Four Weird Ways to Make Electricity
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
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When you think of newer ways to make electricity, solar cells and wind turbines may come to mind. But scientists can make the stuff from just about anything. And they're working on some truly bizarre ways to generate power.
Hosted by: Niba @NotesbyNiba (she/her)
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"Even bones can be piezoelectric"
_So that's why my joints crack like a glowstick_
I am Thor, the god of THUNDER!
I TOTALLY feel you on that!. I'm like a box of Rice Krispies... When I get up and move (especially in the morning) my body and joints immediately start to snap crackle and pop! 😂
@@justingoodman9352Mine too. So much so, I had to have a knee replacement.
@@lindaseel9986 yeah I'm 36 and I went to the ER about a year or two ago because my left hip was just KILLING me and they did an X-ray and said I had arthritis set up in my hip but I'm pretty sure there are other things wrong too because I can hear it and feel it pop back and forth if I'm bending over to do something. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of where I tore my MCL in my left knee in high school and tried to come back and play sports before I fully recovered so my hip was probably over compensating for my knee and the biggest contributor is probably when I feel off the roof of a 2 story cabin and landed on my left side. I bruised or cracked some ribs because it hurt to even breathe for like 2 weeks and I had a huge limp for about a week. I gotta get some insurance and get it checked out. I would honestly love to be able to go ahead and get a hip replacement but I feel like it would just cost so much money.
@@justingoodman9352 Wow! You have had a lot happen. Now, I am 66. I got my mom's genes for degenerative arthritis. That popping and clicking is arthritis and probably torn or loose tendons. I have that in my shoulder as well. I don't know if your income could qualify you for Medicaid. That would pay for doctors and surgery. I wish you all the best.
I don't think I've seen this woman, Niba, in other videos but I actually quite liked her in this one. The way she speaks is right to the point, paced well, sounds smooth, and without any excess dramaticism. I wouldn't mind her in more videos.
she's very easy to look at also...
I have a crush on her
She is special !
She really speak clearly and with the right words at the right place!
Impressive and admirable!
She could narrate my dreams! That would be sweet!
I agree, she has a great speaking voice.
Clarification : piezoelectricity works on *changes* in pressure, not simply pressure, which is why sound is a good source
It all is depicted in animations and clarified by Niba in later part of the video.
Wait what ? Changes in pressure ?
@@PotionsMaster666
Yes, it's all about internal vibrations (changes in pressure a.k.a. squeezing and stretching).
@@PotionsMaster666 Just pressure on its own has no effect on these, they make electricity when there is a change of pressure, so a sound pressure wave will make electricity
@@davidioanhedges 😮 But why *change* in pressure tho ?
The way the video explained it was reasonable that only pressure was required.
I will Google it.
Thnx for replies guys
that thumbnail is giving ElectroBOOM a aneurysm "THERE IS NO WAY TO GENERATE POWER OUT OF NOTHING"
In the case of the cloud generated electricity is practically a controlled lightning rod.
well it's not nothing it's thin air (only thin air tho, thick air won't work)
"Nothing" is just a concept in the end anyways🫠
The big bang disagrees 😂
*an aneurysm
She somehow manages to be both soothing and engaging. Nice video.
And wrong... 😬
At the minimum incomplete if we're being generous.
It's a nice example of her *infectious enthusiasm and passion,* but she's not perfect either... with her proprioception of index fingers. @2:42
Just watch it in slow motion - I love it! 😉
@@Unmannedairhow so
@@UnmannedairNo she’s not.
What a fantastic host.
Dang, and here I was hoping for one of them to be "Potato". :(
Niba, I need to point out that, at about 5:55, the 12V car battery you compared the leaf to is comparing 6 cells in series, with the single cell that the leaf is. So, the leaf cell is closer to 1/10th the voltage of the car battery, than the miniscule amount your comparison suggests.
Also, the voltage of the leaf cell might be easily raised with different materials on the cathode and anode.
This also misses the CRITICAL piece of info that voltage does not necessarily mean power. Car batteries have a relatively low voltage (compared to other electrical systems) but can provide an insane amount of current and therefore power. Meanwhile, you can create static electricity with hundreds (or thousands?) of volts, but with a minuscule amount of energy stored within.
Somehow I doubt that 10 plant leaves would be able to generate more than a couple milliamps at best. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though, it would be very cool.
That is just a battery with a plant electrolite, and in that case we already have the classic lemon or potato battery...
How much current can these leaves push
Watts should prob be the comparison used
@@DrakiniteOfficialnow if we could genetically engineer the plants to develop the structures themselves and us just “farm” electricity thatd be cool, but that is probably more in the realm of science fiction currently
I love the new sets so much. The green screen stuff was great, but this feels easier to digest
A fun fact about Piezo electricity, it can be used to create motion with electricity, like in a quartz powered clock or watch. There are (diesel) injectors that are actuated not by solenoids or other electrical means but by Piezo electricity, which has multiple advantages; the main one being the fast acting nature compared to something comparatively high mass as an solenoid and also the longevity is a large factor.
I own a car with an engine that has that (an VW 1.9 TDI, an inline 4 turbo charged diesel, engine code ASZ) and it has racked up 540k km or around 335k miles with the original Bosch injectors from the factory. Let's be generous here, with the fact that it has mostly done highway miles at around 70 mph. It does about 2000 revolutions a second. Since it's a four stroke it means every other revolution a combustion event occures. That equates to about 290.000.000(!) ( 335.000 miles / 70 mph * 60 minutes * 1000 injections per minute ) injection cycles on each of all four injectors. Mind you that in semi-modern diesels it's not unheard of for an injector to file up to 7 times every combustion event. It's not hard to imagine the actual number might be closer to a billion actuations, especially if you consider the average speed is actually lower which means more firing events per mile.. It boggles my mind when I think about this.
That really is a fun fact :0
Mycobacterium _WHAT_ ?!
came for this. wait, not literally...
Exactly what it sounds like. First identified in genital secretions.
"It was first reported in November 1884 by Lustgarten, who found a bacillus with the staining appearance of tubercle bacilli in syphilitic chancres. Subsequent to this, Alvarez and Tavel found organisms similar to that described by Lustgarten also in normal genital secretions (smegma). "
Dang new host is a wonderful speaker
I can think of a bunch of situations where the environment is colder than a human body, and running out of light is a Very Bad Thing.
If that headlamp fueled by body heat is reliable, it could literally be a lifesaver
It's so comforting to me amongst all the climate change disasters to see content about the ingenuity of science exploring alternative ways to power things 🙌🏻
I make electricity shuffling across carpet in slippers.
Then getting hit with 40,000 volts when I touch refrigerator. ⚡
We're walking around on a 4000 volt potential just being outside... This b******* article completely lacks any sort of depth or context. She pulled this article out of the same thin air that she pulled the science out of
Weird ways we make electricity:
1. Sound (Piezo electrics)
2. Heat (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators or RTGs)
3. Light (Solar panels / Photosynthesis)
4. Air (Enzyme Hydrogenase turning hydrogen into electricity directly / Clouds and humidity)
That electron flow animation illustrating the thermoelectiv effect can't be right. That would lead to high voltage and charge between the warm an cold end of the circuit in no time.
In this, like in any other electric circuit, electrons flow along a circular path.
The two metals present in the thermoelectric jucnction create a voltage difference that changes with temperature, which creates the electric "pressure" that forces electrons around.
Yeah she botched a lot of stuff in this... LoL
Heat flows down the wires like that though. But there's a differential electrical pressure at the wire junctions and that's what causes the current to flow.
Heat is transmitted from electron to electron in a wave much faster than the actual electron velocity and the wave velocity is independent from the charge velocity. I think that's the distinction you were looking for. So the heat flows like her diagram but not the charge
My thoughts exactly. When I saw that I was like WTF!
Its been a while since i last watched scishow, WHATS THAT SET! THATS AMAZING! Great production guys!
She's brilliant, really breaks things down so even newer concepts that weren't in my physics A-Level are easy to grasp
Piezoelectric is used in atomic force microscopes and scanning tunnelling electron microscopes. The samples are moved relative to a sharp probe. The ultra fine movement is controlled by varying the voltage applied to the crystals. These sort of microscopes were used in 1989 to write IBM out of 35 atoms.
I haven't found much on growing plants to be the electrolyte, or literally a battery for some really green power. Bio electricity is exciting! What about how eels can make power?
That chemistry isn't that efficient.
I read a research paper about the “Photo flexoelectric effect” recently. I think it’s worth a look if you liked this video.
Hydrogen is extremely reactive and does not like to float by itself in the air. Most of it is bonded in water vapor. So the technique to oxidize it to extract energy is a bit overly optimistic. This is already happening by itself in the air without us being able to extract energy from it, and we would be trying to oxide the remaining scraps.
BTW oxidizing is the same as burning.
We already have hydrogen fuel cell cars that do exactly that
If you put a little oil in the pan and stir the hydrogen around a lot with a spatula when you oxidize it, it will just blacken a little around the edges and stay yummy on the inside.
Great video and fantastic ideas! These wonderful solutions have been around for years and I applaud the great minds that strive to get them put into action. Just one thing, selling electricity is a business. Until each country regulates this and recognizes that electricity is a basic human need to power society, nothing will change. EVER. Greed is the problem, not the incredible minds of science.
That last one, would be great in Florida.
Missing piece of info for the “leaf battery” thing - what sort of current (amps) does it generate? Putting them in series could get you to 12v, but it definitely won’t generate as much power as the car battery
pretty relevant info :D
Yeah, that leaf battery thing, we're talking microamps here. You wouldn't even be able to measure using standard electrical equipment. Definitely not with your run-of-the-mill multimeter. Lol
Yeah, decent oopsie to make XD I’m sure some people are thinking they could charge their phone with a line of plants, lol
@@DoctorX17 I mean, technically you could, if you could wait for about 5.6 million seconds... That's about 128 days for a 10% charge. 😅
@@Unmannedair it just put more plants in parallel XD
Well done Niba...I truly appreciate your approach and straightforwardness. Great job
this is my favorite topic.
It's my favorite topic too and she butchered it. 😅
Can't wait to get an RTG powered car
really loving the new set
It seems a slight contradiction has creeped into your dissertation. At 4:00 you state that the internal temp should be hotter than the external to generate electricity. Then, at 4:33 you further state about wandering a dark forest at night. At night, the forest would be colder than the daytime, while the internal temp would still be hot, so why would you need additional batteries? Of course, you could be referring to the extreme cold of space or Mars, but that did not come across. Also, the student that created light from her own body heat would still work in a dark forest, perhaps even better.
its not necessary that internal is hotter than external, only that there is a significant difference. This doesnt occur much on Earth(atleast compared to space) hence the dark forest example where body and forest temp are similar (even if the forest is a bit colder)
Where I live, the air in the middle of the night is often only 10° C cooler than a person walking through it. I don't think that's a large enough differential for the tech to work from the way it was phrased.
@5:57: "but multiple leaves can be strung together to create a circuit"... Yeah, technically that would be possible if the leaves are either detached or belong to different plants that are electrically isolated. But in practice, you can't string together multiple leaves from plants all connected by the same soil. At most you will get half a volt, and that's too little to be usable for any electronic today. You need at a minimum a diode drop (0.7V), or in practice 1.5V to start to make any higher voltage.
Love Niba! What a great presenter 👍
It's definitely exciting stuff, but I love those little asides - makes the presentation really cute!
The humidity one, if fully matured, would deadass be such a GODSEND in the majority of south east asian countries
I really like this presenter and it was a very interesting video, thanks.
This is great! Now the Cloud can power itself!
I'd love a more in-depth video about the final method (the synthetic clouds)!
No mention of 1950s sound powered phones?
I'm aware of a 'thin sheet' to collect water for consumption, now I'm wondering if that 'thin sheet' can gather electricity as well as water. Looks like I'll be surfing the net.
Sci show list show, sci show list show!!
Thanks
this is how ultrasound works. this episode is great!
when water molecules in the air "rub" against the walls of the pores they should loose kinetic energy that then becomes the electricity. this would thus cool down the water molecules. would this not cause condensation to for form in the pores which would then become trapped because of the capillary effect until it evaporates?
“A single car battery” phrased as if it’s not a 25+lbs power source 😂
Lead acid batteries have a relatively low energy density, modern batteries have 5x or more the available power. Using car batteries is just a commonly known reference point, like how some people use bananas for photograph scale. Good comprehension though, you did understand the word battery! Way to go, buddy!
Should have mentioned the push-button BBQ grill sparker as an example.
Thank you 🙏
1:38 --> animation is likely incorrect; the hexagon "stretches" - no reason for the ions to get displaced relatively, due to pressure.
SciShow: When you think of new ways to generate electricity...
Me: EELS!?
SciShow: No.
is there much free hydrogen at sea level? it’s so light….
does the humidity cloud stop working once the entry side is saturated with water? how does one refresh it? can it dehumidify a room. that seems useful too
i heard of microdevices in ppl that could use glucose in the blood for power and thought what if they made just to lower glucose during a spike. it could waste the energy on whatever maybe broadcast it out of the body
Since photosynthesis needs the electrons it generates from sunlight to split carbon from CO2 and make sugar from it, extracting energy from the process almost certainly disrupts it.
The "cloud" generator sounds like by the time you get something bigger than micro-power from it, you may as well put a small wind turbine in: the cloud still needs wind or convection to passively move moist air through.
Natural photosynthesis is really inefficient, so using energy the photosynthesis isn't is a good source.
@@thekaxmax Even an inefficient process can still work out if it scales in a cost-effective manner. Can't really imagine organic PV being cheaper per mW nor more convenient though.
I don't think the main issue with those leaves is the low voltage but the very low amperage they can generate. Even if you string a bunch of them together to get 14 volts you wouldn't be able to drive the starter motor for a car engine or even generate sparks in the sparkplugs. So the comparison with a car battery (which can melt a wrench btw) is very oversimplified
I hate commenting on people's appearance but that blouse is fantastic
0.28 volt from the leaf, but how much current??
now look at Garret Moddel's Casimir force generator...
materials that compress can create electricity makes sense now what if we could figure out a way to harness gravity waves The compression say something say like quartz crystals or quartz rods that are like a mile long I wonder if that could generate electricity? Anybody done any research on that?
As I recall, one of the things that took so many years before they got LIGO to work was that they had to detect a compression that was less than the size of a proton. I don't think it would move the atoms of a crystal enough.
i kinda wonder if we'll one day harness electricity from ATP
This is so disrespectful for Nichola Tesla 😓
Really wish we got some deeper analysis here. Squeezing a bunch of tech in does make for a clickworthy video, but without diving in a bit deeper it's hard to evaluate these techs.
For instance I;d presume the humidity one is likely very dependent on variations in such to work out, and would only get 1 to 2 cycles per day depending on if it worked in reverse. I'd also presume that the sorts of structures that make it work well in one direction or the other, likely make it hard to reverse (i.e. drying out a wet thing, or wetting a dry one).
All the sources are listed in the description for further reading :)
I never thought we would be getting electrons from smegma
Huh?
Well, you can't extract energy from a single state, like static pressure won't work for piezoelectric power generation, or air just being humid won't provide any energy for you. You need a difference, a change, something that "happens". The weaker and more dilute this difference is, the less likely it is it to be meaningful to try to extract energy from it.
None of the principles have reasonable potential to make a difference on grid scale, the Seebeck effect is useful for power generation in very specific cases, the rest is nowhere near that. The piezoelectric effect is used for sensing, and can technically be used to generate some power, but it's not practical. We have great technologies for converting sunlight into usable energy. "Up to" value of open circuit voltage is in itself meaningless, harvesting meaningful electric power directly from photosynthesis is not possible, as far as we know. Meaningful in this context requires, among other things, being a relevant alternative to photovoltaic power generation.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the episode, despite some of the technical "details" were wrong, and suggested potential usefulness that isn't real.
NICE SET , Midnight Marauders Tour Guide😃
Little worried about how giddy she got over crushing bones 😳
BONE BROTH POWDER
@@Zaihanisme it’s called stock. If you use bones it’s a stock not a broth.
wouldnt harvesting the energy in a plants leaves prevent them from pulling carbon out of the air as effectively. i was under the impression all that energy is used to turn carbon dioxide into sugar?
What was that soil bacteria again? Hm?
Who thought you could? Pretty much everyone who worked on the projects and many others who know that energy is energy doesn't matter what form it happens to be. It's converting that energy into energy we can use for our own purpose efficiently is where it becomes a problem.
Could we use any of these to power our needs?
Not really. They aren't practical for grid scale power. But there are niche applications for things like powering sensors or keeping batteries charged. Think of heat-powered sticker-sensor you could slap on a pipe, for example, to monitor the temperature and send a radio message a couple of times an hour - no wiring required. Or a motion-powered strip across a road that counts cars and sends the readings back to traffic control. Or a remote control that is powered by the motion of pressing the buttons so it never needs new batteries.
On a small scale: Definitly, some of them are in use already.
on a large scale: Not yet, but I hope soon.
So, according to this video, Florida is set to become the US' newest power station!
Science puns hit different.
Saying .28 volts doesn’t tell us much. How many watts are created?
Saying watts doesn't tell us much. How many joules are created?
@@yakustone6356 watts tells me a whole lot more about what this setup can produce at any given time. Joules tells me what the setup can produce over an extended period of time, which to me isn’t as useful.
@@thurlravenscroft2572 Not really though. For generating energy and energy measurement is more useful. Think of a capacitor vs a battery.
I've been watching this channel regularly for five years and just realized I wasn't subscribed.
I don't like this new stage, I have the impression the hosts are not exactly comfortable and being sitting makes not easy for them to talk laud and clear
I suspect that chair is horribly uncomfortable and is used for its look alone.
However, the obvious discomfort distracts completely from the aesthetics.
No one seems to be able to find a comfortable way to sit in it.
Oxidizing hydrogen's? Isn't this how our cells break down Carbs? Cleaving the carbon and Hydrogen, making Co2 and H2O with the oxygen we breath. This sometimes creates free radicals that need a donor Electron from Anti Oxidants.
P238?, WB's Marvin the Martian would have a field day with it.
How about piezoelectric generators along freeways, or really loud places like schools😅
That has been done in a few case studies
hamter weel
hamser heel*
hammer*
Weird!
Wait. There's a bacterium named after smegma? LOL 🤣
alright then, this presenter is gorgeous and has a good voice. love the good work. keep it up
The problem with hydrogen is not that you have to burn it (oxidising is the same as burning anyway), but that you have to make/extract hydrogen from something. Making it from water requires all the same energy you get back when you burn it, while getting it from fossil fuels is cheap but not green at all.
The RTG power units aren't anything new. NASA used them on both Pioneer space probes because they were going someplace where sunlight was not a viable option.
Not new, that's not the point. Is not well known, that's the point.
I suppose it's no surprise that the person who made the flashlight powered by the difference in temperature between her body and the surroundings was in Canada.
oxidation is burning. they are the same.
Has anyone tried destroying all the planets in the solar system to build a sphere of solar panels around the sun?
I have!
Charge difference is the only way.
How about a vacuum? Only theoretical as of yet as far as I'm aware, but Quantum Energy Teleportation is a fascinating concept. It's not magically generating energy, but to an observer on just one end of the transaction it might as well be.
Running things on plants isn't that weird. We all made potato batteries growing up in science class, right?
That's one of the things that always baffles me as a European.
I always thought that was a Hollywood thing, we just don't do that here.
And then the narrative that the average US Citizen is dumb af.
It just doesn't add up.
We miss you, John and Hank. Thank you so much for your legacy
if we are harnessing electricity out of plants, how far are we technologically from getting it from other beings?. also, is there are reason not mentioning the term "nuclear fission" when talking about the plutonium-238 engine?
⚡️⚡️⚡️
Question about sound energy. Does this mean a guitar (or some other instruments) can power themselves? Can my electric guitar power itself and have a speaker made in/with it???? 😅
your guitar already powers itself. it has no power source but transmits electric signals to your amp.
Both 1.2 L engines are turbo petrol. Difference is that one is MPFI engine while other is GDI.
I was wondering about Nikola Tesla's ideas about generating and transmitting electricty through the air rather than through cables. Was he onto something there?
They get revived by enthusiasts all the time. The short version is that it works, but it's severely impractical. He was able to make practical demonstrations, but only illuminating very small discharge lamps at short range, and to achieve that he needed a two-hundred-kilowatt transmitter. The inefficiency is extreme. If you wanted to power a city like that, you'd need to generate a field so intense it would reduce everything in the vicinity to a seething plasma.
You could cover 2% of the Sahara desert with solar panels and have enough power to charge the planet
Lightning can be harnessed and the energy stored one day.
Wait a second, "mycobacterium smegmatum"? As in "smegma"? Really?
that smells gotta come from somewhere
Yep, because that's where the bacterium was first discovered, which is a common way to name bacteria. :)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycobacterium_smegmatis
@greensteve9307 I figured as much, but, come on, you KNOW the scientists were snickering when they came up with that name. (And I am not blaming them in the slightest XD )
I really do not like this new studio look. 😢 looks like a budget children program
i thought they’d just be using this setup for the deep dives!
Perhaps the lesser complex look adds less stimuli to distract the viewer from the topic at hand.
I like it. The green screen before always felt very filmed in a basement to me
Yeah I think it’s too bright… I liked the simple backgrounds of past scishow narrations.
The United States Air Force uses piezzoelectric detonators on their aerial b ombs to detonate them.
Impact with a hard target compresses the crystal sending an electric charge to the explosives causing detonation.
It would have been funny if he said "Hey vsauce Michael here". 😂😂