4 ms·
That is fascinating. Other than with solar panels, I was unaware of any other non-mechanical* method for generating electricity. I wonder what the efficiency
by Femur 18y ago
That is fascinating. Other than with solar panels, I was unaware of any other non-mechanical* method for generating electricity. I wonder what the efficiency of this would be compared to a conventional hydroelectric generator.
*Solar panels I suppose are technically mechanical because they rely on a photon striking a surface.
- jws 18y agoMaybe they are just waves when they interact. Never can tell with those duplicitous photons.
- jibiki 18y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=377672 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=377672 There was also an article on HN about using osmotic pressure or something to generate electricity, basically an electron transport chain in reverse (I don't think I saved it...) I guess that's not as cool as Kelvin's thunderstorm, since it's basically just another chemical battery. EDIT: Ah, never mind, it was just powering a turbine: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=435149 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=435149
- tesseract 18y ago> I was unaware of any other non-mechanical* method for generating electricity. What about electrochemistry (i.e. batteries and fuel cells)? Trying to think of others, I guess I would include triboelectricity and the piezo effect among the mechanical methods. A thermocouple isn't mechanical though unless you are going to argue that it relies on kinetic energy of atoms. Alpha and beta decay are non-mechanical; also, there are some schemes for direct conversion of energy radiated from a (hypothetical) fusion reactor in the form of charged particles into electric current without a thermal/mechanical intermediate step. Does the EMP from a nuclear weapon count as 'generated electricity'? (Would that be considered mechanical?) (several edits: I thought of more.)