Questions of a weird mind

[Eldan]

How would it work? I'm not a physicist, but the way I see it?

You let something fall and somehow you get energy out of that fall. Say, by attaching a spring to a rock, or something.

Then what? Eventually, it falls to the nearest center of mass, or as close as it can get and it will stay there. Attach more weights? You'll have to lift them first, so they can fall. Which, since Thermodynamics is a bitch, will take more energy than you'll get ouf of it.

[Douglas]

Gravity may always apply and never run out, but that doesn't mean it's an unlimited energy source. The only way to extract energy from gravity is to have something fall. Once something has fallen, extracting more energy via gravity requires either moving on to some other object or raising it back up so it can fall again. Moving on to another object goes against the concept of a perpetual motion machine so that won't work. That leaves raising it back up, and you will never get more out of the fall than you have to spend on the raising.

If you have a perfect no-loss system you would get back exactly as much as you put in, and you could indeed use that to keep moving forever (provided you never exceed a certain elevation), but such a perfect no-loss system would require absolutely no friction, sound, light emission, and a whole bunch of other things that are just never going to happen.

[Yora]

Yeah, makes sense. I think I mixed it up with a combination of gravity plus water, which does have the nice effect of getting up the mountain by itself. Though that's actually solar heat that provides the energy.

[Douglas]

Most forms of energy production on Earth are actually derived from the sun in some way. The exceptions are nuclear power, geothermal, and tidal. Fossil fuels, hydro power, wind, and (of course) solar all wouldn't work without the sun constantly dumping huge amounts of energy into the planetary ecosystem.

[Brother Oni]

If you have a water cooled computer, where does the water transport the heat to? Are there large additional alluminium or copper radiators somewhere else, that can't be crammed directly on the circuit boards?

Depends on the manufacturer. Look up water cooling system in any online PC shop and you'll find a whole variety.

[Eldan]

Most forms of energy production on Earth are actually derived from the sun in some way. The exceptions are nuclear power, geothermal, and tidal. Fossil fuels, hydro power, wind, and (of course) solar all wouldn't work without the sun constantly dumping huge amounts of energy into the planetary ecosystem.

Tidal as well, actually. Quite a bit of the tides are due to the sun.

[Douglas]

Tidal as well, actually. Quite a bit of the tides are due to the sun.

A portion of them, yes, but the large majority comes from the moon.

[AtomicKitKat]

Springs help to mitigate some of the energy lost, but not much. Perhaps use them to pump water to a higher point to power a hydro-electric turbine?

While on the topic of energy conservation/generation. I posted this some 10 pages ago, but nobody really responded to it.

Is it viable to put wind turbines along expressways/highways, to utilise the slipstream, or the air that gets forced away from the cars travelling along the expressways? Alternatively, placing them at the edge of a roof to capture the wind generated by air passing across the roof suddenly increasing in speed as it crosses the edge.

Alternatively, placing some kind of miniature hydro-electric turbines along the drainage routes from the roofs of tall buildings, to capture rain run-off. Or, and this is my most ambitious one yet. A giant(like 10-30 storeys tall) plexiglass(not really completely plexiglass, but that forms the actual waterproof roof part) umbrella, whose core consists of a series of hydroelectric turbines, to extract power from the collected water as it drains away. This also has the side-benefit of reducing potential floods in the area covered.

[Doomboy911]

Is desertification impossible to fix? I had some theories of how to fix it they're just not pretty.

[Ravens_cry]

Is desertification impossible to fix? I had some theories of how to fix it they're just not pretty.

Well, probably not impossible, but it does tend to be a bit of a viscous cycle.
Replanting plants hardy enough to stand the desert conditions could be a start.

[factotum]

Is it viable to put wind turbines along expressways/highways, to utilise the slipstream, or the air that gets forced away from the cars travelling along the expressways?

Wouldn't be strong enough. Mythbusters tested out the myth that you can be pulled off a station platform by a passing express train, and as I recall there was practically no effect unless they put the person within inches of the train--and a train is much larger and has a much greater slipstream than cars do. A passing lorry might generate enough breeze to briefly power a windmill, but you're not going to get enough power out of that to be worth the effort. (You could always try attaching magnets to the vehicles and using a buried cable to induce some electric current, though ).

As for the rain capturing methods, firstly, it's not raining constantly (although the current weather in the UK might make you think differently), and even when it IS raining the actual amount of water falling out of the sky is not that much.

Overall, building lots of tiny turbines would likely cost more and be less effective than building a single large one, especially since large generators tend to be more efficient than small ones.

[AtomicKitKat]

Wouldn't be strong enough. Mythbusters tested out the myth that you can be pulled off a station platform by a passing express train, and as I recall there was practically no effect unless they put the person within inches of the train--and a train is much larger and has a much greater slipstream than cars do. A passing lorry might generate enough breeze to briefly power a windmill, but you're not going to get enough power out of that to be worth the effort. (You could always try attaching magnets to the vehicles and using a buried cable to induce some electric current, though ).

As for the rain capturing methods, firstly, it's not raining constantly (although the current weather in the UK might make you think differently), and even when it IS raining the actual amount of water falling out of the sky is not that much.

Overall, building lots of tiny turbines would likely cost more and be less effective than building a single large one, especially since large generators tend to be more efficient than small ones.

Isn't a train relatively more streamlined than a car though? With regards to the rain, it rains about 200 days out of the year here 1 degree north of the equator, with a fairly high amount of it in June(200mm an hour? in abnormal conditions, 100 otherwise).

[Doomboy911]

Wouldn't it be more efficient to put like windmills on the train? Such as built into the side so wind would go through and build up power, not to power the whole train but to reduce the amount of power used on the train. If that's confusing picture it like this we have Power 1 which is used to power the train and Power 2 which is done with the turbines. Power 2 goes into power 1 reducing how much of power 1 in being put in to power the train.

If that doesn't make any sense I could try to draw it up.

[Qwertystop]

Well, this may be a weird question, but that's what this thread is for...

What is the evolutionary purpose of the hymen? I mean, it's a part of the body which must be broken to be passed down, in an area for which I cannot see any use other than that use which breaks it.

[Doomboy911]

That I cannot fathom my mind can only assume it makes a funny noise when it pops. If the easier broken hymens belong to the girls who have been around the block more often than it makes no sense that they're still around. You'd think they'd breed out by now. (This all comes from a slightly above average understanding of evolution sullied by years of science fiction.)

[Ravens_cry]

Well, this may be a weird question, but that's what this thread is for...

What is the evolutionary purpose of the hymen? I mean, it's a part of the body which must be broken to be passed down, in an area for which I cannot see any use other than that use which breaks it.

Protection from infection, perhaps?
It's common in some other mammals, so I imagine it serves *some* purpose.

[factotum]

Isn't a train relatively more streamlined than a car though?

Hardly--most trains tend to have very blunt front ends (particularly freight trains), and that's what causes the ram effect.

As for the idea of putting turbines on the train itself to "save energy", you don't get anything for free. The turbines would, indeed, generate power, but they would also generate drag that would require the train's engines to work harder. If you could somehow figure out a way to generate *more* power from the turbines than you're losing in the train's engines then you've created yourself a perpetual motion machine, because you could theoretically just start the train off with a push and let the power generated by the turbines drive it the rest of the way!

[AtomicKitKat]

Hardly--most trains tend to have very blunt front ends (particularly freight trains), and that's what causes the ram effect.

My bad. I guess it's the different mental images of the term "train". For you it's the coal-powered monsters. I was thinking more like the bullet-nosed types used for subway systems.

In my vision of "highway-side turbines", the fan blades could be turned either by the slipstream, OR by the air flowing in the opposite direction.

Regarding the hymen, I'd guess it's from the point in gestation when the opening was still partially sealed. However, short of Truman Show levels of observation from the moment of conception(which assumes that someone somehow develops a transparent artificial external womb), it would be impossible to know for sure.

[Matthias2207]

Why is the meat in chicken nuggets grey-y? Normal chicken meat is white.
Edit: Actually, I don't know if I even want to know.

[Brother Oni]

Why is the meat in chicken nuggets grey-y? Normal chicken meat is white.
Edit: Actually, I don't know if I even want to know.

A quick wiki check shows two words - meat slurry. Yeah, you're better off not knowing...

[Eldan]

Actually, sometimes you see some grey meat on a chicken. They mainly use the cheap meat anyway for the nuggets, so there's some of that.

And yes, slurry. Urgh.

[Yora]

Say about meat what you want, consider the pros and cons for yourself, and buy as often and where you think it's okay. Except chicken. There is no such thing as an ethically tollerable chicken farm. There are some places that produce eggs from free range chicken, but those don't produce any meaningful quantities of meat.

[Doomboy911]

Hardly--most trains tend to have very blunt front ends (particularly freight trains), and that's what causes the ram effect.

As for the idea of putting turbines on the train itself to "save energy", you don't get anything for free. The turbines would, indeed, generate power, but they would also generate drag that would require the train's engines to work harder. If you could somehow figure out a way to generate *more* power from the turbines than you're losing in the train's engines then you've created yourself a perpetual motion machine, because you could theoretically just start the train off with a push and let the power generated by the turbines drive it the rest of the way!

Could have it sit on top of a hill.

[Matthias2207]

Is it an infinite hill?

[Karoht]

Why is the meat in chicken nuggets grey-y? Normal chicken meat is white.
Edit: Actually, I don't know if I even want to know.

White Meat + Dark Meat + Bone Marrow + Stock from boiling down bones (adds flavor) + Livers and Kidneys and such (common in most forms of stock as well) = Grey color.

[Ravens_cry]

You know, I think it a little funny that people are complaining about this.
After all, it's just a new way to use 'all the buffalo' or in this case, chicken.
We're pretty picky if we get squicked by eating a little umbles.

[Karoht]

You know, I think it a little funny that people are complaining about this.
After all, it's just a new way to use 'all the buffalo' or in this case, chicken.
We're pretty picky if we get squicked by eating a little umbles.

In the case of nuggets, it's the preservatives that bother me.

In the case of all the chicken parts, I regularly purchase extra chicken liver to go in my dirty rice, or my home made chicken stock. Bones and Marrow? Again, stock. I break the bones open whenever possible to ensure that the marrow gets out easily.

Anyone here like Turkey gravy? Proper turkey gravy is made with giblets and drippings from the bird. KFC gravy uses deep fryer fat (namely the stuff at the very very bottom with chicken bits and such), a boat load of flour and corn starch, and loads of salt.

[Brother Oni]

You know, I think it a little funny that people are complaining about this.
After all, it's just a new way to use 'all the buffalo' or in this case, chicken.
We're pretty picky if we get squicked by eating a little umbles.

I've got no objections to eating offal - for example small intestine has this really odd texture which is smooth on one side and 'lumpy' (best description I have for it) on the other due to the villi.

I do however live in the UK, where English people can be fantastically picky about their food, so prefer to err on the side of caution when informing people about what they're eating (one semi-ostracisation was enough for me).

[oblivion6]

In the case of nuggets, it's the preservatives that bother me.

In the case of all the chicken parts, I regularly purchase extra chicken liver to go in my dirty rice, or my home made chicken stock. Bones and Marrow? Again, stock. I break the bones open whenever possible to ensure that the marrow gets out easily.

Anyone here like Turkey gravy? Proper turkey gravy is made with giblets and drippings from the bird. KFC gravy uses deep fryer fat (namely the stuff at the very very bottom with chicken bits and such), a boat load of flour and corn starch, and loads of salt.

i love turkey gravy...despite KFC using deep fryer fat, their gravy is still the best

[Elemental]

I suppose... When it comes down to it, a person doesn't go to KFC because they're known for how healthy their food is.
They go because of those eleven herbs and spices.
And the chips are good too.

As for their gravy, it's nice, but not the best.



And because, I feel like asking a question for once instead of just answering:
I can understand the reasoning behind annuals, but why would any self-respecting plant grow for thirty to eighty years to a height of up to twenty-five metres before flowering once and then dying after setting fruit?
It seems rather silly to me...