Engineering

as some of you may know, I have a theory of making an electric car where the drivetrain is basically a tire/ring being suspended by magnets. here's a lousy approximation: the central magnets will be the same idea as a regular clothes dryer electric motor, except inside-out and split into four different quarters, each independently controlled. each segment will induce an electric field that will rotate the ring clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on which one is more powerful. now, here's what I think I need: four iron (or something lighter but magnetic) rings, about three inches in diametre, one inch wide and a thickness of 1/4 inch. the scale will change depen…

Imagine this: a car that for each wheel has a round thing a bit larger than drum brakes. inside these things are really strong magnets that basically each control a 6" thick ring the diameter of a regular tire. by use of repulsion-attraction fields the magnets try to centre themselves inside the rings (and pull the car up off the ground) and they rotate the rings (to move the car). this would allow for a very smooth ride, and theoretically the tire rings can be removed and the car can hover on top of a magnetic track if needed. the significant problem would be that a lot of power would be needed to just hover the vehicle, but that could be fixed by using an onboard gener…

Halo everyone. For a while already i am working as a technolog in factory which is producing mostly a synthetic fur. The material we are producing is (80-90)% acrylic and the rest is PES. Anyway we would like to reduce one of our biggest problem and that is plucking out of the fibers from the material which is knitted already. If i remove the physical side from the production, which is the knitting process, than something have to be wrong with the chemistry we are using in the process (the antistatic and the adhesive for thermal finishing of the product). Recently i was thinking of using a some kind of thermoplastic yarn with low melting point beside the standard one, whi…

I recently read this article that terrorists are twice as likely to be engineers by training as anything else. The next closest training is Islamic studies at about half the rate. The writer conjectures that it may be because of lack of employment for engineers but there are lots of unemployed people. In my opinion, it has at least as much to do with the fact that an engineer is more likely to be able to act on a terrorist plan than some other random person. Could there also just be greater numbers of engineers?

IF used at high or low voltage to the conventional logic 0 or 1, we have built the electronic system as at present to process information. It has created a great revolution, opening up a digital era. But in that system, to express an information need very many electrons are passed through in the lines, and electronic components ... If we use the nuclear spin to encode information, an electronic only has also shown an information. So with the transmitted one more electronic transmissions that have a lot of information. speed of information processing and communication system that will extremely fast. What do you think about that ?

I am trying to find out how I can wire a photocell to operate a small motor for a science project. It is part of a rube goldberg. Can anyone help me?

can anybody tell me how to build a way to pass current through salt water at command strong enough to repel sharks? basically the same idea behind the shark shield except homemade and not 500+ dollars haha plus it isnt always effective, and for that I can make my own and not be out anything more any ideas?

In all the news about the Haiti earthquake disaster, very little attention has been paid to the CAUSE which is literally poor architecture, unreinforced concrete. Where else in the world will we see 200,000+ deaths from a 7.0 on the Richtor scale? Are there many 3rd world cities built of unreinforced concrete (the cheapest construction available) and thus ready to pancake the next time there is a large earthquake nearby?

Bibs on, and enjoy :

Hi, I was wondering how practical EAPs would be in the field of robotics? I know these are materials that can change shape when an current is applied to them and act somewhat like muscles, it's a very basic understanding that goes little further than this however. I don't know what kind of stress they can handle and assume currently they're only used in small scale application ( so no joint muscles for moving a 50 foot death machine ) I'm pretty sure the U.S DoD or another organisation similar to this has developed a system called "Dog" to assist squads in combat, this obviously is still in R&D but I don't know if they've incorporated EAP into the system o…

A vertical rocket launch seems to me that wastes most of its initial fuel/thrust as the exhaust is deflected sideways to atmosphere. If such launch could be done from inside a 'barrel' as a bullet in a rifle, its own exhaust gases push would be way, way more efficient. Would it? Do rockets launched from silos need much less fuel to overcome inertia ? Are their combustion gases vented or compressed within the silo until the rocket clears the surface opening ?

Ok so I already posted on the first air treck thread but i dont think anyone ahas been onfor some time. So I'm asking similair questions to those Jon13 asked. Anyways I'm looking for the schematics of motors any type though preferebly ones from vehicles, a car, mtorcycle, etc. even an RC car would be of some use (big imaginations are useful). I was wondering if anyone had any or could point me in the direction of some. If so please post on thread.

I was wondering if nanotechnology, mainly nanorobots, could have some very big potential in the future. Specifically, could they someday, or at least potentially be able to rearrange matter into incredibly strong yet light materials just by breaking up other matter. I know can produce carbon nanotubes and such but I mean actual nanorobots taking apart something and reconstructing something completely new from it. Where would the limits be on such? (not obviously limitless, but pretty close)

Hi. Surprised by the efforts to make a car run from a wind turbine. I know it can run, in any wind direction, but how much effort can the university of Stuttgard be putting on such limited contraption ? As an experiment, it's fine. Unsure if will show from this link; I had difficulty locating the program, and may correspond to another link next days : http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,,3062,00.html Aired 17.02.2010 on "Tomorrow Today" by Deutsche Welle Hit play video on "Get smarter while you sleep" ; it contains the subject.

Howdy Folks, The following is a very weird video. It is showing the impossible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5nae_I_Mus Some folks on the internet are replicating it. Have any of you heard of a motor that uses toroids as stators?

Hi there, My first post here Can compressed air be used to direct a helium balloon? I want to make a device that is highly maneuverable. I was thinking some sort of directional nozzles does something like this exist, or is it impractical? Many thanks, Steve

Anyone know?

I want to build an RC car so I can familiarize myself with the machine shop at my school. The car will be simple and I have everything figured out except the differential. I want to put an electric brushless motor on the rear axle, but I don't think I could just have 1 drive shaft for both rear wheels and gear it up that way. I need to figure out how to make a differential so the outer wheel can rotate faster during turns. I know most RC cars have some system like this but I haven't been able to figure out how it works. Also I can't seem to figure out how to invent one myself so I need some links/ideas. The tools available to me are: precision lathes, 2-axis m…

Is there any way to have a 30cm ⌀ source of intense enough white light beam to reach a couple of hundred miles with the least divergence possible, perhaps up to a mile ⌀ ; by 'cheap' methods/lensing/whatever ? A lighthouse fresnel lensing can neatly reach 20 miles; what would it take to make it 200 ? How do airport beacons work ?

Hi all. How can light from multiple sources be simultaneously directed to a single area/direction ? Is there any unusual -or not- shape of lens/material/coating (cone, dome... ?) that refracts light incoming from any direction and bends/focuses it towards the same spot ? Those "solatubes" installable on roofs gather light from nearly all directions and by its mirrored internal surfaces tube it is 'piped' to a single 'destination' If a chamber had its 4 walls and ceiling covered with light bulbs, what optics contraption could be placed in such chamber so the light hitting the contraption be channelized/ducted/refracted/conveyed to the surface where it stands ?…

How are microthrusters fabricated? Are they made by the same fabrication techniques used to make computer chips?

How our World and our Universe were made is a question in our minds, and it is our concern. One can raise the question of how everything was made. Do we have an answer for this question? How was our universe created, and what is everything made out of? Let us think of all the planets, moons, and stars in our universe. Our Modern Science mentions the Big Bang Theory. It is said that what made our universe were clouds of dust and gas. They say an explosion took place; these materials exploded, got together, stuck together, shaped up as spheres, and made up our universe, as moons, planets, and stars. Could this be true? What is ARCOS Theory? ARCOS Explains what ever…

So, I've been looking at compressed air cars: http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/4251491.html They apparently have zero pollution and low running costs, and seem really really cool! Any idea as to when I can get one? On a more serious note, is the air car a credible alternative to the gasoline cars that are polluting our atmosphere?

What would it take to store all that lack of heat from tons of snow and cold days to be released later in the summer; and all that heat from the summer to be released in the cold of the winter ? Dreaming to eliminate the heating/air conditioning costs on dwellings. A basement or a large room filled with thermal masses ? With some 'magic' material with a huge heat absorption coheficient? Plain rocks ? Scrap metal ingots ? The subsoil, at around 40 feet deep, the temperature is a nearly stable all year to somewhere by 55 F. There is no chambers with thermal insulation walls in there; nature works fine. Injecting some fluid in there? Geothermics works. …

Hello, i was wondering what is the approximate size of a capacitor that would charge to 128vdc aka house power. and what is the electron dissipation rate for such a capacitor. don't really know where to put this so ill try here before moving to physics