This is kinda neat. Not sure how much candlepower is put out by this invention, but still kinda neat. Video at link.
Posted on 06/30/2013 2:01:44 AM PDT by rawhide
...and earns spot in Google Science Fair finals
This girl's science project really puts your baking soda volcano to shame
A 15-year-old girl in Canada has invented a flashlight that only needs the warmth of the hand to turn on.
Ann Makosinski, a high school junior in Victoria, British Columbia, was trying to think of a way of harvesting untapped energy when she was inspired to make the flashlight.
She realized that the warmth generated by the human body was an overlooked energy source.
Her project objective was to create a flashlight that ran solely off the heat of the hand.
That objective was accomplished when she discovered Peltier tiles, which produce electricity when one side of the tile is heated and the other is cooled.
Makosinski realized she could use these tiles to create energy for her flashlight if she left the device hollow.
Holding the flashlight on the outside would cause the tiles to heat up on one side while the ambient air would cool down the tile on the inside of the flashlight.
The power created by the tiles was enough to power an LED light, but it did not create enough voltage.
To troubleshoot that issue she created a circuit that would allow for transformers, upping the voltage.
It worked! The flashlight does have one issue: it works better in colder temperatures since the inside is better able to cool down comparative to the person's body heat.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This is kinda neat. Not sure how much candlepower is put out by this invention, but still kinda neat. Video at link.
Couldn’t you put peiltier cells on the back of solar cells and recover some wasted heat energy, or fabricate them in layers with the solar cells on top and the peiltier cells below them, with the back of the cell in the shaodw it could boost the effeciency....
Wonder what you could power if you made a jacket out of those tiles.
Laser eyeballs.
> She realized that the warmth generated by the human body was an overlooked energy source.
Hopefully the government doesn’t or we might end up in a cocoon hooked up to wires ala Matrix style
I’m thinking why not solar powered LED flashlight to scare rapists away?
Has this got anything to do with how a mood dring works?
Whatever — not only is she smart and creative, she is very well spoken. Best of luck to her.
Some people are hotter than others.
It darn well better be, considering all that carbon dioxide we’re excreting!
Wonder why she pronounced volts like vaults.
she’s Canadian. probably some French background.
Strap a piece of buttered toast to a cat's back and drop from a 5-story building.
Good job.
My thoughts were going in a similar direction. Every little bit helps.
Could be kind of expensive to make, but they can be sold to the govt.
Good for her she’s a thinker.
Hope her friends don’t tease her and call her old hot hands Ann.
Well that will never work for old people, their never warm, just ask them.
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