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A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#71

Post by melony »

mhh__ wrote: post #39
callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

I built a niche little bit of tech (not really invention as much as applying a old idea to a backward field) when I was 19, I could've kept going but I ran out of money on the 2nd iteration because RF is an expensive hobby.

RF is a very, very, expensive hobby. What was the idea you had for the field?

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#72

Post by bryanlarsen »

throw_m239339 wrote: post #47
jwitchel wrote: post #26

Robert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin…

> Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. It's healthy to question media narrative as the media tend to sensationalize and embellish stories for clicks or views. It's disingenuous to try to make people feel guilty about it arguing if we question that story that child will turn bad or something, in an post-truth era. Nobody is attacking that kid, just how the media cover these stories with a template.

I don't think this is totally on the media. The story is sufficiently weasel worded -- the motor "could" "pave the way". Anybody with any experience reads "could" as "probably not" and "pave the way" as "a tiny little step in a long process".

Most 6 year olds have figured out that "maybe" means "probably not". Many adults have forgotten that lesson.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#73

Post by strikelaserclaw »

callumprentice wrote: post #6

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

he will have learned at some point that most valuable skill one can learn is self reliance in the face of adversity.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#74

Post by spcebar »

zackmorris wrote: post #64

This is great, I'm happy for him! But I miss the creative aspect in myself. I used to be so creative like him, with so many half-finished inventions scattered around the house. Today there's nothing. I finally managed to carve out a day or two per week away from my job to work on personal projects after many years of failed attempts to get away at great personal expense. But the last 3 days that I went to work on som…

Even though you're happy in every day life, it sounds like you could benefit from some therapy to help you unpack those painful memories. Moving past that might help your creativity flow.

When my creative juices feel depleted, I give myself permission to do nothing. Take a long walk, play a game, watch a movie, but don't make anything. I usually find that relieving the pressure of feeling like I should be more productive actually makes me more productive.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#75

Post by skykooler »

perf1 wrote: post #14

Why are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?

One big limitation is the Carnot efficiency - for any heat engine (which internal combustion engines are) there's a maximum upper bound on the efficiency, which for gasoline and diesel is around 37%. Beyond that point you can't extract any more energy out of the waste heat without removing energy from somewhere else in the system.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#76

Post by RHSeeger »

todd8 wrote: post #48
c22 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Back before the internet, in 1964, I read a brief Scientific American column on laboratory glass blowing (for making condensers and so forth). This set me on a quest; and I acquired supplies and primitive homemade equipment. I was years away from being able to drive so I took the bus downtown to the Detroit public library where I found several books devoted to the subject. I studied these for hours. I worked on this…

> So I moved on to my next project, making a solid fuel rocket from scratch

Remember when you could get the ingredients to do things like that easily; sometimes even in a "Science Kit for Kids!" one would buy at Caldor or the like? Man, how times have changed.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#77

Post by formerly_proven »

perf1 wrote: post #14

Why are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?

Petrol engines can physically only achieve around 55-60 % efficiency, so getting up to ~35-40 % vehicle efficiency is actually really good. Large scale Diesel engines get really, really close (within a few points) of the hypothetical frictionless-no-heat-radiation-no-flow-losses efficiency possible with their parameters.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#78

Post by Consultant32452 »

ekianjo wrote: post #58
c22 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Most 17 years old don't have access to 3d printers. Equipment is a big factor in making something tangible.

One third of 17 year olds cannot read at grade level.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#79

Post by giantg2 »

jwitchel wrote: post #26

Robert Sansone, great job! So many young prospective engineers read HN every day. Let's find comments that are encouraging or thought provoking or point readers in helpful directions Like @londons_explore did. Bringing the beatdown is bad for everyone. Especially bad for young engineers. This kid is impressive, straight up impressive. Let's encourage him and others like him. HN shouldn't someone's supervillain origin…

No post body was provided.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#80

Post by ZeroGravitas »

vidanay wrote: post #8

"I heard some guy invented a car that gets 100mpg and lasts for 30 years, but the auto industry and oil industry had him killed."

My own conspiracy theory is that the only reason this story got traction is because it carefully sends the message "EVs are not sustainable, and might never be".

There's enough people being paid to tell clear lies that I don't feel I'm paranoid to suggest that writing such an article (which seems very careful to not be particularly positive about current EVs) might get you money from fossil fuel interests and/or they'd hype it for visibility.

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