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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
 Posted - 06/17/2008 : 14:33:49 [Permalink]
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| Do you think the "secret catalyst" is a chemical reaction that adds heat? |
Not really.
Water has a relatively specific heat. Moreover, the contact time is relatively short and the volume in play has pretty imposing.
We are talking about a lot of energy here (that's why the energy bills are a problem to begin with).
At this rate, any chemical reaction would quickly exhaust its reagents. Especially considering the tiny size of the device he is holding...
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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swansont
New Member
USA
1 Post |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 06/22/2008 : 07:45:16 [Permalink]
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Using the apparatus provided, it's true, this scientist could get incredible results: the meters would read zero, and yet water would boil in around five minutes. Because the meters provided weren't working.
The problem stems from the difference between measuring alternating current and direct current. Stick with me, science is fun when you're making people look stupid. The meters he was given were to measure direct current: there was a diode in the circuit (this is a "one way street" for electricity), so theoretically the current could only flow one way, making it DC.
Unfortunately, at high voltages the special, magic free energy cell went into "oscillation": that meant that the current was alternating at high frequencies that were beyond the threshold of the diode, so beyond its ability to control the electrons.
Therefore the current could flow in both directions, therefore it was alternating current, and therefore the current measurement was invalid. I speculate that the "inventor" made the same mistake, and I can honestly say I find the little histories of these devices fascinating.
Anyway, in these tests, the investigator saw the current steadily increase with applied voltage and then fall to almost zero as the system went in to oscillation. An "energy gain, breaking the laws of physics," was only recorded when the system was oscillating in such a way that the measurement of "energy going in" simply became invalid.
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"Of such slight miscalculations are tremendous blunders spawned."
Welcome to SFN, swansont!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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| Edited by - filthy on 06/22/2008 07:47:20 |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 06/22/2008 : 07:53:36 [Permalink]
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Good find swansont!
And welcome to the SFN.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 06/22/2008 : 17:19:36 [Permalink]
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Ecowatts' response to Ben Goldacre:This article was factually incorrect. The article published referred to work undertaken in 2002 on an adjacent technology that is no longer being pursued by the company. In July 2007, the power input measurements of the technology which was the subject of the Mail on Sunday article and BBC report, were verified by the National Physical Laboratory funded under a grant from the then Department of Trade and Industry. The National Physical Laboratory is the UK's National Measurement Institute and is a world-leading centre of excellence in developing and applying the most accurate measurement standards, science and technology. A letter has been written to the Guardian requesting that they publish a correction to their article. A search of The Guardian's website reveals that Goldacre has not responded there, nor has the site published any sort of retraction. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Maverick
Skeptic Friend
Sweden
385 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 04:46:34 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
Dig this:
How this 12inch miracle tube could halve heating bills
Amazing British invention creates MORE energy than you put into it - and could soon be warming your home
It sounds too good to be true - not to mention the fact that it violates almost every known law of physics.
But British scientists claim they have invented a revolutionary device that seems to 'create' energy from virtually nothing.
Their so-called thermal energy cell could soon be fitted into ordinary homes, halving domestic heating bills and making a major contribution towards cutting carbon emissions. |
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If one of these things can halve the heating bill, why not install two of them? Also, I'm all for cutting carbon emissions, but if anything will make global warming even worse, surely it's a couple of million gadgets that produces more energy than you put into them? |
"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy." -- Carl Sagan |
| Edited by - Maverick on 07/02/2008 04:49:55 |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 07/02/2008 : 07:04:30 [Permalink]
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Why not install 20 of them and open your own power-plant?
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Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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My bullshit dectector just blowed a piston...
