Recent content by mendenmh

OK, I'll give some scale numbers for the forces. First, lets assume a 1.5 metric ton vehicle (about 3300 pounds). I will work in metric units for now, and round Earths gravity to 10 m/s^2 (instead of 9.8). I am in no way saying this is the right number for a LEAF, but it is a good start...

Although the linked article says these used 'Edison Lead Acid' batteries, I'll bet they really used Edison Cells (Ni/Fe), which are still manufactured. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel–iron_battery for info. Edison cells were/are famous for very low specific energy density, but an...

It's also worth remembering the Toyota corporate goals statement they made shortly after they developed the Prius. (The statement was made maybe right around 2000. I wish I could find it on line.) They said they were in business for the long haul, and looking at plans for the next century. It...

A CME is unlikely to harm any unplugged electronics. The mechanism for damage from CMEs is that there is a very wide-scale slow ramp-up (or down) of the magnetic fields around the earth. This ramp induces a Faraday's law voltage and current in huge, open loops of wire (read: the power grid)...

Unfortunately for this theory, we are going into a deep solar activity minimum since the 1980s, with temperatures continuing to increase. Here is a link to a graph of solar activity since the 1700s, less smoothed than the one at the top of this discussion. Note that although we should...

Quite a few years ago (maybe more than 10), in the early days of the Prius, and the anti-hybrid FUD that people were spreading about it, there was a quite (unintentionally) comical warning news article about hybrids, posted in (I think) a Kansas newspaper. I have long since lost the article...

The auto industry is quite conservative about adopting new electronics, because of reliability worries. IGBTs have a lot of history behind them, and are known to be nearly indestructible. SiC is a coming technology, and promises many good things. Since SiC is a large bandgap material, it can...

exactly the same on MacOSX, too.

The LED lamps being sold now do have one major bit of new technology. For a long time, most LEDs were Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) or Gallium Aluminum Arsenide (GaAlAs), which is a long-wavelength (red/infrared, depending on how much aluminum) emitter. The stability of these is well understood...

You might want to get some CorCom line filters to put between the charger and the PV system. They sell a wide variety of them. The have ones designed to filter either common mode or normal mode noise. They contain an inline transformer (pair of inductors) wound either the same way (to create...

Agreed, in a commercial jet engine, the compression can be pretty high. I don't want to get in a semantic argument here. I'm happy with the term 'continuous combustion', too. The point I was going for is the nature of flame, which results in very clean operation, and little dependence on the...

Turbines are not, in general, considered ICE. The combustion is pretty much in open air, at a fairly low compression. This is external combustion. It is why there is no mixture adjusting, etc., since the flame has access to as much air as it needs. This also is why they are pretty much...

No, they are not accurate, but in the wrong direction. In Tennessee, where we have (in theory) a dozen DCFCs at Cracker Barrel restaurants, the Blink map shows about half of them alive. However, I know by experience that at least one of the ones shown alive is dead. I phoned it in last week...

DId it offer you 15% off your car insurance, in a British accent?

Judging by the fact that it is close to plausible without charging, you could probably get away with just taking your regular 120V trickle charger, if you have access to an outlet in the parking area at work. You get about 5% charge per hour on trickle, so in an 8 hour workday, you will have...