The world has been waiting patiently for a solution to the perpetual motion machine problem. Leave it to the Chinese to solve it. Now, where the hell is my flying car Popular Science has been promising me for 50 years? I want mine to be electric. /sarc
From SkyNews –
Wind-Powered Car ‘Could Cut China’s Smog’
Holly Williams, China correspondent
A Chinese farmer has invented a wind-powered electric car that he says could save his country from the pollution caused by its rapidly growing car market.
…
But in a small tractor workshop, 55-year-old farmer Tang Zhenping has invented the prototype of a car that he believes could revolutionise China’s auto industry.
Mr Tang’s model – built in just three months for around £1,000 – is electric.
Its engine uses scrap parts from a motorcycle and electric scooter, while its steering wheel, upholstery and headlights all come from a Chinese-made Xiali hatchback.
But what makes the one-seater special is the turbine on its nose.
When the car reaches 40mph, the blades spring into action and begin generating pollution-free power.
“It works just like a windmill,” said Mr Tang, who claims the turbine gives his vehicle three times the battery life of other electric cars.
Full story here
h/t to Bishop Hill
UPDATE: This comment on the Facebook page was too funny not to share.
Rik Magers commented on wattsupwiththat’s post.
Rik wrote: “Not only does it defy the laws of physics by powering itself, but he picked up a chick in it! Hope this is the prototype for the new Chevy Volt.”
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Are you kidding? Absolutely. It’s basic electromechanical energy conversion. Do you need it explained to you?
You do realize that more energy is required to turn a generator as the electrical load on the generator is increased, right? Or, did you think that the electrical energy generated was “free”?
Btw, it’s not the “[f]low of an induced current” that’s the problem. Generating the electricity is the problem. The greater the electrical load, the greater the CEMF (counter-electromotive force) within the generator, the greater the torque that’s required to turn the turbine against that greater CEMF, the greater the drag created by the blades of the turbine.
CEMF is the electromagnetic force that’s created within the copper windings when electrical energy is generated. The greater the electrical load, the greater the energy that needs to be generated to handle the load, the greater the CEMF, the greater the torque required to overcome the CEMF, the greater the drag.
Obviously, the electrical load is zero with the wire disconnected. This means that the drag caused by the turbine has been minimized.
Now, you might ask why the drag increases when the torque required to turn the turbine increases. Well, here’s a thought experiment for you. Hold three fans outside your car window. The first fan has it’s blades locked in place. The blades of the second fan are lubed and turn freely. The blades of the third fan aren’t locked but are difficult to turn. Now, how much drag is created by each fan?
Are you starting to understand?
A couple of weeks back, I did an extensive wind drag experiment. I drove my 2010 2.5 litre Subaru Legacy from Sunnyvale CA, to Glendale CA, a distance of 350 miles. This car is rated for 27 or so round town MPG, and 31 highway. I set my cruise control at 62, and left it there, only accelerating past that speed, while passing slower vehicles, so as to not be too long in the passing lane on hiway 5…..As I pulled into my BIL’s driveway in Glendale, my average MPG gage read 41.1 MPG for the 350 miles going over the grapevine, and everything. I did slow to 55 mph on the first uphill climb on the grapevine. While running downhill, essentially free wheeling, the instantaneous MPG reading pegged at 99.9 MPG, and the car may have reached 65 MPH.
On the return trip the next day, I started to make some experimental changes. I set the same 62 MPH cruise speed, but now on slight uphill stretches, I kicked the speed down in steps trying to keep the instantaneous MPG needle from going negative; but not going below 50 MPH, which forced some lane restrictions. On the long downhills, where the meter pegged at 99.9, I kicked the speed up, sometimes to 70 to bring the MPG needle off the 99.9 peg, but always well above the starting 41.1 average at the start of return. This didn’t maximize my MPG number, but it did help maintain a higher average trip speed, to compensate a bit for the slowdowns.
When I got back down the grape vine, onto the laser levelled CA central valley, then it was back to the 62 and stay in the slow lane, till I needed to pass. I discovered, that as I approached the tail of slower moving semi-trucks, at distances of as much as 3-4 truck lengths, my MPG instantaneous needle starting drifting into more positive territory, and significantly so, when I was within one truck length (100 feet or so). But of course the truck was slower than I was, so I had to pass him.
Well occasionally, some trucks came up on my tail going faster than I was, and I didn’t need to look in the rear vision mirror to see that, the MPG needle started to climb when they were about 4 truck lengths behind me, and kept climbing as the reached and eventually passed me. So the truck was pushing a decent tailwind lift ahead of it, that helped me. Once the truck passed me and puuled in front of me, I kicked my crtuise setting up a few clicks, till I matched his speed, usually about 65 MPH, but sometimes higher. So I sat there holding my trailing distance between one and two truck lengths gap, and matching the truck’s speed. So I was able to now travel at 65 and above, while using less gas than when alone at 62.
Now there was a substantial headwind, all the way to San Jose, but there had not been any tail wind, or any wind at all on the gosouth trip.
So I wasn’t able to keep my 41.1 MPG record, because of the big head wind; but I did arrive home still with 39.9 MPG on the meter. On my best drag of the trip, I got a 100 mile ride from one truck at about 67 MPH, and during that tow, my MPG was up by 5 MPG over the truckless condition, and my speed was also 5 MPH better.
I didn’t get too cocky and find out how much drag I could get being nose to tail, but the one truck length gap was quite comfortable to hold, and since I was tuning the speed to hold than gap and speed, I was pretyy attentive; but the gain at two truck lengths was still very healthy.