The Perfect Engine
The main purpose of an engine is to get more out of it than you put into it. Otherwise what's the point. Many engines today consume natural resources. The varying cost of a natural resource could make an engine efficient one day and inefficient the next. The ideal engine has an unlimited and free source of energy to run it. Windmills and waterwheels come close, but the flow of water and wind at some point can vary or stop, which affects the reliability of getting power when you need it.
Waterwheels and Windmills
What's great about a water wheel is that you can dip on edge of the wheel into the water and off you go. The wheel rotates on its axis.
With a wind mill typically the spokes are shaped in such a way as to propel the system. A water turbine like those at a dam work the same way. With a windmill the wind direction varies so the position of the blades changes to accommodate for this variation to places the blades at the correct angle to the wind force for highest efficiency.
Gravity and weather are major players with a water wheel. Gravity brings water down a slope and past the water wheel and weather is counted on to return the water back up the slope again.
Talking about Earth's Gravity
Earths gravity varies due to the distance from the center of the earth. Gravity (G) at sea level is 9.8 m/(sec squared). G is an acceleration. The force of gravity on an object though depends on the mass and relative location of all other matter, F=mG.
Interaction of Gravity of Massive Bodies
Earth isn't the only massive body around. We know that the Moon's gravity effects the tides. If you've been to the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, it's pretty cool to see it go from a bay to a mud pit due to the tide going out.
Variation Due to Resistance
Acceleration due to gravity of free falling objects is the same for any object, no matter what its mass is. There can be other forces acting on the objects due to their size, structure, and what they are moving through that will cause a resistance, so the observed acceleration of the falling objects can be different due to other effects besides gravity.
Gravity on the Playground
With gravity we can see on a teeter tauter that if there is more torque on one side than the other there is rotation about the axle. The torque can be from more mass on one side than the other or due to the distance of the mass from the axis of rotation.
Center of Gravity
The mass of an entire structure (any structure) no matter what its shape may be, can be quantified and located at a particular point called the object's center of gravity. When supported at this point the object will not move or fall over. When supported at any other point of the object, the object will rotate and come to rest with the attachment point, the center of gravity, and the source of gravity all being in a line.
Monday, April 12, 2010
It's Just a Matter of Time
It's just a matter of time.
Are we there yet?
We'll be there in no time.
There's no time like the present.
It's time to wake up.
Time is relative.
Like the change in time (delta-t) for a reaction there is also a delta-t for detecting something. Picking up something that is burning hot is a good example of the existence of this delta-t. If we understood thing around us in an instantaneous way that would reduce the risk of getting burned.
Another example is the mongoose and the snake. To out react something the mix of physical and cognitive reactions need to be quicker. For animals it may simple be that the defensive move for one animal is just mechanically easier and therefore quicker to do. And likewise the attack move. A cat's quick attack is hastened if it is allowed to setup for a pounce first.
How quickly do your senses sense, your neurons fire, and your muscles react? However fast that is, it isn't instantaneous do to our senses depending on their own chemical neurological mechanical and cognitive reactions to take place first. Since what we see and sense isn't instantaneous all that we see and feel is in the past. We do not live in the present. For example the light from the closest star outside our galaxy takes around 4 years to get here. That means it's possible that that flickering light you are gazing at in the night sky, may not be a star at all but only it's last wink of light sent out into the cosmos over 4 years ago.
So what is our present, an individuals present state? Relative to things around us it is in the past, but if we consider it relative to ourselves and our understanding and sensation of things then it is the present. That works most of the time for the mundane. Accidentally burning oneself is a wake up call regarding the relative state we preside in. There's no time like the present.
The Big Bangs Theory:
Why just one big bang? the Universe compresses in on itself till it's just a point in empty space and then explodes and expands. Something tells me that if it happened once, it can and does happen again... and again. It's like getting through winter and thinking it wont ever get cold again... it does. So civilizations rise and fall, paint peals and buildings collapse, and in the end we all gets sucked back in on ourselves just to explode again and again, over and over ad infinitum.
So what if our realization of time were so freakin slow, so beyond slow that in what we perceive as just a blink of an eye there's been a big bang plus a blink and all seeming to be congruent and kosher? Now what if it weren't just on big bang in a blink of an eye but a big bang for every instance of realization, like frames on a movie film with big bangs being that black part between each frame and we just happen to end up on the next frame every time? And what if history doesn't repeat itself or big bangs either, or at least not every time? But for the big bang sequence we're following it does in between all the other big bangs and other universes that are created and destroyed a gazillion times and that we don't even realize cause we're always just on the gazillionth frame of the film. We're like a can of living sardines that get all packed up into each other and then explode repetitively forever cycling between all the other exploding canned items on the shelf, like we're just one chamber of a gazillocycle engine.
Now that would sure explains a lot of things.
Are we there yet?
We'll be there in no time.
There's no time like the present.
It's time to wake up.
Time is relative.
Like the change in time (delta-t) for a reaction there is also a delta-t for detecting something. Picking up something that is burning hot is a good example of the existence of this delta-t. If we understood thing around us in an instantaneous way that would reduce the risk of getting burned.
Another example is the mongoose and the snake. To out react something the mix of physical and cognitive reactions need to be quicker. For animals it may simple be that the defensive move for one animal is just mechanically easier and therefore quicker to do. And likewise the attack move. A cat's quick attack is hastened if it is allowed to setup for a pounce first.
How quickly do your senses sense, your neurons fire, and your muscles react? However fast that is, it isn't instantaneous do to our senses depending on their own chemical neurological mechanical and cognitive reactions to take place first. Since what we see and sense isn't instantaneous all that we see and feel is in the past. We do not live in the present. For example the light from the closest star outside our galaxy takes around 4 years to get here. That means it's possible that that flickering light you are gazing at in the night sky, may not be a star at all but only it's last wink of light sent out into the cosmos over 4 years ago.
So what is our present, an individuals present state? Relative to things around us it is in the past, but if we consider it relative to ourselves and our understanding and sensation of things then it is the present. That works most of the time for the mundane. Accidentally burning oneself is a wake up call regarding the relative state we preside in. There's no time like the present.
The Big Bangs Theory:
Why just one big bang? the Universe compresses in on itself till it's just a point in empty space and then explodes and expands. Something tells me that if it happened once, it can and does happen again... and again. It's like getting through winter and thinking it wont ever get cold again... it does. So civilizations rise and fall, paint peals and buildings collapse, and in the end we all gets sucked back in on ourselves just to explode again and again, over and over ad infinitum.
So what if our realization of time were so freakin slow, so beyond slow that in what we perceive as just a blink of an eye there's been a big bang plus a blink and all seeming to be congruent and kosher? Now what if it weren't just on big bang in a blink of an eye but a big bang for every instance of realization, like frames on a movie film with big bangs being that black part between each frame and we just happen to end up on the next frame every time? And what if history doesn't repeat itself or big bangs either, or at least not every time? But for the big bang sequence we're following it does in between all the other big bangs and other universes that are created and destroyed a gazillion times and that we don't even realize cause we're always just on the gazillionth frame of the film. We're like a can of living sardines that get all packed up into each other and then explode repetitively forever cycling between all the other exploding canned items on the shelf, like we're just one chamber of a gazillocycle engine.
Now that would sure explains a lot of things.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)