can we use compressed dust? (cheap and easy to collect...)

Alright, I feel stupid for posting this, because I have the distinct feeling this will be shot down in a matter of a few posts. But I was discussing a superconducting project with a friend, and also talking about alternative levitation ideas (namely, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1vyB-O5i6E). She asked me why I didn't combine the two, as this would allow me to theoretically levitate anything with a superconducting electromagnet. From my understanding, superconductors have zero electrical resistance when active. So, a superconducting magnet is able to exhibit a current without any applied voltage. The magnetic field used to levitate the frog was 10 Tesla, but I don't ha…

I think Algae bio diesel is the best alternative than corn,soybean,palm oil ,sugarcane,etc.but it's still in testing