What about a national battery?

[Home Guy]

mike unnecessarily full-quoted:

I wonder if a simple spring mechanism couldn't be used during breaking, then use that energy to get the bus moving again.

[Larry W]

Google or wikipedia for "gyrobus" The "route" BTW was only about 6 km.

[dpb]

On 11/18/2011 7:35 PM, Tomsic wrote: ...

That's a completely different part of the picture, however...

--

[mike]

unnecessarily snipped... it IS a spring. AKA hydraulic accumulator

[The Daring Dufas]

When I was out in the Pacific at a missile range, some of the computer systems on one island had backup power that utilized flywheels. I never got a look at them and don't know for how long the motor generator units were able to provide power to the systems but they had been around for years. Of course all the primary power was supplied by big EMD diesel generators at the power house.

TDD

[HeyBub]

Sigh. Read the article. The author is computing on a week's worth of stored power.

[trader4]

Wrong again. It has nothing to do with safety. It's perfectly possible to power a home or business via alternate means and keep it isolated from the power grid while the public power system is down. For an example of that just look at all the automatic standby generators that are deployed for homes, businesses, etc.

[trader4]

te:

I'd like to see one make a turn at 40mph.

[Han]

harry wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Harry, don't believe everything extremeists are telling you. Lithium isn't that rare. Next you are going to say that someone is going to war against Poseidon, because of the rare earth minerals on the bottom of the oceans.

[HeyBub]

Depending on the rotation axis, it may not be ABLE to turn.

Giant gyroscopes are used on ocean liners and warships to minimize roll.

It's for the children... And those with weak stomachs.

[Han]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:KtWdnaSpMuu0UlrTnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Possibly the bus was traveling a rather flat route, and the flywheel turning in a horizontal plane.

Nopw what would happen if the bearings seized?

[krw]

Density? Energy/weight or energy/volume? No, "density" is not a good term without more specification. Size and weight are the correct terms since the energy is constant.

[krw]

Counter-rotating disks.

The passengers get dizzy (and a little bruised up).

[krw]

Interesting read. I hadn't realized anyone was stupid enough to actually try it.

[krw]

Counter-rotating gyros. (why did I just get hungry?)

[HeyBub]

Yep, there were those (and apparently still are those) who said it couldn't be done.

The busses did, however, work and worked for a number of years.

[krw]

Just because it can be done doesn't mean it should (see: wind power, electric cars, Solyndra, or any of a number of such leftist wonders).

[HeyBub]

Aw, just a proof of concept.

Just read of a company that makes a flywheel car differential. When braking, energy is stored in the flywheel. Upon acceleration, energy stored in the differential is transferred to the wheels. The company reports a 21% improvement in gas milage.