First thing I thought when I saw the title was: Linux, apache, mysql, php...
A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
11–20 of 91 posts
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#12Not to nitpick, bit it's not powered by gravity, it is powered by people going over every 30 minutes and lifting a weight back up to its top position. EDIT: Apparently people don't understand that using gravity to generate energy is a thing, and the title "Powered Solely" suggested someone found a way to do that.
People couldn't lift the weight without consuming energy from food. Doesn't mean that it's powered by food. The machine converts gravitational potential energy to electromagnetic radiation. People generate the gravitational potential energy by lifting the weight using kinetic energy, which was likewise created by converting chemical energy. It's easier just to say "Gravity" because, without gravity, it wouldn't work…
I suppose it all ultimately comes from solar energy, which, in turn, comes from nuclear fusion.
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#13Technically powered by the effort of lifting it.
Technically powered by the food eaten to lift it. Technically powered by the sun. Technically shut up with useless pedanticism.
It's not very useless. The title suggests a perpetual motion machine, so I was wondering what that was doing on HN. Knowing you have to lift it first (from the article or from the comments) is important to know and lets one think this isn't necessarily made up.
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#14First thing I thought when I saw the title was: Linux, apache, mysql, php...
I'm not sure why you were downvoted, as I bypassed the article probably at least a couple times before realizing that it didn't say "Lamp Server" and just said "Lamp".
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Technically powered by the food eaten to lift it. Technically powered by the sun. Technically shut up with useless pedanticism.
It's not very useless. The title suggests a perpetual motion machine, so I was wondering what that was doing on HN. Knowing you have to lift it first (from the article or from the comments) is important to know and lets one think this isn't necessarily made up.
If you had an infinitely long rope and access to an infinitely deep chasm, then there's no reason it wouldn't be considered a perpetual motion machine.
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
People couldn't lift the weight without consuming energy from food. Doesn't mean that it's powered by food. The machine converts gravitational potential energy to electromagnetic radiation. People generate the gravitational potential energy by lifting the weight using kinetic energy, which was likewise created by converting chemical energy. It's easier just to say "Gravity" because, without gravity, it wouldn't work…
I suppose it all ultimately comes from solar energy, which, in turn, comes from nuclear fusion.
And the nuclear fusion is started if not powered by the heat and pressure caused by, wait for it...
GRAVITY!!!
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
People couldn't lift the weight without consuming energy from food. Doesn't mean that it's powered by food. The machine converts gravitational potential energy to electromagnetic radiation. People generate the gravitational potential energy by lifting the weight using kinetic energy, which was likewise created by converting chemical energy. It's easier just to say "Gravity" because, without gravity, it wouldn't work…
I suppose it all ultimately comes from solar energy, which, in turn, comes from nuclear fusion.
Which is induced by the intense pressure gravity creates in large lumps of mass :) so yeah..
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#18Not to nitpick, bit it's not powered by gravity, it is powered by people going over every 30 minutes and lifting a weight back up to its top position. EDIT: Apparently people don't understand that using gravity to generate energy is a thing, and the title "Powered Solely" suggested someone found a way to do that.
Gravity is the storage mechanism. When someone says something is battery-powered, do you start an argument about how that technically isn't correct?
Probably yes. Annoying pendants are predictably annoying.
Re: A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
#19Technically powered by the effort of lifting it.
Technically powered by the food eaten to lift it. Technically powered by the sun. Technically shut up with useless pedanticism.
I don't think that's useless pedanticism at all. If you didn't know anything about physics, you're likely to hear "powered by gravity" and think "great, gravity is ubiquitous and free, so this is totally free energy", whereas actually these poor people will have to eat more in order to light their homes. So it's important to communicate what you actually have to do to power this light.
On the other hand, your "if you're reductive at all, you have to be 100% reductive all the time or shut up" argument is completely unhelpful.