Generating electricity using transport

Forums: Science, Science And Math, Global Warming, Energy, Physics
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I'm doing a project on how to solve global warming, and I've come up with an idea of generating electricity using transports, ie cars and trains, which work on the principal of electromagnet induction.
1.A car equipped with a magnet drives over the coil embedded in the road.
2.The direction of the magnet’s motion is always perpendicular to the vertical component of the magnetic field.
3.When a wire moves at right angles to a magnetic field, a current is induced in the wire. The voltage of this current is determined by the formula V=BxSxl where V=voltage, B=the strength of the magnetic field, s= the speed of the wire, and l=the length of the wire.
4.The current is then run through the rectifier-battery-inverter complex to convert it to smooth ac.
Is this a feasible idea? How much impact will it make in solving global warming?

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Type: Question • Score: 3 • Views: 1,871 • Replies: 7

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@luckykid,

No and none. You can surely produce a current flow, which I would expect to be about equal the loss of energy by the vehicle, less any inefficiencies in the conversions.

Not sure what Item 4 is supposed to do. Rectifier-battery-inverter. Sounds like you are fighting yourself here. If it's D.C. to start with, you don't need the rectifier at all. You will have less loss by going direct to the inverter if you want AC, but you are still not going to gain more here than you lose in the vehicle.

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Agreed. The extra juice it will take to power the car will more than offset the power generation.

you're basically making a linear alternator. An alternator takes more energy than it makes. That is the first law of physics. Can't get a free lunch.

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I am totally clueless. I suck at math.

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@NickFun,

TANSTAAFL No math involved.

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@NickFun,

TANSTAAFL

No math involved.

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@luckykid,

It sounds like you've been very creative in your tactical implementation for converting motion into electricity. You might get a good grade for your calculations and your understanding of the principles involved, but none of this will help Global Warming because you're still using gasoline to produce electricity, and if that's all you want to do, there are more efficient ways to do it.

The best way to get energy back from moving vehicles is to find a way to save/store the otherwise wasted energy of braking. For example, you could capture waste energy by using the brakes to turn a generator instead of allowing the energy to be heat up the brake pads.

Or you could get really tricky and figure out some way to use your roadway magnetic design to slow the car and capture that energy.

Keep thinking...

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anybody got any suggestions for running a home on static electricity

the dry cold winters here produce some of the most potent around

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Generating electricity using transport

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