NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/electron/21651

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-28 | 2.9 KB

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Path: sparky!uunet!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!news.claremont.edu!nntp-server.caltech.edu!SOL1.GPS.CALTECH.EDU!CARL
From: [e-mail] (Carl J Lydick)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics,sci.energy,rec.autos
Subject: Re: Flywheel batteries as EV power source
Date: 28 Dec 1992 20:25:17 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Lines: 41
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>,<[e-mail]>
Reply-To: [e-mail]
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol1.gps.caltech.edu

In article <[e-mail]>, () writes:
=In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Richard Stead) writes:
=>
=> Flame on.
=>
=> The rampant idiocy on flywheels just continues.  How many ways do people have
=> to be told about conservation of energy?
=
=Conservation of energy exactly, where do you think you get the energy to
=turn a carbon carbon fly wheel into cotton candy from?  Before you start
=flaming at others for not doing the math, do it yourself.

Before you start your own flame, perhaps you ought to read a bit more of the
thread.

=Wrong again, a hyper speed carbon carbon flywheel is not designed to fail at
=once it is designed to fail a bit at a time, as cotton candy, using up a
=significant fraction of the energy stored in the disk over a period of time
=(although that time may be microseconds).
=
=> You think fluff is harmless?  Let's tie you down and hit you with "fluff"
=> traveling at several km/s and at a temperature of a few thousand degrees.
=> Let's see if we can find any teeny parts of you after the impact.
=
=Obviously this fluff created by a failed flywheel is not exactly safe.  But
=you contain this fluff inside another carbon carbon shell such that the
=expanding hot fluff makes more fluff until the energy is such that it can
=be contained by a container.  The object is not to stop the flywheel failure
=at any given point, but to slow it down and cause it to loose energy.

Yup.  Now, since someone has calculated that the flywheel is storing enough
energy to VAPORIZE 40 kilograms of iron, just how big is your containment
system going to be?  Will there be room for people in the car?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl J Lydick | INTERnet: [e-mail] | NSI/HEPnet: SOL1::CARL

Disclaimer:  Hey, I understand VAXen and VMS.  That's what I get paid for.  My
understanding of astronomy is purely at the amateur level (or below).  So
unless what I'm saying is directly related to VAX/VMS, don't hold me or my
organization responsible for it.  If it IS related to VAX/VMS, you can try to
hold me responsible for it, but my organization had nothing to do with it.