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it is widely known that some trees can consume as much
as 2000 litres of water a day. this weighs two tonnes. to
move two tonnes 30 meters high through a highly
resistant
network of tree capillaries requires a lot of energy.
assuming the tree does not have large amounts of stored
energy one
can come to the conclusion that the amount
of
energy needed to move large volumes of water comes
from
the sun.
and so this is the basis of my invention. instead of
typical
concentration of solar energy into one point, inducing
either a propellant to circulate or a a photo-electric
reaction to occur the method i propose is more
electromagnetic than anything else.
firstly take a number of 25 litre plastic barrels (like the
ones used to store detergent) (80 barrels to contain 2
tonnes of water) and join them in series with an intake
pipe and an exit pipe on either end. the exit of one
joined
to the intake of the next. next paint them with black
paint
in strategic places. next build a 'wall' with these barrels
by
placing them on top of each other. let this wall be placed
on a pivot of some sort that can be pivoted to follow the
direction of the sun. now the secret ingredient is 2000
litres of water and a colloidal suspension of magnetic
particles. perhaps neodymium magnets.
solar heating of the suspension will cause it to circulate
between the hot and cold 'poles' of the system. the
circulation of suspended magnets will hopefully induce
enough current in copper wires in the system to be
practical and cost effective.
obviously the efficiency of such a system will be
dependant on how the design is implemented. i think 25
litre barrels could be improved upon, but the principal of
using solar energy to cause a flow of a colloidal magnetic
solution around copper wires sounds feasible to me.
colloidal suspension of magnets
http://chemistry.ab...ss/liquidmagnet.htm
surfacants prevent magnetic particles from sticking together [codrakon, Jul 26 2009]
video about liquid magnets
http://www.youtube....watch?v=fpI4EiGACo8
[codrakon, Jul 26 2009]
Caterpillary Action
Very_20Hungry_20Cat...gry_20for_20Revenge
[bigsleep, Jul 26 2009]
[link]
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You lost me at "highly resistant network of tree capillaries". Doesn't capillary action lift water almost effortlessly up the xylem? It's the narrow diameter of the xylem that allows the forces of adhesion within the water to stick to and climb up the walls of the xylem. |
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As for the part about the magnetic particles, what's to keep them from sticking together? |
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please read the link i have published as
information
about a colloidal suspension
of magnets: they do not get stuck together. it
says it
contains a surfactant. |
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as for the capillary action, despite the mechanism
of
the tree, 2 tons of water still get displaced 30
meters
high. i am not sure how effortless it really is. if it
were effortless then the laws pertaining to gravity
should be investigated regarding trees, perhaps
we can un-lock the secret to anti gravity. |
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I doubt there are any trees that "consume 2000 litres a day". There may be trees that store that much water in their bulk, but I expect they accumulate it over time. Your reasoning (trees use sunlight to move vast amounts of water...so can we) is suspect in my mind. |
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I don't doubt you could get the water to move, but I'd want to throw some mirrors and some method to control the direction of flow. I think the particals in suspension would simply glom on to the sidewalls wherever your coil happened to be. |
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//solar heating of the suspension will cause it to circulate between the hot and cold 'poles' of the system.//
Why? |
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hot fluids are less dense than cold fluids. this would
cause a flow. the magnetic fluid would not be
effected by the copper coils. the magnetic particles
in the water may have to be stirred up occasionally. |
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trees can consume as much 2000 litres a day. some
trees in the amazon basin transpire so quickly it is
possible for a large one to do this. |
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Your wall of recycled detergent drums would be massively inefficient next to a simple loop of pipe. Which would merely be grossly inefficient. |
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Overall, I'm not convinced. [ ] It's certainly an original approach though. |
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For starters, whether or not your magnetic particles stick together, they will be arranged randomly in suspension. Therefore the net magnetic field will be zero. |
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yes the recycled detergent drums would be grossly
inefficient. i think a flat solar panel like the ones
typical to photo-electric ones would be much
better.
the fluid is nice and black so would absorb heat
nicely. as far as the random fields go this can easily
be fixed either by aligning the particles with an
external but weak permanent magnet on the other
side of the inductor coil or an electro magnet. |
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thanks Bunsen for the vote of confidence. with a
different design this will actually work i think. |
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Trees move water by capillary action, which works because
the trees release water from their pores, creating something
that is essentially a vacuum. The rate for this is dependent
on numerous climate factors, only one of which is direct
insolation. This makes it irrelevant to the rest of the idea,
which uses thermal circulation, a completely different
method.
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"the circulation of suspended magnets will hopefully induce enough current in copper wires in the system to be practical and cost effective"
The magnetic colloidal suspension... is it magnetic on its own or does it only react to the presence of a magnetic field? If it's the latter, what generates the magnetic field? ( I assume you're relying on Faraday's Law to generate EMF?) |
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