Candle Power (Video)

How does this work?

It's a joke.

HA HA HA, Another amusing but completely impossible stunt. I wish I had enough free time on my hands. I would show you how I could make my car levitate by using two candles with nails in them and a sweet potato. Notice you cant see behind the candles where the wires that connect to the nail inside the candles probably are. Or else they go through holes in the tables or maybe the running motor and light are spliced in completely using video tricks. No longer is a picture or video evidence of anything.

Watch his "other hand" creeping under the table as he lights or blows out one of the candles.

Yeah, you think he would at least use a foot-switch or an assistant. The one of the two sweet potatoes running the MP3 player was slicker though no more real.

Funny. I'd read the title of the MP3/potato posting (whenever it was new) and didn't even look, because I'd assumed they were simply demonstrating a potato battery, which kids have played with in early science classes for eons. But in the potato one, the videotaped setup could not possible work for many obvious reasons. (Whereas, with a large numbers of potatoes, and with enough dissimilar metals, you could power an MP3 player, if done right.)

On the potato video, the only indication that power is available is the LCD screen light going on. (The sound is put in during edit of the video.) I'd be almost certain that he simply plugged in the AC adapter cord -- hoping to lead one to think he'd plugged in the speakers (which, of course, would need their own separate power supply). Plug in the adapter -- of course "We've got power."

I just thought you might appreciate this image taken from the video clip. He couldn't even get the timing right, the light cam on while the second candle wasn't even burning.

Some people never learn, after the potato powered MP3 player got ripped to pieces in the first few minutes I would have thought that trying to pull a fraud like this at CR4 was a no no.

So as it says in the picture "there ya go" or should I really be saying "there ya don't go".

Clearly there is not fooling CR4 members!! Great Screen shot!

Hi Masu,

Great frame grabbing!

But then, all your clip really proves is that the oil industry got wind of this and tampered with the video!

I have no doubt that this candle generator found some "believers", who are even now attempting to duplicate it, if only they could find the "right" candles.

Such are born ever so many perpetual motion demonstrations.

Greg

The candle is on. What you are seeing is a flickering flame. Your screen shot shows it off but it's on. The camera's optics are not sensitive enough to pick up on a flickering flame. So you see the candle and think it's off. As you watch the video, after the flame flickers, the candle is lit. So obviously the candle was on.

As far as this working, it does. But it's very tempramental. You have to get the right distance between the candles. It takes a few tries. After I got it to work, the feeling was wonderful. It truly is rewarding. I use it to power a poratable tv I have. It takes 2 1.5V batteries, so the candles work perfectly.

To start with the candle needed to be lit twice. The screen shot was taken between the first and second lightings and clearly shows that there was no flame burning yet the light bulb is on.

The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the energy going to the light bulb has nothing to do with the flame of the second candle.

As far as this working, it does. But it's very tempramental. You have to get the right distance between the candles. It takes a few tries. After I got it to work, the feeling was wonderful. It truly is rewarding. I use it to power a poratable tv I have. It takes 2 1.5V batteries, so the candles work perfectly.

Male bovine excrement!

OK lets assume for a moment that there is a current flowing through the bulb. The globe looks to be a 3 V 500 mw globe. That means that the current flowing through the clobe will be

I = P / V ≈ 167 mA

Since the wax of the candles is an insulator and there is no return path for the electrons to flow then the voltage across the candles will build up over time according the the capacitance between the to candles. I am going to be generous here and give them a 30 pf capacitance.

Now the charge is equivalent to the current multiplied by time and in the video the light glows for approximately 16 seconds therefore the charge that would be imparted on the candles is

Q = It = 167 ma x 16 s = 2.672 coulombs

Since there is no return path this charge must build up and we can calculate the voltage that would develop between the two candles if we know the capacitance. I have tested this and it works out at about 5 pf . Now the voltage that would build up between the two candles is equal to the charge divided by the capacitance therefore

V = Q/C = 2.672 / 5 pf = 0.594 x 10¹² volts

That's roughly 600 billion volts after 16 seconds and I hate to say this but the arcing that would take place between the two candles would make what happened to Hiroshima look like a picnic. Without a return path the whole thing is impossible so as I said earlier this is,

Total male bovine excrement!

I agree completely re candle spacing, although equally important is the height of both the flame base and flame tip. When using three candles for things that require 4.5 v. it seems that all these problems are exacerbated. (Common sense tells you that it should work just fine, with slight voltage variations according to changes in spacing -- but no, it's really quite persnickety.) I once spent almost 15 minutes getting the candles properly positioned so that I could power a three cell flashlight. But nothing compares with the satisfaction of doing it right.

Please Ken, tell me you are kidding.

I ould ell you i'm idding ut my ongue i oo uck o my eak.

I was thinking it might have poked all the way through. You had me going for a second, sounded so sincere!

My favorite was magnetizing the nails by stroking them with any random spot of the magnet in BOTH directions. Heh.