I don't think so.... human-powered aircraft won't work very well on Mars, where the atmosphere is too thin to provide much lift.
And of course aircraft of any type won't work *at*all* on the Moon, where there is *no* atmosphere. DUH!
Not likely, I admit -- but such machines *do* exist, and it's perhaps a bit presumptive to suppose that we've already explored and exploited the limits of such technology. It's still less than a century since heavier-than-air flight was "known" to be impossible. :-)
This is the bubble-headedness I speak of, that muscle power can do anything, if we just have the right machines.
I think I missed something. Bicycle powered sump pump incase of power failure. So the power goes out and the alarm goes off, so you run down stairs and pedal your but off. Hey !! wait a minute . The power went off ,whats powering the alarm. Maybe you could rig up some kind of generator powered by one of those hampster wheeles to power the alarm.
Bill
Of course if my grocery store and drug store and all the other stores down town and in malls weren't FULLY LIT with 6 tube fluorescents on
24x7 and if houses didn't have a standing draw of 1kw or more even when everything is "off" (see wall warts, fast-on TVs, computers that turn on from a keyboard button push, etc, etc), then maybe we'd pull a tad less power.Working at a giant data center and wth billions of desktops, I'd love to start to see computers come out for new users that weren't necessarily FASTER (do we really need 3GHz desktops?), but more efficient.
We hire people and give them 600-1GHz desktops, but it's just 2002 tech.
The cost of a CRT vs. an LCD is equal when you count the costs of AC and the extra power over a couple years.
Having worked on trading floors, money/square foot savings are also huge.
Stick a WattsUP meter on your TVs and other appliances and see what it costs for them to be "off" for a month.
Hell, throw 4 PV panels on your roof with an 800 watt inverter, it will reduce your power bill and pay for itself in around 8 years at the outside.
To put things in perspective Egyptian farmers still use the hand cranked Archimedian screw to raise water for irrigation. Its made of wood and is not an efficient machine. I haven't any idea how long the farmer keeps at it. Hand cranking must be pretty tiresome. But the method has been around for more than 2000 years and it gets the job done.
I think the spitter was a German fan of Ulrich something and the whole idea was to upset Lance and screw up his concentration and rhythm.
replying to Ron Hardin, power out wrote: Good question. The OP showed enormous patience if not excessive meekness in the face of so many ignorant disrespectful replies, by people who mostly don't know or care anything about the problem or possible solutions.
And you sir, are to be commended for waiting 13 years to comment. Most people count to ten but you seem to have waited a bit longer to ventilate and share your caring and sensitive feelings. Thank you for that.
I do have sad news though. The original poster lost his life in a storm. One night the power went out and the basement started to flood so he hopped on the bicycle and started pumping. he did well until darkness came and it was time to feed the gerbils. He got off the bike, fed the gerbils and on the way back to the bike, slipped in the water and drowned. Thirty gerbils tried to rescue him but they too drowned as they got cramps from going in the water after eating.
Youngsters. Ptfui.
A bicyle powered water pump (which could easly be used as a sump pump) was a key plot device in the novel "The Ugly American".
NOTE: while that term has become synonymous with the US braggard who runs around the "third world" bossing people and being an asshole, in the actual book the "Ugly American" was a good guy.
Mr. Hardin is still pedaling. His efforts power radios of yesteryear and his computer.
+1
While it's certainly possible, it's clearly not very practical, for all the obvious reasons.
Quite right. A bike would never work.
A rowing machine, on the other hand........................
replying to danny burstein, power out again wrote: An ordinary electric sump pump can lift five gallons of water nine feet in under 20 seconds. That is an output of under 30 watts. An ordinary 15-speed bike with a 26" wheel driving a 2" pulley could develop over 3000 rpm under a light load, whereas sump pump motors run at about half that. Very doable, I would think, depending on the pump efficiency. French drains can hold a lot of water in the tiling, so a person wouldn't have to pedal as often as their sump pump would normally run, which is to say that one could wait for hours or even days and then pump many batches at a single pedaling session. In an extended power failure, human-powered pumping might be the only practical method. In rural areas, an ice storm can put the power out for weeks. The cost of the setup would be the main or only deterrent for me.
replying to Ed Pawlowski, power out again wrote: I'm thinking maybe you should be policing the expiration dates in the dairy department of your Kroger store about now. :-)
I love how poorly this comment aged. 🤣
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