Previous in Forum: Impressive Robots   Next in Forum: Hazardous Area Classification
Close
Close
Close
12 comments
Rate Comments: Nested
Participant

Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 3

Candle Power?

11/19/2011 4:59 AM

There are two candles. Put a nail into each candle then rub a magnet on both of the nails. Take a wire a join both of the nails to a LED. Now burn the candle one by one. Will this cause the LED to turn on or not? Challenge for everyone.

Register to Reply
Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Guru
Engineering Fields - Systems Engineering - New Member Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member

Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Borrego Springs
Posts: 2636
Good Answers: 62
#1

Re: Candle Power?

11/19/2011 11:52 AM

no

__________________
"If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
Register to Reply
Guru
Engineering Fields - Electrical Engineering - Been there, done that. Engineering Fields - Control Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Long Island NY
Posts: 15600
Good Answers: 981
#2

Re: Candle Power?

11/19/2011 3:46 PM

What you appear to propose does not even make for a closed circuit, let alone anything that can drive above the threshold of a diode voltage drop. So I repeat Edignan's succinct answer, no.

__________________
"Don't disturb my circles." translation of Archimedes last words
Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Chicago
Posts: 3990
Good Answers: 144
#3

Re: Candle Power?

11/19/2011 4:13 PM

Not really a challenge for everyone.. Which candle gets the cathode/anode?

__________________
High Tolerance is Beautiful
Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Phnom Penh
Posts: 4019
Good Answers: 102
#4

Re: Candle Power?

11/20/2011 12:07 AM

Total bollocks

see http://message.snopes.com/showthread.php?t=48319 and http://hackedgadgets.com/2007/02/02/how-is-the-fake-candle-power-trick-done/

Nuff said.

__________________
Difficulty is not an obstacle it is merely an attribute.
Register to Reply
Guru
Engineering Fields - Electrical Engineering - Been there, done that. Engineering Fields - Control Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Long Island NY
Posts: 15600
Good Answers: 981
#5
In reply to #4

Re: Candle Power?

11/20/2011 12:33 AM

Well at least we now know where this absurd idea originates. Thanks for the links.

No matter how many times you tell people that they shouldn't believe everything you see on the web, some still will.

It's not even a very good illusion.

__________________
"Don't disturb my circles." translation of Archimedes last words
Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: About 4000 miles from the center of the earth (+/-100 mi)
Posts: 9910
Good Answers: 1141
#6

Re: Candle Power?

11/20/2011 5:34 AM

Only if you say the magic words.

Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Virginia, Georgia, Idaho
Posts: 1079
Good Answers: 30
#7

Re: Candle Power?

11/20/2011 6:16 AM

the LED will not light, but will cause your candles to burn brighter. This effect, called the single malt infarction, has been simultaneously recorded by Lyndoor Industries and Dragon Balls LTD in separate patent applications. We are currently litigating.

__________________
PFR Pressure busts pipes. Maybe you need better pipes.
Register to Reply
Guru

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: by the beach in Florida
Posts: 33392
Good Answers: 1817
#8

Re: Candle Power?

11/20/2011 9:26 AM

You can convert heat of candles burning to mechanical power via sterling engine and run a teeny generator...But your assumptions here with present design is fantasy...

__________________
All living things seek to control their own destiny....this is the purpose of life
Register to Reply
Power-User

Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: outside Cincinnati
Posts: 115
Good Answers: 5
#9

Re: Candle Power?

11/21/2011 9:45 AM

This is a parlor trick. If you want the candle power to light the led I would recommend that you use the trick we used many years ago to run a radio off the kero lamp on the kitchen table. Use dissimilar metal junctions over the flame with like junctions out in the room temp air. Now days this is known as a thermocouple. back then we just knew it made a small amount of electric current (Dc). Combining many into a series - parallel arrangement produces enough current to run the old radio. On kero with no ties to the grid. It worked and will still work. So why use trickery when you could do it the way we did back in the early 50's.

__________________
Anything can be made, sometimes at great expense, resulting in greater satisfaction, :)
Register to Reply
Guru
Popular Science - Weaponology - New Member Engineering Fields - Engineering Physics - New Member Engineering Fields - Nuclear Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: No. VA, USA (No, it does NOTu mean "won't go"!)
Posts: 1796
Good Answers: 75
#10
In reply to #9

Re: Candle Power?

11/21/2011 11:20 AM

This has the makings for an absolute incredible Middle or High School science fair experiment. Don't answer this, as I send my students to CR4 for research purposes, but think about what student could learn about practical physics, chemistry, metalurgy, and a ton of other applied sciences, considering and researching what exactly makes a thermocouple generate electron flow. This would lead to "Which dissimilar metals, and with what dissimilarities, would create the greatest current flow? Do you generate more power through a chemically bonded, physically bonded, or unbonded junction?" (i.e., soldered, welded, or just twisted). I can think of a raft of other questions my students would be able to pursue. And all of the research would lead toward, if not actually to, practical applications.

Thanks for this input. I never even thought of applying the thermocouple principle in this way.

BTW, and this one I could use a public answer for, does a Peltier junction work in a "thermocouple-ish" fashion? If I apply heat to one side, or cold to the other, does it generate current flow?

I had a Peltier once, but no longer. And I didn't think to test this while I had it. I wonder if you couldn't, with suitable heat-sinking, make a direct-to-dc field generator to lay in your campfire. Thermocouples could do it. Would a Peltier junction device?

__________________
Been away a while. Miss all my old friends. Some of you I KNOW are still around. Where are the rest?
Register to Reply
Guru
Engineering Fields - Electrical Engineering - Been there, done that. Engineering Fields - Control Engineering - New Member

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Long Island NY
Posts: 15600
Good Answers: 981
#11
In reply to #10

Re: Candle Power?

11/21/2011 12:07 PM

How a Peltier-Seebeck device actually works is a quantum mechanics operation that will probably be beyond your high school students. You can use a Peltier-Seebeck device to directly convert a thermal gradient into electric power. It is one of the methods that companies are presently exploring for solar power conversion. Photo voltaic cells directly convert visible light into electric current but a significant part of the solar power we receive on the surface of the Earth is infrared energy.

__________________
"Don't disturb my circles." translation of Archimedes last words
Register to Reply
Power-User

Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 164
Good Answers: 1
#12
In reply to #9

Re: Candle Power?

11/21/2011 5:29 PM

That's what I thought he was trying to show.

Register to Reply
Register to Reply 12 comments
Copy to Clipboard

Users who posted comments:

edignan (1); JE in Chicago (1); micahd02 (1); PFR (1); redfred (3); RicinCinci (1); Rixter (1); snatr (1); SolarEagle (1); Wal (1)

Previous in Forum: Impressive Robots   Next in Forum: Hazardous Area Classification

Advertisement