Engineering

I have a diesel Nissan Vanette that was recently involved in a little ‘accident’ and will probably not pass its inspection next year, the engine however is in good condition. I have this crazy idea that I could take the engine out and couple it with a generator head to make a generator set. I have a feeling this is gong to be a biggish project but I can’t bear to throw out a perfectly good engine. I did some searching and I found that a 30 kW generator set costs around $10,000, but a 30 kW generator head only costs $1,000 - $2,000. So I want to use the engine to make a relatively cheap generator set. My biggest concern is the governor mechanism (voltage regulator)…

from their website... "RED Water Temperature Requires 2 1/16” hole for mounting with back clamp provided. Range is 70-260F. Features ‘Hi” and “Lo” scrolling warning and user adjustable “flashing” warning. Available with high and low memory recall feature. Requires Cyberdyne temperature sender shipped with gauge." I'd like to use this gauge for a project but am unable to use the temperature senders that the company provides. I need to make my own. This will be a low temp water cooling circuit. Would one of the LM34 units described at National's site most likely work OK for this? http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/LM34.html Would the plastic LM34DZ…

I recently enjoyed a demo riding the Segway one-person gyro-controlled conveyance or whatever to call it. It is quite impressive and I enjoyed feeling dumb like a six-year old as I fell off making a backup turn. Clearly it would be useful in some circumstances, with a battery range of more than thirty kilometers, and one can mount two hardshell carrying cases for a moderate amount of groceries. My question: are folks finding these things useful or are they just a "rich man's toy?" Are you Europeans whizzing around towns on them, or even back and forth to towns?

Hi, I have seen a lot of videos of bedini motors, and I always have seen a white plastic where you put the magnets. It seems to be a special plastic. Is a special plastic or it doesn´t matter what kind of plastic do you use?

What's the difference between the three and what are the advantages of each? Thanks! (I just know that this is some dumb question that slipped my mind)

I want to build a homemade wind turbine and I would to know what affects to get more or less watts. The size? The wire resistance? Velocity? The number of coils? It´s supposed that I want to get MORE watts. What do you suggest?

I was looking online for some cheap robotics to play with, and I came across several kits to make robotic arms. For some reason I then remembered that a while back someone made a PS2 controller that uses brainwaves. It only seems logical to me to combine the technologies and creates brain controlled prosthetic limbs. Has this been done? edit: Apparently, this company is working on a way to give some sensory perception back to amputees, but I've not yet seen anything about brain controlled prosthetics.

So I am making a ballista for history class and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or ideas. This needs to be as historically accurate as possible (wood, ropes, ect.) and is about 10' wide at max. Thanks for any help.

Is that possible? And I have a question... when I charge a capacitor... Is possible to use that energy that the capacitor has by using it little by little, or when you discharge a capacitor, the capacitor discharges in the same moment that you use the energy?

Hello i'm sorry if i'm posting this at the wrong forum but i really need help with this particular competition and the deadline is on 31st of March T__T I posted in this forum before regarding my science competition last year and i have received a good feedback resulting me winning my 1st place to NASA in US so i'm really grateful. So now, i decide to join another competition (yeh i'm a very competitive freak -.-) and i hope you guys can help me in this one. The question of the compeition is: How is technology and engineering driving change in a country of your choice? Further information: http://www.independent.co.uk/student/the-independentbosch-technology-horiz…

I have seen on youtube a serial of videos about Revived or Revitalized Batteries., but I don´t know so much about it. Here you have the video Anyone can explain better how works this technology?

Hi, I kind of understand what Environmental Engineering is but not really. Besides being a weather man, what does a meteorology do? What is and what does Air Quality Meteorologists do? What does a Nuclear Engineering do? I understand they use Math in their own way so out of them 3 degrees what has the most Math? I also understand that Penn State has and many of campuses through PA. It's hard to get into main campus I hear. Possibly in 6 months or less (just a guess) might move to Philadelphia, PA. So what is Penn State good for them 3 majors I listed? If a college is out of PA it can NOT at all be about 3 hours or more. If anything possibly like 1…

This has always been a sore subject with me, mostly because I'm torn right down the middle: Which is more important, new technology or patent rights? Many huge companies purchase patents on new technology only because it would hurt their business selling the old technology. They buy the rights only to shelve the ideas, never intending to make it available to the public. I just purchased one of James Dyson's clever bagless vacuum cleaners. According to Dyson's biography, his ideas were turned away by the major manufacturers because it threatened the US$500M vacuum cleaner *bag* market. If the Japanese hadn't loved his wonderfully engineered machine Dyson would…

Hey everyone (hope this is the right area for the post) I notice a lot of people here have experience with patents, and I could really use some advice: I came up with a very simple lawn sprinkler system that I think could be a national best seller. It is very cheap to produce, very simple, and has features that put it in its own category - my partners don't want me to go into many details, but I bet I could sell any company on it. The problem: no idea about patents, marketing patents, or what to do. Plus I am self-employed (ie basically broke). The ideal solution would be a specialized company I could consult with (is that done with a NDA?) at a pre-p…

Hello, I am a student and current member of a College Enviromental club. Well I have just seen the wrek that was once the clubs electric vehicle. It was made to participate in a race with the local high schools. It looks like we may have to rebuild the thing, so I would like to ask for some advice and possilbe academic resouces to help re-design this disapointing tangle pipe and wires.

A US crash test of mid-sized auto vans gave high marks to some Japaneses product. Dismayingly, very low marks went to the Hummer!

Oh man, I finally saw this Modern Marvels where they show what the Greeks were truly capable of. This thing was huge. 65 feet square 130 feet high 180 tons 8 wheels, 3 ft. wide, 12 ft. high, and iron plated Iron plating over 3 entire sides of the structure 3,400 people required to operate it circa 304 BC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helepolis http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/war/Helepolis.htm

Would it be possible to basically make an energy production system for say civil use that runs for a certain period of time with a guaranteed performance utilizing a linear combinations of energy production. For instance the first step might be an extremely low powered one, and each step basically initiates the next until you reach a cyclic point from which constant energy for civil consumption is generated. I know it might make it sound like you need better and better efficiency but that should always be I think a priority anyway in design. I was thinking aggregation of such a system could allow for easier maintenance, and of course changes to such technology. Its n…

Are there any piston/cylinder designs that do not use/need oil or other lubricants to operate? I'm not thinking of internal combustion engines, more like gas compressors, say up to 20 BAR at 2000RPM... that kind of deal; no model plane plastic engines or anything like that.

How can I calculate the force with which freezing water, caught with no expansion exit, wrecks water pipes and fixtures not well designed for such temps and pressures?

I have an idea on how to create a capacitor with as much capacitance, or as little capacitance as I want. This means I could possibly make an antenna that could go up to whatever frequency I want. But, I want to know, if I increase the frequency of my antenna by using an ultra low capacitance capacitor, if the frequency is high enough will I suffer from progressive loss in efficiency? Will the resistance of a high frequency current, the electrical impedance apply in this case? My professor said that they have problems with microwave ovens, and their frequencies are in the Mhz region. But I have heard of infrared antennas existing and being used in co…

Technologically, we have developed various engineering structural materials that excel in strength properties; nano materials, whiskers, tungsten and boron fibers, super cermets, carbon fibers ... et.all. We boast of nano-materials and whiskers that could have tensile strengths and moduli of over a million and fifty million MPa respectively. But strangely, many of our day-to-day engineered materials needs are yet to be answered. The matter is further complicated in the present "globalized" economy - what is accepted in an advanced nation such as the US may have no meaning in countries such as Zaire, Chad, Afghanistan, Bangladesh ... etc. Yet, these under-developed nations…

I need to machine an arbor for a gear-cutting tool. It will look something like this, but small -- the head diameter will be around 10mm. The cutting tip will protrude beyond the head's diameter by a variable amount, and only on one side, so the stress won't be radially balanced. It will be used to machine soft metals -- like brass and aluminum. I have rod stock of the appropriate size in both aluminum and brass. Which would be a better material to a) tolerate the torsional stress, and b) keep the threads for the set-screws intact for longer?

I had a good conversation with the stock woman at the BiMart electrical section. She was highly knowledgeable and we got down. We both celebrated Christmas light strings of LED's consuming a small fraction. Then she said, I do not like the screw-in flourescents for color quality in my home. I said, wow, interesting, because I like them as being sufficiently yellow to feel good. Thinking back, I adapted a yellow brass fixture which holds two 15 W screwins. I told her I appreciated her opinion and we were cool. What do other people experience in this conversion?

A friend of mine, a dental technician, offered an interesting answer to the question of how people thousands of years ago assembed large stones to construct pyramids. A different friend who did heavy-duty cement work like in boring nuclear test holes years back, said he thought we have a certain limit of weight we can lift with modern cranes and that some of the work building Mayan structures was challenging to that standard. The bright idea (?) is using water floatation, or displacement; Dora thought water was available nearby. Thinking about this, many rocks have specific gravity 3-4 times that of water. A cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds, so a 600,000 pound …