vtnews.vt.edu— Some Virginia Tech student (absolute genius) invented this energy saving, gravity powered lamp that can supposed last around 200 years emitting approximately 600-800 lumens.
Feb 20, 2008View in Crawl 4
cmon digg. He won an award for this thing and you insist he can't possibly work based on your highschool physics class because you don't understand it.
You'd need LEDs to hit 600 lumens/watt to have the light go for 4 minutes (assuming no other losses at all). For his claimed figures, you'd need 36,000 lumens / watt, again, if the machine were able to convert GPE to electricity with 0 losses.
SolitarySoviet (sorry, can't reply to yours for some reason)You expend energy in lifting something up, and can get energy from dropping it down. If you can get more from the latter than was put in, you have created a perpetual motion machine. Feel free to go and collect your nobel prize.> (very slowly demagnetizing them and using them as fuel) Woah, no. Turn a generator by hand, the energy comes from you, not the magnets. Look up the basic workings of generators.
Not a chance! I've seen things saying "with current LED's this would not be possible" I will never be possible. Thermodynamics prevents it form being possible. There is simply not enough energy provided by gravity to light an LED for any significant amount of time, nor indeed produce any significant quantity of light from any source.
tehbeermangFeb 20, 2008
Even with it's faults, I'd like to see one in person.
groceryheistFeb 21, 2008
cmon digg. He won an award for this thing and you insist he can't possibly work based on your highschool physics class because you don't understand it.
goobernutzFeb 21, 2008
My gravity bill is too high as it is without this thing.
glinsvadFeb 21, 2008
Whats next? Gravity clocks - oh wait we have that<a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourglass">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourglass</a>
iancalFeb 22, 2008
You'd need LEDs to hit 600 lumens/watt to have the light go for 4 minutes (assuming no other losses at all). For his claimed figures, you'd need 36,000 lumens / watt, again, if the machine were able to convert GPE to electricity with 0 losses.
iancalFeb 22, 2008
SolitarySoviet (sorry, can't reply to yours for some reason)You expend energy in lifting something up, and can get energy from dropping it down. If you can get more from the latter than was put in, you have created a perpetual motion machine. Feel free to go and collect your nobel prize.> (very slowly demagnetizing them and using them as fuel) Woah, no. Turn a generator by hand, the energy comes from you, not the magnets. Look up the basic workings of generators.
Closed AccountFeb 22, 2008
<a class="user" href="http://docbrownbttf.ytmnd.com/">http://docbrownbttf.ytmnd.com/</a>There's your source.
anarchytvFeb 22, 2008
Too many of these damn gravity lamps are going to slow down the earths rotational energy. And then what, einstein! Fall right into thte sun!
ringleaderukAug 13, 2008
Not a chance! I've seen things saying "with current LED's this would not be possible" I will never be possible. Thermodynamics prevents it form being possible. There is simply not enough energy provided by gravity to light an LED for any significant amount of time, nor indeed produce any significant quantity of light from any source.
ringleaderukAug 13, 2008
Haha. Nice!