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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

#181

This is how we do it. Not 30-somethings in STEM for the cash and clout, or Twitter warriors frantically retweeting, or the green PR industry, or authoritarian rules. More people like this lad, motivated, smart, and hard-working, and we'll become sustainable. Just need to get out of their way.

Part of the problem is that there's very little cash in the S or M parts of STEM.

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

#182
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Only if their parents have blocked TikTok, most of YouTube, and PlayStation.

Have you seen the amount of effort and repetition it takes to make a TikTok?

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

#184
post #84

This is inspiring, and let's look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is. For me, it's because I hadn't done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I'm not a "natural born engineer". I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests. Then I start…

What irks me is the inappropriate focus on the who over the what. I'd in all honestly be similarly annoyed if the headline said "57 year old stamp collector from Yorkshire designs a novel synchronous reluctance motor".

It's the hero worship fetish half of the world has.

It's never about the achievement, it's about the person that achieved it. You can very easily find out if wherever you've the same tendency: just think about the most impressive score or safe you remember in whatever sport you love. Do you now think that the deed was impressive or that the person that did it is the impressive thing? Will you remember the play, or the person that played?

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

#185
post #84

This is inspiring, and let's look at why so many of us have the impulse to figure out what the flaw or missing part of the story is. For me, it's because I hadn't done something so cool at 17. That makes me think, huh, I wonder if I'm not a "natural born engineer". I start going through my life story so far and beating myself up for playing too many video games, or not going deep enough on my interests. Then I start…

I personally don't think age has anything to do with it. If the story for some reason said 47 instead of 17, I think comments would largely be the same.

So then why? Insecurity may still have a lot to do with it. I guess a large percentage of people like to either prove others wrong, or show off intelligence?

See also, Cunningham's Law.

https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law

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

#188
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. > [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio I dont think he's using air gaps? "Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor."

does anyone know how it works that towards the end of the video, it shows the resulting torque curve of the motor is actually negative for a decent span. Does this mean the motor actually resists rotation for that arc during every rotation? Wouldn't that be a significant hit to efficiency, or do the benefits simply outweigh it for a net gain?

I think the idea is that the inverter's job is to always be continually changing the current to the motor's stator windings such that you'd always have close to the optimal angle between the rotor and the magnetic fields created by the stator. Kind of like how a gas engine might backfire if you fired a spark plug at the wrong time so a well designed engine would avoid doing that.

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

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when I was in high-school agonizing for over a year over the 100$ fee to publish an app on google play. Ultimately it's hard to ignore the pattern when you see the stories about these precocious kids on the news, they always come from wealth.

Agree, I was very interested in electronics as a teenager, but had no money for tools, instruments, or components. I had to scavenge components from discarded radios, used my dad's plumber's iron for soldering and saved up for months for decent wire and a wire stripper. I did eventually end up getting a scholarship to study engineering, but I cannot help feeling a tiny bit resentful when seeing kids in the news who o…

You should not feel resentment, but you should feel their luck to be born into that.

On the downside: they will never learn the value of recycling, of working with inadequate, broken, uncalibrated and dangerous tools. But you did and I'd bet you came out the better engineer on account of that. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger isn't just about health.

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

#190
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, back in the 60's my buddy and I asked our parents to buy us some powdered aluminum and iron-oxide. We got in trouble because the chemical supply company warned them about our requested ingredients. That was the end of our homemade thermite project. So it was on to another project, homemade lock-picks.

> That was the end of our homemade thermite project I call it luck. I decided not to proceed, when understood, that I have no way to put it off.

> I decided not to proceed, when understood, that I have no way to put it off.

I didn't :)

It's all about the quantities.

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