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To which email should I send the proof of my student status to get the discount?
[I'm not selling anything, so I don't know which discount you're talking about. Is this something from Google Ads? You'll have to contact the actual advertiser. -billb]

Biff
New-York, USA Continental - Friday, December 28, 2007 at 04:07:03 (PST)
Hi, I find your site honest and informative. Something for anybody interested in science. Good Job.
Leonard
Krugersdorp, Gauteng SA - Sunday, December 23, 2007 at 23:08:34 (PST)
Just learned about this awesome application. Is there a Windows version? If not, are there any plans to release a Windows version anytime soon? thanks!
Irene Miller
Billings, MT USA - Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 23:11:20 (PST)
Hello, I want to thank you for the wealth of useful information on your website. I came across it by accident, but I will be returning.
Demond Jackson
Lansing, MI USA - Saturday, December 22, 2007 at 21:47:03 (PST)
A great science fair project could be developed from this work. A simple and inexpensive apparatus can be used to measure a spin force around humans, animals, plants, bowls of fruit. This fills a gap between spin of sub atomic particles and spin of planets, stars, galaxies, and super galaxies. The amplitude of the spin force around humans has been found to vary with solar/geomagnetic activity, vitality of the subject, phase of the Moon, and sometimes, for some subjects, intention. Remote healing by 20 subjects influenced the amplitude in 17 trials. Observations by one Russian, indicated that spin forces radiate very much faster than light. It is suggested that 'spin' be assumed to be a fundamental force, replacing magnetism, which is a special case of spin. Please check my website, www.buryl.com . Click the "Spin" link. There you will find more information on my discovery.
Buryl Payne
Soquel, CA USA - Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 12:36:10 (PST)
Comprehending The Bernoulli Principle http://svbutchart.com could be a good addition to the reference list.
stan Butchart
Seattle, Wa USA - Tuesday, December 18, 2007 at 21:10:35 (PST)
Your theory regarding the capacitors is genious. Thank you for your great contribution in form of this site.
Hariton Gusman
San Diego, CA USA - Monday, December 17, 2007 at 02:37:20 (PST)
cool
tele
USA - Wednesday, December 12, 2007 at 02:13:53 (PST)
In the case of the UFO binoculars seen on a different page that had a link to this one. Use a reflecting telescope and place the solar cell over the top of the secondary mirror. I suppose this could be done with a huge telescope and clean electronis to reduce the "hiss" noise but have not read about that being done.
Barry Stephens
San Marcos, TX USA - Monday, December 10, 2007 at 19:33:01 (PST)
Great site. Better than 4hv.org 4hv.org really sucks big time.
Chris Russell
USA - Sunday, December 09, 2007 at 15:48:07 (PST)
Great site with tons of great info and love the utube vids by Beaty which I would like to hear from; check out my website! I am on the way to detecting esoteric types of energies using and verifying new and other peoples' detectors! MrZeta7@yahoo.com
Mistah Gray
Rockland, Me USA - Wednesday, December 05, 2007 at 21:42:38 (PST)
How about something on less fantastical potential alternative energy sources: hydrogen producing algae or bacteria, elecricity-producing bacteria, biological fuel cells, synthetic photosynthesis and so forth... No matter what it is, all the scientific brainiac orthodoxy always seem to say it'll take 20 years regardless. Maybe several someones not so rooted such science dogmatism, and/or without too much vested interesed in jeopardizing petroleum-stock portfolios might just actually come up with something and be able to make it public knowledge, that is, before the petroleum/neocon police come knocking on their doors with an offer that s/he couldn't refuse, i.e.: "hand over the patent and the prototype... or we'll ruin you...or worse."
Karl
MN USA - Saturday, December 01, 2007 at 21:06:48 (PST)
No! I only wanted to click and get quick satisfaction - and your magnificent site is HUGE! I'll be coming back for more, and putting you on my poor, baby blog. Brilliant stuff. I'm an unemployed physicist - you might just help cure my awful cravings. Respect.
Amanda Gipson
Sheffield, UK - Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 12:26:56 (PST)
At my site you could find the project of superluminal particle accelerator soon. Paradoxically, it is deduced from Einsteins Special relativity
petar bosnic petrus
Samobor, croatia craoatia - Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 13:54:59 (PST)
:) CAPS> WRITE ONLY http://www.runescape.com
hhhohohoh
Phoenix, FT USA - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 19:28:06 (PST)
Who owns this place? I'm doing research and want to know when this site was published and your last name and first initials please. put it on your website. Thanks! bye
jagex
New york, NY USA - Wednesday, November 21, 2007 at 19:25:47 (PST)
Great site. just what i was looking for.
Dining Room Furniture
USA - Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 08:06:17 (PST)
Wery good website. Thanks.
andy
Brooklyn, NY USA - Monday, November 19, 2007 at 07:18:39 (PST)
What an excellent and refreshing site. I have copied quotes onto "myopia free". I get "beaten up" or a regular basis by the majority-opinion ODs -- that myopia can not be prevented. On the basis of pure-SCIENCE I say that it can be. But that is scientific truth for me. Otis
Otis Brown
Waynesboro, PA USA - Saturday, November 17, 2007 at 14:09:42 (PST)
I will agree with my last comment and say that its been 7 years,and this place is still a big ass waste of time. :)
James Villella
Colorado Springs, CO USA - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 08:52:16 (PST)
this site is the bomb like a Andrew-splosion
Andrew Johrendt
Cocoa, FL USA - Monday, November 12, 2007 at 12:04:33 (PST)
Here's a website that hosts a Java based traffic simulation that allows you to alter road and traffic conditions at your whim with unexpected results( http://vwisb7.vkw.tu-dresden.de/~treiber/MicroApplet/ ). For example a higher speed limit will not always result in traffic moving faster; in most cases having a lower speed limits reduces bottlenecks and improves traffic flow.
Elliot
Los Angeles, CA USA - Monday, November 05, 2007 at 10:34:35 (PST)
Some are wise and some are otherwise.
denny
dallas, ko usa - Saturday, November 03, 2007 at 12:03:39 (PDT)
i am a freak the c.d skips when i am stressed, if i am in a bad mood i blow the amplifier, if i am feeling energetic i turn my car head lights off and the light remains on, every car i used to go in - the car battery would go flat, street lights on off, if i am tired brand new batteries go flat, my laptop computer won't turn off, machines hate me as i tend to break them - i really think i am the interference disk to stop humans from being mind controlled by aliens, i think i am a genetically modified human, perhaps i have alien implants in me and these cause interferrance, i use to wake up in middle of night and go outside - always i would see at least two satellites going past - perhaps my thoughts bounce off satellite and onto another, i saw four alien ships - the control room they wrapped me in green light and when i went to bed they said were putting me in hospital and i saw a green light scanner on my ceiling - i was terribly ill at that time and they healed me - i know i not crazy - they told me to put my helmet on - (perhaps they meant my virtual reality helmet - they said i from andromeda and since i got da green light i have been able to heal people - miracles - my boyfriend had a brain tumor and i saw green light over him and he now lives, other people had made me take my hands away as they have felt electric shock and a lot of heat go through the parts on them that need to be healed - they say they can still feel the heat days later - they then become healed - i am scared that i may be found out as a freak and scientists will want to cut my brain up and do tests on me - i heard in my bedroom a voice that said i was a fine specimen - they think i am just an animal but that makes them not very highly evolved to think of me and treat me like an animal - they have also saved my life however i use to hear invisible helicoptors and had an ongoing fight with machines on a radio - the machines started to hate me and eventually disowned me as i think i did their poor heads in ha ha i say their experimenmt got out of hand and i toughened up and kicked their arss as in dreams the hypnotising grey aliens now have to wear protective glassers as i will hypnotise and over power them these days - yeah i a human - not superhuman just a super human
julia
auckland, new zealand - Tuesday, October 30, 2007 at 12:18:56 (PDT)
I found your site in a reference listing.I would like to coment on what a terrific informative site that it is.Great job,well done!
Fred Hansen
de - Saturday, October 27, 2007 at 15:19:03 (PDT)
Another man's mind is a closed book.
astana
denver, kolorado kolorado - Thursday, October 25, 2007 at 10:17:17 (PDT)
From where does electron flow, from higher potential to lower potential or vice versa. The lecture of college said that it was vice versa in a DC circuit. It means that current flow from higher to lower potential. But in the case of a condutor connected to an ac outlet, current flows due to the movement of electrons(i know it is the real fact about the conduction in solid metal) and the current flows from higher potential to lower then what about the direction of electron. Please help out as quick as possible. Trusting in ur answer
[ "higher" and "lower" can be misleading, since a large negative potential is "high" voltage, yet it's negative, so it's "low?" Better to say that electrons in a passive load will flow from MORE NEGATIVE to MORE POSITIVE potential. Positive ions flow the other way. Wires conduct because of their movable electrons. But most non-metal conductors (plasma, salt water) contain movable positives AND movable negatives. (Also, electrons in a generator coil or on surfaces of battery electrodes will flow backwards against any potential measured on the generator or battery terminals! "Charge pumps" such as batteries and generators push electrons backwards against potential, that's why they are sources of energy. -billb]

Faisal
Banglore, India - Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 05:07:05 (PDT)
HI and good day to all! I qualified as an Electronics Engineer and spent the latter part of 20 years working with radar, television and finally VHS video signal processing. But, after all those years, I feel like trying my hand at a valve (you guys call them tubes in the USA!)project. Finding your site was a blessing! By the way, where in Seattle are you based? I spent around 5 yrs trying to get into the USA via a suitable job but gave up in the end :(
Jag
Olde Englande, UK - Sunday, October 14, 2007 at 09:28:57 (PDT)
I have just stumbled across your site whilst doing some research and I have to say it is one of the best written technical sites I have come across. The business I work for website is nowhere near as well written as yours, informative but easy to read and an enjoyable read. Thank You
simon johnstone
Huddersfield, England - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at 04:18:59 (PDT)
I simply wished to point out this article: http://www.physorg.com/news110191847.html In reference to confirmation of your page on water threads: http://amasci.com/freenrg/wasser.html The Physorg article appears to confirm the results. Moreover, they didn't even require the initial thread, or "bridge," apparently they simply used high voltage DC and the water did the rest! Cheers, ~Michael Gmirkin
Michael Gmirkin
Beaverton, OR USA - Sunday, September 30, 2007 at 02:37:53 (PDT)
Liked you site, lots of information, will try to send you an e-mail. Microwaves.
don v
Fort Mcmurray , ab Canada - Saturday, September 29, 2007 at 10:59:55 (PDT)
I inform about the new Gearturbine, power by barr, with retrodynamic dextrogiro vs levogiro effect, an non parasitic looses system, and over-unit engine. To see details: www.geocities.com/gearturbine
Carlos Barrera
Monterrey, Mexico - Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 10:43:50 (PDT)
I first came upon the concept of 'wave theory' and 'friction' as they relate to traffic, in a book I read in the 1970's called "Expert Driving". I have also noticed the 'calming' effect that a single vehicle can have on a huge traffic stream. It won't take very many people operating in this manner to have a HUGE effect on traffic, accidents, and commute time! Resonance is a truly amizsing thing! -bob
Bob Audlee
Leominster, MA USA - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 19:01:01 (PDT)
I was reading your eletrical people story, but didn't find one like mine. I have no control over it or when it happens, but plenty of witnesses. I feel an eletrical current running through my hands sometimes when I touch them together or touch another person, usually when I am very at peace and feeling a lot of love. I can actually touch another person's face when this is happening and rub the outside of their ear and they will hear a buzzing noise like I was running something electrical over their ears. It freaks them out and me too. Ever hear of anything like it?
Tanya
Houston, TX USA - Thursday, September 13, 2007 at 01:25:41 (PDT)
Beware. This site will convince you that light(and emr generaly)is a wave and possibly show you that a lot of your life has been in vain.
geoff harries
munich, Germany - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 at 06:32:07 (PDT)
Hi, I appreciate your views on transistor's working.I think it will be nice if you add your view on relationship between collector,base,and emitter current. sale
Sara
New York, USA - Sunday, September 09, 2007 at 04:37:14 (PDT)
Karen, I send you mail and it's coming back as eskimo won't allow it to go through. Can you contac them? Otherwise I have no way to send you the notes to the class you registered for.
Maria Marsala
USA - Sunday, September 09, 2007 at 00:48:26 (PDT)
Its a nice job you are doing... people worldwide require science awareness..
Free funny videos
OL, CA USA - Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 09:17:55 (PDT)
Bill, yours is one of the few websites that I have read, and read, and read, and read... and read again... and again. It has been a great help to me and helped me to figure out many of the things that have helped me to understand alchemy a bit. Thanks! Your website is a treasure! It looks great. Thanks! -Josh
Josh Gulick
Portland, OR USA - Monday, September 03, 2007 at 20:04:02 (PDT)
In a way to be exhaustive in your web site, you could had the following address: http://membres.lycos.fr/degravitation/intro/html/intro1.htm. This French searcher (Dct in physics) has published 2 books in French (ed: Manuscrit.com) that are very interesting. Congratulations for your excellent website Best regards MH
Franck Hollender
Paris, france - Monday, September 03, 2007 at 01:32:32 (PDT)
Hi, Bill! I've enjoyed your website for years. I found it early on in my mad (read, 'amateur') scientist haunts. I started to build a tesla coil years ago. Got as far as a really AWESOME secondary coil; it took many hours, many nights to wind it myself by hand. Then I tucked it away in a corner of the garage, out of site, out of mind. I rediscovered it last spring when cleaning. Picked it up; it was heavy at one end, so I gave it a slam, dislodging the rat's nest, turds, etc, that came plopping out on the concrete floor. So, that coil was tossed. But it got me back on track. This time I've acutally bought a nice, new, suplus flyback transformer, and a 4" sphere for the topload. I think this time I'll actually build the thing (but will buy the secondary, pre-wound, from eBay!)and maybe even have some fun and not fry myself in the process. Keep up the good work!
Jerry Slack
SF Bay Area, CA USA - Friday, August 31, 2007 at 23:46:04 (PDT)
Thank you for putting my anger and frustration toward the "teachers" in this field so eloquently into english. I KNOW HOW TO MAKE A TRANSISTOR WORK. I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS. Thank you. And your theory on capacitors. Brilliant. I'm one of those that dont accept crap that my brain cannot wrap around. (crap, wrap.....hmmmm). Then I refuse to move on. I'm stuck. Then I suffer. Not the teacher and the blind followers, only too happy to waddle on...not knowing. I also have a problem with the convention direction of "current". Any help you can lend me on the subject? Thank you and I, bless you.
Adrian Bartholomew
Leawood, KS USA - Friday, August 31, 2007 at 07:36:18 (PDT)
Hello,I'm a middle school student who needs an idea for a science project and i stumbled upon your video on youtube,thus finding your site here.So do you have any tips for me as a student who would like to try your project? I mean this is like the coolest thing i have ever seen as a science project =) Please email me at Knownas23@aim.com,if you cannot reach me on here =) thanks,You rock! for a physics teacher anyway =D
Tyler
Loxahatchee, FL USA - Wednesday, August 29, 2007 at 14:46:38 (PDT)
Hello Good job!!! Alex
Alex
New York, NY USA - Tuesday, August 28, 2007 at 07:38:06 (PDT)
I could kiss you right now for FINALLY clearing the 5year "how the $&@! do transistors work?!" fog from my head. Your explanation was perfect. I hope you do someday find the time to replace the ascii drawings w/ animations but I highly commend you for the excellent "drawings". : )

I've finally found someone who understands my sensical dilemma. How very compassionate of you to take the time to dispell the wall of confusion facing so many people. I graduated in physics, took an electronics course, walked away w/ ZERO electronics knowledge and still don't know a single person who graduated w/ me that could explain transistors. It took your site + a 35year IBM veteran to place me where I really wanted, and should have been, my senior year of college. thank you! matt --=[tweakman at mac.com]=--
MATTHEW TWYMAN
AUSTIN, TX USA - Sunday, August 26, 2007 at 23:05:51 (PDT)


The web site http://www.sailmag.com/cclasscats/ shows an example of an sail for class c catamaran that is symetrical and is a good example of your assertion that a "wing" does not need to be curved above an flat below to generate lift. I saw this up close in Bristol, RI yacht club recently (Aug 2007). Since a yacht has to tack in both directions into the wind it would have to be symetrical. Interestingly, the flap at the back is very large.
David Ramage
Rahway, NJ USA - Saturday, August 25, 2007 at 18:25:58 (PDT)
I inform about the new Gearturbine, power by barr, with retrodynamic dextrogiro vs levogiro effect, an non parasitic looses system, and over-unit engine. To see details: www.geocities.com/gearturbine
Carlos Barrera
Monterrey, Mexico - Friday, August 24, 2007 at 16:49:44 (PDT)
After ages spent re-reading Wikipedia articles, I finally found William Beaty's fantastic explanation of transistors. I really, finally, fundamentally, understand them, and I do thank him for all he has done for us electronics newbies.
Elen Baxter
USA - Friday, August 24, 2007 at 07:26:22 (PDT)
I would like instructions how to build youyr model that repells gravity at one end and attracts it at the other end email is www.timetraveler6666@yahoo.com
bill
visalia, ca USA - Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 17:33:26 (PDT)
I have enjoyed (only briefly, so far) your web site. Just a quick comment: Have you ever considered that some of the more advanced concepts in physics are also ... well, simply wrong. For example, no one on Earth actually knows what electron spin is. Sure, I understand the Dirac equation and its derivation, but no on knows what electron spin "IS" in terms of bouncing balls and walls you can punch with your fist, and so on. And, another example: The universe we live in is three-dimentional. Duhh. Einstein published the SR articles in 1905, and when the mathematicians came along (I forget which ones) and described it all as four-vectors, Einstein said something like, "They've taken my theory and recast it into a form that I don't even understand!" (He was being hyperbolic, of course.) And, BTW, time is NOT the fourth dimension. The "fourth dimension" (which is merely a mathematical convenience and does not actually exist) is not "t", it is "ct" -- it's the *distance* that light would travel in vacuo in time "t". And never mind string theory. Don't take me there.

Physicists believe that if they understand the math, then that's all there is to know and if you ask questions, you're just naive and dumb. Nobody even knows why inertia exists! (Yea, yea, OK ... maybe it's the Higgs boson.)

Anyhow ... these are just friendly comments ... There's a lot of complacent self-decption out there among physicists.

Regards ...
Charles Dillingham
Clarkston, GA USA - Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 12:55:21 (PDT)


I have had a long time interest in high frequency energy production.I found your site very interesting. Thanks.It worked really well. dzordz
dzordz
New York, NY usa - Wednesday, August 22, 2007 at 06:58:32 (PDT)
Hi, I appreciate your views on transistor's working.I think it will be nice if you add your view on relationship between collector,base,and emitter current.
sale
Bangkok, CA Thailand - Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 17:02:19 (PDT)
Mr Beaty, I have been an electronics technician for more than 30 years, have made plenty of money, am confident in my trade but have to admit, don't really know that much about electronics. After sufing the web for a better understanding of transistors, I found your sight. Thanks for being down to earth and straight forward. I look forward to developing my own gut-feeling about the trade that I "thought I knew" a lot about. I know you're busy but I would enjoy staying in contact with some of your other readers. V/R David Yutzy (...ftsccs@batelco.com.bh++==)
David Yutzy
USA - Friday, August 17, 2007 at 09:43:53 (PDT)
Weird phenomena in Seattle... On Columbia ave, walking up the hill between 2nd/3rd on the sidewalk next to the United Way building, something strange is oozing from the cracks in the pavement. It's been there for several weeks, and hasn't evaporated or washed away. It looks like water, but it's solid!

I've stepped in it to see if it was water, it's not, it's some kind of glassy material. At first, I thought it might be spilled resin, and the largest patch appears to be 'emerging' from a intentional seam in the concrete, which would make sense if someone spilled some there, and it ran downhill. But further down there is more 'weeping' from a stress crack in the concrete, like water can do. This stuff has been there for a month or more now, and it hasn't changed. It seems to have emerged sometime in the past, and then set up.

I've seen small 'soda straws' and other cave-like things growing from the undersides of old concrete bridges, but this material is water-clear! It looks like water-glass, but I can't think of a way it would form in concrete.

I may try getting a sample later.
Daniel
Seattle, WA USA - Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 14:57:05 (PDT)


This theme is closed, or here it is possible to ask a question? Thanks...
MIkeeeee
MOS, RUS - Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 10:03:10 (PDT)
Wopps Forgot to say the name of the who's CD that came from. It is called "Endless wire".^^ We are learning what we have forgotten....
John F. Hendry
White Salmon, WA USA - Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 15:15:03 (PDT)
Look at what you are reading because what you are reading is relative to what you are thinking. Look at what you are thinking because what you are thinking is relative to what you are feeling. Look at what you are feeling because it is relative to what time it is relative to an initial inertial frame of reference.

You need to learn to count cycles of feeling and where to start counting from. I need to learn what you know. Stop moving and you will find the point of reference I am talking about.

I owed you one;-) Great site sir. I often end up here doing my searches for my book on Relative Relativity. This time it was in reference to the Neurogenetic reflex action. The search on Google was "matter equal positive and negative charge."

Who - Unholy Trinity Lyrics
three kids from the neighborhood
three different lives
three different ways to be
the identical smiles
we're not the same
but we can talk
we kiss and link our arms
we take a walk
we watch the tide ever way
carry our ides through the sea
we hear the music
remember being free
we are unholy trinity
and love forever
but we are the sea
we are the ocean
we are the free
we are unholy trinity
Who do you think the three kids from the neighborhood are?
Watt happens when they take a walk?
Why is the song on track twelve?
What law measures time?
Why are you thinking this?
Does matter create life?
What is matter? Just a feeling I had because time is not relative.^^ John F. Hendry was here X.^^

John F. Hendry
White Salmon, WA USA - Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 15:04:42 (PDT)


Cool site. Thank you.
George
Wilmington, DE usa - Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 07:37:19 (PDT)
Ref Tesla's mistake. Take a look at Konstantin Meyl's work: http://www.etzs.de/onlineshop/products_new.php and especially get to grips with his scalar waves experimentation kit, that demonstrates the interaction of the spherical antennae. Have a think too about his spiral coils (as Tesla used) and think what the electromagnetic induction properties are of constant speed waves around a coil of decreasing radius. There is still more to this than regular school physics. For example Tesla measured the Schumann frequency of the resonant cavity between ionosphere and planet surface which was later corroborated, and also the scalar frequency, which Meyl corroborates.
Andy Davidson
UK - Friday, June 22, 2007 at 13:41:22 (PDT)
Taos Hum sound balancer wanted
Trent Smith
Taos, NM USA - Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 10:42:00 (PDT)
Mr. Beaty, I just want to say thanks for the infrared goggles project. When I came across it last year, I had been looking for ways to make ultraviolet pass goggles - obviously considerably more dangerous when looking around outside, but still fun. I happened to break one of the filters I was using a few weeks ago, and figured what the heck, let's order some Congo Blue gels as well.

I received my gels today and was thoroughly amazed by the results, especially with regards to flowering plants. Blood red sunflowers look pretty amazing. I plan on trying these in tandem with my UV-pass filters eventually, so if I notice anything particularly interesting with that combination I'll let you know.

Thanks again, and keep experimenting!
Duncan A.
TX USA - Monday, June 18, 2007 at 21:56:49 (PDT)


I am pretty damn sure my mom and me have this problem -or ocurrance andy thing not grounded Expt) labtops and cell phones we tend to fry or just develope odd problems with I found that ensureing its plugged in and useing wire less key boards help It seems to come fronm her side (her and I are physicly simmuler and my brother who looks more like my dads side dosent seem to have it he parents and sybolings aren't big into computers or cells really so i don't know about them, also not knowing if it may be related we both have a relitivly larger amount of dreams that end up happening expcially when it comes to tramatic events there never exact but the referance to deaths its expecilly clear I don't know that could just be that were parinoid though. Sjomspearbar@hotmail.com
sally
enning, sd USA - Wednesday, June 13, 2007 at 07:46:48 (PDT)
I have been looking into the Scalar Wave Weaponry. Some of the weather events may have been caused by this, worth looking into.
Lu
Fort Myers, Fl USA - Sunday, June 10, 2007 at 17:50:40 (PDT)
on page http://amasci.com/amateur/neodymium.html#fall dead link: "The info about this is now on John Lahr's page."

old adress: http://lahr.org/john-jan/maglev/maglev.html

new adress: http://jclahr.com/science
jake
il, il - Friday, June 08, 2007 at 01:34:13 (PDT)


Hello, have loved this site for years, thanks. My comment goes to the science museum page, concerning an addition. The Teylers Museum, in Harlaam, Netherlands (outside Amsterdam). It's website is in Dutch at http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/index_flash.html I always think it's fun surfing in languages I don't know. However, they have a great *.pdf tour at the rather long address of http://www.teylersmuseum.nl/dossiers/files/Dossier%20Welcome%20to%20Teylers%20Museum.pdf

Enjoy, add to the list, and if you want to visit Amsterdam, I recomend staying in Harlaam. dennis lee trabue
Dennis Lee Trabue
Eureka, CA USA - Tuesday, June 05, 2007 at 07:21:13 (PDT)


Many years ago, when I was working for SLAC in Menlo Park, CA, a friend of mine came in on the midnight shift with a Toyota rear axel and two bearings. He said he needed a 40 ton press to press the bearings on the axel. I said I didn't know where they had such a thing, but I knew another way to do it. We cleaned the axel off real well and went over to the liquid nitrogen tank they kept in the research area. It was three stories high, and about 10 feet in diameter. We poured some LN2 on one end of his axel and the bearing went right on....After it warmed up, we did the other end the same way......Saved a lot of time not having to search for a 40 ton press!
William E. Graham
Salem, OR USA - Sunday, June 03, 2007 at 13:49:16 (PDT)
Just a thought about your traffic model. I thought about the phenomena too, but it seems that you've left out one of the rules I considered key: When the cars/road ratio increases -- even for very small lengths of road -- cars tend to slow to adjust back to "safe" following distance. There's more than one idea in that, but it's similar to a "virtual" accident at the point of increased car density -- which takes on a life of its own. By the way: Neat site!
Alex
New-York, NY USA - Sunday, June 03, 2007 at 05:38:06 (PDT)
I discovered this week that my house is not grounded. When I had the original galvanized plumbing replaced with the latest and greatest Plastic pipes I lost my ground line. Before cooling my house this year I had an ominous feeling about the status of the evaporative cooler. For some reason I remembered the cut line hanging off the exterior of my historic home which now hung from the electric box into thin air. Just dangleing there. I called the plumber. He is licensed. He is a professional. Well, the company is anyway. Intially the company came to bid the job as if I was a new customer. After showing the plumbber the dangling wire his eyes got large. The Manager of the company is coming tomorrow to place an 8 foot metal rod into the ground. He says casually that I need a sticker on my electric box indicating I have a "non metalic" home. I told him I think I need more than a sticker. I am not sure what the actual danger has been living in a non grounded home.I am getting a long rod after a long difficult conversation. I am an educated woman. This may be a hinderence. I think it is serious not to ground a house. I think it is really amazing nothing has happened. I am thinking that perhaps this is a big deal. I have gone on line to look up "Grounding". Your article makes sense to me. It appears to be important to a lot of people that everything be grounded. I am confused how anything actually worked since the house is not grounded. The refrigerator is running. My phone is charging. I am using my laptop un-plugged now that I know for sure the house is non-grounded. I won't use the dishwasher, the washer machine or even my juicer. I feel fear. I feel unsafe. If they don't complete the rod installation tomorrow I am planing on sleeping elsewhere until the job is complete. Am I over reacting? Electricity seems like a big deal to me. I am flabergasted that the plumming company is so relaxed about making the install of the rod. I called three times after the plummer saw the situation to get a solution scheduled. The owners would not take my call. The poor receptionist had to listen to me go on and on each time explaining that it is 103 degrees outside and I can't turn on my cooler. My house happens to have air conditioning too, but I can't imagine using it as it is a brand new appliance installed just prior to the severance of the ground line. I don't want to fry out my new machine and burn my house down. Am I being over dramtic? Last week three houses burned down in Tucson. It caught me attention on the news. It is what actually prompted me to remember the dangling ground line.That and the 103 degrees creeping in. What do you think Bill B. I see you are swamped. I will post this note and see what others might think. Thanks for not spamming, Thanks even more for the information.
Gaia
Tucson, AZ USA - Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at 23:29:22 (PDT)
Thank you for your section on "BIONS", LEUKOCYTES, AND "FLOATERS." I'd been wondering whether there was something wrong with my eyes, and this site is the first I've found with a valid-sounding explanation.
Marie
Canton, MI USA - Sunday, May 27, 2007 at 14:22:04 (PDT)
I found by reading your explanation of "How a transistor works" that I also think from a physicists' "Babylonian viewpoint". I knew I wasn't crazy sensing something being wrong in regards to textbook explanations.... How about the explanation of how a MOSFET works. I think I have a good idea now but would love to read your explanation.... GREAT SITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John P Nawoh
Edison , NJ USA - Friday, May 25, 2007 at 12:16:55 (PDT)
Awesome cite! Keep up the good work!!!
Samantha
USA - Thursday, May 24, 2007 at 08:49:52 (PDT)
Hey Bill! I think I finally managed to release the ID monsters you talked about.

I was at a holiday, at the bathroom, about to take a poo. But the toiler paper was inconveniently placed at the back wall, same as the toilet. Annoying to reach for.

The obvious solution would be to simply place a roll of toilet paper in front of me on the ground. But in a fit of creativity I decided to ignore the obvious. I instead figured that since toilet paper is normally placed on a wall to your side, it might be the best place. So I turned 90 degrees left on the toilet.

But the shape of a toilet is such that it was too short now. So I decided to turn another 90 degrees and sit on the toilet backwards, with my legs around it. But I had my pants pulled down to my ankles, so I couldn't. The obvious solution would be to take off my pants completely. I ignored the obvious solution.

I instead lifted my legs ABOVE the water reservoir sitting backwards on the toilet, ready for action! Then I realised how riddiculous this whole thing is and fell off the toilet from laughing too hard.

I reached the insanity phase. I wonder if genius will follow. Cheers, Vlad
Vlad
Belgium - Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at 08:14:00 (PDT)


what a nice site you've got. just signing the guestbook for the heck of it have a nice day.
Noodles
Columbus, IN USA - Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 09:24:22 (PDT)
Hi all, I can only imagine the frustration of inventers in the quest for alternative energy. As a simple housewife, with no time to experiment, only a limited knowledge of the currently available options, and even less money to try anything of significance, I am totally frustrated that no one can find a simple, affordable system that the individual homeowner can put in place, that wouldn't conflict with local zoning, or look like crap up on my roof. I'm tired of seeing projects that would ultimately still depend upon those wires on poles sending me the energy I use. (read also as - big gov't bucks to fund the power companies' efforts that in no way will lower the bills) Somebody, PLEASE - power a home for a year!! There would be no better proof in a product. If it can be done for under $5k for the equipment, you will find investors, believe me. Shoot, forget investors, just start making/selling it yourself. Isn't that how Bill Gates started? In the garage?
Jean
Winston-Salem, NC USA - Tuesday, May 01, 2007 at 08:08:05 (PDT)
Hi Dear Bill B., I have a few questions for you if you don't mind answering or if you have the time to do that, here they are:

Are Wommelsdorf Generators and Van der Graaf Generator both electrostatic generators? Can they also be called Potential Generators? What about Tesla coils?

Which one is better or what are the applications where you would use one over the other one?

Are Van der Graaf Generators amplifiers by nature or can you obtain amplification by cascading them?

What's a better device, a regular Tesla Coil or a Van der Graaf Generator? A "Real" Tesla Coil ( I saw your explanation for this on the net, having a "third coil", forgot now the purpose) or Van der Graaf Generator?

If you wanted to create huge voltages (millions upon millions of volts), could you use a Van der Graaf Generator to create your initial "BIG" potential and then use a Tesla Coil or Real Tesla coil to further Magnefy your initial BIG voltage?

Thank you, and I hope my questions are of interest for you too, regards, Joaquin trickyeve@hotmail.com
Joaquin
Cost Mesa, CA USA - Saturday, April 28, 2007 at 04:49:32 (PDT)


After I read the explanations on electricity and related topics on your website, I had for the very first time began to understand what exactly electricity is. First the first time I could perceive the subject matter of electricity so clearly. If all teachers and text books in the world were as precise and as clear as your explanations here, the world would have been a much better place. Thank you very much for your great service and please keep it up.
Fan
Stuttgart, Germany - Monday, March 26, 2007 at 05:12:55 (PDT)
Thank you.
I am just an old layman, who likes to have gut-feeling understanding of my universe. About 2 months ago I saw a physics article without to many scary equations, so I decided to read it. It lead to my most intense study period yet experienced and with plenty of despair. Your site finally got me through. It probably sounds lame to others that what I finally realized is just that energy has no mass, not even a snip of plasma or a single electron. Those things have energy but aren't. I always tried to pin something to it, a beam, a wave... Now I get it as nothing but a principle. 3 days ago I understood it. 2 days ago I really-really got it, and yesterday I accepted it.

Sincerely, Rasmus
Rasmus
Pituffik, Greenland - Saturday, March 24, 2007 at 10:15:46 (PDT)
First, thank you so much for helping me realize that I, too, also think from a physicists' "Babylonian viewpoint". I have always stuggled with the textbooks now I know why.

I have some invention ideas that I like to prototype. I'd like to find a hobbyist type of person that 1) knows what electronics components are out there...off-the-shelf and widely available. 2) is willing to do small projects and not ask too much money for it.
Can you give advise where I can find someone like this? If any hobbyist is interested, I can be reached at dannyhcwang(@)yahoocom

Danny Wang
Los Angeles, CA USA - Friday, March 23, 2007 at 15:07:32 (PDT)
My 6 year old grandson is very interested in science of any kind. He is currently reading a book about weather. My son would like to find a science club in the Orland Fla area for him. Any suggestions? Thanks
Howard Bierley
USA - Friday, March 23, 2007 at 14:45:23 (PDT)
I tried the microwave and steel wool approach for "bigger better balls" of ball lightning and can confirm it worked four times out of four i na standard doemstic 750W oven. Power only needed for 2 seconds. Would suggest the bigger the Pyrex container around the steel wool the better to enable the discharge to last a bit longer. Kids were scared, wife was out, the only damage was when stupid me dropped the glass turntable on the floor!!
Tim Bunce
Vale of Glamorgan, UK - Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 04:03:47 (PDT)
I try to be courteous to drivers merging in to my lane when things get tight on the freeway. But what of the motorist who feels that he/she is too good to wait in line with the others and seeks unfair advantage by driving up in a free moving lane such as an exit only lane or even the shoulder, and then wants to merge in at the last moment? I am not so kind to these arrogant types. F.M.
[ But nobody can stop cheaters, they can force their way in. If you try to block them, your fight causes traffic to come to a halt. Also, in many situations the "cheaters" are perfectly normal people who missed seeing the end of a very long backup, and nobody is letting them in near the back of the line. It's not like a queue at a bank teller; since they cannot drive backwards to take their fair place at the back. When I'm in that situation, I see the close-packed people in the line as having an "I've got mine" attitude. If they won't let anyone in near the rear of the line, then we're justified to take our fair place: at the front. In actual practice, I like to get in line early, then let huge numbers of people get in ahead of me, still at the back of the line. This often shatters the traffic jam as I approach it, since the jam was entirely created by people who pack tightly together and prevent all merges except at the very front of the line. By letting people in early, I eliminate the supply of cars that have to butt their way in at the front. Since this technique works, it shows that those people weren't cheaters at all, since they happily take their place near the back end of the line... but only if the people back there open up some space. -billb]

F. Monaco
Coconut Creek, FL USA - Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 19:51:53 (PDT)
You have a mistake on your 'ridiculed' page. The tv camera guy is *John* L. Baird, not James
Bill
Vancouver, BC Canada - Monday, March 12, 2007 at 20:17:34 (PDT)
Dear sir,

I am a electrical and electronics engineerign student(India) and I would like to now more about "Kelvin's Thunderstorm" in depth.
Some questions on this topic is
what is the range of the voltage?
where we can apply this?
any reache are going on in world?
If Any research center(India) are researching in this stream please give me the address or email Id

Manjunatha.N
manjunatha5 yahoo com

Manjunatha.N
Bangalore, india - Thursday, March 08, 2007 at 20:59:35 (PST)
Thank you for the wonderfull website.
After finding your article on maglev trains on this web site, I have come up with a solution to propell the "simple" maglev train: Attach a strong electro magnet at the begining of the track, when you swich it on it should push the maglev train quite nicely.
thanks

Science Student
MI USA - Thursday, January 25, 2007 at 16:17:05 (PST)
My 8 yr old son was researching projects for his science fair and came across your website.... under Electric Projects is a link entited "Pikas Shoes" - the site it takes you to IS NOT a site for an 8 yr old boy.......It was story a regarding Pikachu from Pokemon with extremely BAD LANGUAGE!!!!! What kind of website are you running??? This website is supposed to be for Science Projects....

Kim
USA - Thursday, January 18, 2007 at 14:27:18 (PST)
I am a math/physics prof w 20 refereed publications. Over the past few years I have concluded the following:

1)My research is useless unless students are involved.
2)Students won't do research for free unless it's fun.
3)Very few students are sufficiently dedicated even if it is fun.
4)To get those who are truly interested, I have must collaborate on-line with students outside my particular school.

Hence I came up with the science of boatbuilding. For more details, as well as ideas for science fairs projects in "boatology", visit my non-comercial website at:

http://faculty.valpo.edu/gvandegr/

Guy Vandegrift
Valparaiso, IN USA - Friday, January 12, 2007 at 10:15:34 (PST)
HI William.
I appreciate your views on transistor's working.I think it will be nice if you add your view on relationship between collector,base,and emitter current.

Abhishek singh
Bangalore, Karnataka India - Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 23:12:40 (PST)
i hate your site and it hurts my head i dont understand

good day

kiki
spokane, wa USA - Friday, January 05, 2007 at 08:45:15 (PST)
Thank you for this website! Yesterday night, I lay in bed thinking about electricity, and in particular about how bothersome it was that some aspects of electricity were still puzzling to me, even after having successfully completed an EE degree many years ago. As I mulled it over, I realized that my biggest frustration lay in my inability to reconcile the seeming contradiction between high-voltage static electricity and low-voltage circuits. In the former, excess charge will readily move from, say a Van de Graff generator sphere to a metal ball, without the need for a return path. Yet when dealing with batteries and lamps, we are lead to believe that we need a closed path. I got to thinking about whether it would be hypothetically possible to drain an AA cell using a quarter, by touching it to one terminal, then moving it to the other, and repeating this process over and over again. From the electrostatic viewpoint, it seemed plausible, yet from the circuit viewpoint, it seemed absurd.

While I do not still have an answer to this small thought experiment, this website has been spot on in identifying the issues that I have struggled with for so long and gives me confidence that perhaps I'm not as ignorant about electricity as I had previously thought. At least I seem to be asking the right questions!

PS: If anyone wants to comment on my AA cell thought experiment, please write to marciot at Y a hoo.

Marcio Teixeira
Fort Collins, CO USA - Friday, December 29, 2006 at 18:04:22 (PST)
I have concept or theory of the creation,of a "black matter" not to be mistaken for dark energy, or dark matter, this invention has no prodo-type as of yet? But I'm working on one at this time. I whish I could say more as to the concept behide this process but a US patent stands in my way. Your web site has been very informative in my research and I. Thank you.
Inventor: Mr Todd J. Tocco
Rotterdam , N.Y. USA - Friday, November 24, 2006 at 18:58:27 (PST)
Marc Millis of NASA asked me to post every thing I know about forming wormholes and manipulating gravity. It has taken me about five years. It's up and running. Any one that would like to know how to do manipulate gravity can now find out how it is done. Larry L. Burks www.ufoworkshop.0catch.com
Larry L. Burks
Merkel, Tx. USA - Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 20:15:11 (PST)
Dear Mr. Beaty,
My name is Pranab Jyoti Ghosh, I am an Indian physics graduate and myself have theoretically developed a technology on producing energy without any kind of fuel. This technology is about producing energy by extracting heat from atmosphere. This technology is a combination of processes that are well tested and now in use in different industries and research projects. I have done everything that I can do by myself. But for further advance, I need financial and technical assistance. I am assuring you that this project is just need to be made and improved. All the basic experiments had been already done successfully and enough data had been gathered. In short, it is a new and exciting kind of technology and as far as I know, nothing like this exists this day.
I am writing this letter to you to know your opinion about this technology. The so-called “skeptics” have a tendency to just ignore when they are challenged. Anyone can contact me and I will supply him the necessary information to build this technology just after signing an NDA. He/ she will have all rights to test the technology and I will help him/her fully. But he/she wouldn’t have the right to patent it on his/her name and sell or license it in the market. Previously I have challenged skeptics in the same manner, but haven’t got any kind of response. I want to know what you are thinking about that. If possible, kindly refer me to some places where I can find skeptics and challenge them. They think that they only have right to challenge everybody, but I want to see them before challenges.
Best regards,
Pranab Jyoti Ghosh

Pranab Jyoti Ghosh
Kolkata, W.B India - Sunday, November 05, 2006 at 09:32:28 (PST)
The women in my family do alot of weird things. My mother, as unbelievable as it is, has almost been hit by lightening 3 times and it was close like 2 feet away, each time. One time was on a clear day with not a cloud in the sky and no lightening or anything. We all make watches stop working and cause electrical outages in our house. It is nice to know that there are others out there. Now, I do do the shock thing like I will get a strong shock on some light switches and I have made the house black out in sections and sometimes it's sections that are connected as far as fuses and only half of it goes out. It happens most when I am mad and happened alot when I was going through puberty. My fiance cannot get his cell phone to charge in his vehicle if I am touching it or even within 2 feet of it. I have worked in an office and had computer techs tell me that they can not figure out how I caused the problem that my work computer has. I have had times when people used some electrical device and it worked fine and I go to use it and it won't work properly or even not at all. I can't wear watches and my ipod battery drains very fast. I also shock myself on car doors and other things even more frequently than other people. A jeweler once told my mother that we have high magnetic fields. It always kind of freaked me out because I have no control over it and I tend to break stuff by accident when I am mad. Then again I have always had alot of unusual characteristics I guess this one is just another on my list. How would I be catagorized.
Stacey Dudek
Harrisburg, pa USA - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 at 13:41:10 (PDT)
I have a question about building the hovercraft. How does the hovercraft move? Please email me at crzynluvx3 at aim com
Helen
- Thursday, October 05, 2006 at 17:50:38 (PDT)
yes, yes, yes. I agree with your findings totally.

i have practiced the leave-large-gaps strategy for years and it works. The other offshoot of this is avoiding using your brakes unless you really have to. The trick is to break the cycle of brake light triggering the one behind it triggering the one behind it, etc. I'm convinced this is the cause of 'phantom' slowdowns; no obvious cause.

SR520 is just a parking lot disguised as a bridge. There's no hope for it. Use I90. The extra capacity makes it work.

rick chinn
sammamish, wa USA - Saturday, September 30, 2006 at 01:01:02 (PDT)
I HAVE READ SOME OF THE STORIES ON THIS SITE, AND ALTHOUGH I HAVEN'T TURNED ON AND OFF ELECTRICAL ITEM, NOT THAT I HAVE NOTICED, I DO GIVE OFF A VERY PAINFUL AND 6" BLUE ELECTRIC SHOCK, MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, WITH PEOPLE AND METAL ITEMS. I HAVE NEVER PUMPED MY OWN GAS, AS I NEVER KNOW WHEN THIS SPARK WILL APPEAR AND AM SCARED THAT IT WILL HAPPEN THE MOMENT TO TOUCH THAT NOZZLE.

AS FOR ELECTRICAL ITEMS, AS I SAID BEFORE, I HAVEN'T TURNED THEM ON AND OFF, BUT I CAN WALK BY A HOUSE AND TELL YOU WHAT ELECTRICAL ITEMS, SUCH AS A TELEVISION OR COMPUTER, IS ON. IN A HOUSE I CAN FEEL AND HEAR A TELEVSION AND SUCH BEING TURNED ON OR OFF, AND I HAVE RECEVEIVED A SHOCK A NUMBER OF TIMES FROM PHONES AND KEY BOARDS.

WHEN I WAS YOUNGER I THOUGHT IT FUN AND A GAME. NOW THAT I AM OLD, AND THE SHOCK HAS BECOME STRONGER AND MORE FREQUANTLY, I FIND IT NOT SO FUN. I GUESS I'M ASKING WHAT CAUSES THIS AND HOW CAN I STOP IT -- I CAN'T PET MY CAT, I SHOCK HER, KISSING MY PARTNER IS ALWAYS AN EXPERIENCE FOR A "LIGHTING BOLT" (AS WE NOW CALL THEM) CAN HAPPEN ANYTIME AND IS THE MOST PAINFUL.

GUESS JUST WONDERING IF THERE IS ANYTHING TO STOP IT. BUT I AM GLAD TO HEAR IT IS MORE COMMON THAN I THOUGHT.

FAYE
MELBOURNE, FL USA - Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 14:11:31 (PDT)
Bill Beatty's comments on subtle energy are interesting but by definition limited if subtle energy is so difficult to detect. There is a new system called ISIS for Intra-Spectral Imaging System that reveals this field in fine detail. For details please visit www.subtle-energy.ca/ If anyone is interested in subtle energy research please contact me at "chryancomm at dccnet com2
chris lovelidge
Vancouver, BC - Monday, September 25, 2006 at 19:50:17 (PDT)
The site is GREAT.But, could you please,please make it compatible with more browsers ( namely,Opera).I really hate it when I have to switch to IE or Firefox to use such a Great Resource. Thanks a lot for all help I've taken from your Site.I love it!!!!!! [ What part doesn't work in Opera? I checked some sections of the site in Opera long ago, back when that browser was free. It would help if you'd said what problems Opera has -billb]
Irf Lord
Delhu, India - Monday, September 18, 2006 at 08:56:20 (PDT)
I thought you might be interested in this video Professor Bannister posted on You Tube explaining how bumblebees fly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCsWNGT11xs
Best,
Adam

adam long
uk - Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 09:10:03 (PDT)
Bill,

I didn't see in your observations on traffic waves any comments on the calming effect that a reduced use of brakelights has on traffic behind you. [That's because I realized that avoiding brakes has only a small effect. If we compare it to the problems created by normal speed mismatches, we find the brakes aren't really the problem. Since nobody can keep their gas pedal set perfectly, we all will vary a bit and drift forward and back. Even if you're moving slightly *faster* than average, you approach the guy in front too closely and need to slow down. Whether fast or slow, it creates "noise" which builds up and *forces* others to use brakes to avoid collision. When driving with close spacing, whenever all the cars ahead of you hit the brakes, you have no choice but to do the same (and neither did they!) No inferior "Nervous Nellies" or brakelights are needed so long as the tiny changes in speed get amplified. One person drifts backwards, causing the next person to drift backwards more, the next more, and then the next actually has to tap the brake pedal. Even if everyone is the same, and everyone is an expert driver, whenever driving with close spacing, the tiny changes get amplified. That's the origin of traffic waves. The usual solution: preserve a large space ahead of your car. If you have a large space ahead of you, you won't need to respond to speed-changes in the traffic ahead, even if those speed changes are quite large. When "noise" approaches you, it gets damped out rather than amplified. Cars behind you drive smoothly. -billb ] When traffic is moving in waves, a significant part of the jamming feedback is caused by seeing brakelights ahead of you, well in excess of the actual decceleration of the vehicles themselves. You can see waves starting on account of the injudicious use of brakes by "nervous nellies", who aren't really slowing down, but feel a need to apply their brakes anyway, causing everyone behind them to do the same, regardless of whether they need to or not.

Mark Tilley
Brampton, ON Canada - Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 06:22:39 (PDT)
Consider looking into the partial differential equations behind this.
You have qualitatively nailed the phenomena which can be quantified. Two equations are necessary to model flow:
Conservation equation: Cars entering a control volume = Cars leaving + change in density w/in control volume (accumulation/depletion)
Constituative equation which relates the velocity of cars to the density of cars. In liquid fluid dynamics the density is constant and velocit is related to pressure. In traffic flow the velocity depends on traffic density. The simpliest way to model it is velocity = (K/density). Open road, low density == driver free to go fast. Traffic dense driver wants to slow down.
Combined and taken to the limits these equations create a partial differntial equation which gives you the wave behavior you describe in a traffic jam.
See the PDE text by Richard Haberman for more information.

d o u g l a s _ d @ m s n . c o m

David Douglas
Moscow, ID USA - Sunday, September 03, 2006 at 22:55:27 (PDT)
Thank you so much for this excellent explanation of how electricity REALLY is. I, too, am guilty of believing the model to be "the truth." After reading your site, I will never think of or explain electricity the same way again. I am a teacher, so you are affecting many.
Lynda Jones
Vista, CA USA - Thursday, August 31, 2006 at 10:54:49 (PDT)
I have invented a liquid that spontaneously produces the full spectrum of colors. I filed the patent application several months ago. Now I am looking for a manufacturer to produce and market products made with this. Any ideas? (see my website for some examples).

BMTN @ Earthlink net

Bob Blackstock
Los Angeles, CA USA - Monday, August 28, 2006 at 19:39:55 (PDT)
For some reason I can't comment on the traffic jam part of your site so I'll do it here.

I invite you to come over to Amsterdam and try your cute little theory here, just to see how long you last.
'Aggressive drivers' passing you are how we all drive here. So you'd be here on the highway in a traffic jam with your huge open space and the people behind you will be annoyed by the fact that that space is there. The people on the other lane will cut in front of you so they can drive on for a bit, making the lane next to you fast than yours, so the people behind you will pass you through that lane and everyone will be fast than you.

Have fun!

Anna
Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Friday, August 25, 2006 at 06:45:18 (PDT)
Brilliance.

Its disturbing and comforting that the human mind can handle living with falsehoods. Its good to unclutter my brain of false statements. :)

Elvin
Pleasanton, CA USA - Friday, August 25, 2006 at 02:55:59 (PDT)
Well, I've found a place where my own experience and experiments have been done separately with many of the same conclusions, using different terms, and passion. Congratulations, and Thank you!

I'm going to read lots of the materials here, and comment again. "Surfing the freeway" was an old piece I did.

This is super. I love the graphic illustrations.

John <johnewald.abp comcastnet>
Mercer Island, WA USA - Thursday, August 24, 2006 at 18:11:10 (PDT)
Hello!
Nice HP, really! I have an explanation of the following "phenom":
Quote: Sometimes during the night I hear music just faintly and when I get out of bed the music usually stops. One evening my son awakened to the music and asked me where it was coming from and neither one of us could find it and it once again just suddenly stopped. The music is not of this generation it is more of maybe the 30's or 40's. Another strange thing I hear at night is a low humming or a low voice talking like someone sending a radio signal somewhere on a submarine. I cannot make out what they are saying.
J. Thurau
Lake Havasu, AZ USA - Sunday, September 01, 2002 at 17:23:32 (PDT)

Had the same thing. Came out of an uncleaned air ionizer. An electrician told me, it´s possible to receive faint radio signals this way, because of semi-conductive properties of the collected dust along with some moisture of the air + dc can make this work very much like the crystal detector radio. The stopping of the sound is just the changing of your perception after standing up, imho. The old style music maybe due to some nowadays' station playing classics, too.

Best regards, Kai

Kai
Germany - Monday, August 21, 2006 at 00:17:30 (PDT)
I am one of these people. I've never been able to wear a watch, I kill computers, telephones, and fax machines. I shock other people and metal surfaces. I've arched off of stereos and TVs in front of witnesses. This is inlightening for me, as I thought I was alone. This problem is getting worse for me. Here I've found some solutions, thank-you.
Debra Trask
Farmington, B.C. Canada - Sunday, August 06, 2006 at 11:57:36 (PDT)
About a month ago. sometime around june 5th 2006, I was walking with my friend down her street at about 11:00 PM. It was very humid, it had just finished raining and we could see flashes of sheet lightening in along teh horizin. All of the sudden there was an explosion of a thunder and an extremely bright flash of white light. In the light we could see a melon sized ball of light with rays of light shooting from it horizontally infront of our eyes. The next thing I knew I was on the ground in the dark (the power on her street had gone out) and I looked up to see my friend running and screaming towards her house. I was not hurt; I fell to the ground as a reaction to the extremely loud explosion. We both had no idea what had just happened to us. Was this ball lightening?
Erin McGuire
Waterloo, ON Canada - Thursday, August 03, 2006 at 08:46:25 (PDT)
Loved your latest video uploads :-)
Your site rules!

Johnny
San Diego, CA USA - Saturday, July 29, 2006 at 03:20:40 (PDT)
Hi Bill,
Coming to your site is a wonderful experience for me. I always find explanations that I don't seem to have picked up before. One of those gems is your article: "In A Simple Circuit, Where Does The Energy Flow?" What an amazing job to collect and assemble all the information and commenting it in an understandable way! What a great way of creating understanding!

Today I'm coming to this site to get a better understanding of a specific usage of op-amps. I have seen in several places that they can be used for three things: 1) as capacitance multipliers 2) as inductor simulators or inductance multipliers and 3) as resistor multipliers. And it's these specific usages that I would like to get a better grasp of. I will appreciate hints. Thanks! Plse email to JuD.....Rauh@@@@@t-online.de

Joerg Rauh
Mainz, RLP Germany - Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 22:49:49 (PDT)


Re; "wings really work"
You beautifully and simply describe lift "If the pressure above the wing should fall,then the ambient pressure below the wing will force the airplane to move upwards. May I ask why in the remaining texts you seem to run away from this "equal and opposite forces" explanation for lift?

Stan Butchart
Seattle, Wa USA - Sunday, July 23, 2006 at 10:33:03 (PDT)
Hey Bill(?),

I'm going into my third year as ab engineering student in audio electronics. Your section describing how transistors "really work" was a GREAT help to me. I thought I was the only one who wanted to understand how a transistor really functions. All of my electronics professors skipped honest explanation and made statements like "I'll just give you the equations" and drew up different biases on the board. I would admit to my classmates later that I didn't know how a transistor ACTUALLY worked and would look at me like I was crazy. Now I realize they probably are just a library of equations thats afraid to admit their ignorance as well! Anyway, I just decided to search for "understanding the transistor" on Google one day at work (at Altec Lansing ironically) and here I am. Just wanted to say thanks for the help and its glad to see there are people like me out there.

Matt Livick
#livick@ hartford.edu~~

P.S. I like the "Babylonian" bit.

Matt Livick
Hartford, CT USA - Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 13:11:19 (PDT)
you're a little strange aren't you?
[ One of the many keys to True Strangeness is this: live backwards. Grow younger. Merlin supposedly did this. It's simple: ignore how your body ages. By the time you get to old age, your mental age should be back to pre-teen. !llew sa sdrawkcab gnitiw dna gniklat ecitcarp dna og woN -billb]

Mimi
winter Haven, Fl USA - Monday, July 17, 2006 at 14:29:49 (PDT)
I wonder if anyone can tell me if there is a way to make a smoke gnerator/machine?
Exellent web site!
E-mail me at linkvanyali(at)hotmail(dot)com.
Thanks.

Peter
South Africa - Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 11:37:57 (PDT)
Bill, your "hovercraft" device is really called an airpad. When I worked at Otis Elevator in 1973, this device was the intellectual basis of the products of the company's Transporation Technology Division in Denver. I was told that the device had been invented at G.M., and was released as part of the 1967 bus monopoly antitrust settlement. This may be apocryphal. Otis Japan still builds transit products based around these devices.
Dick Wilson
Menlo Park, CA USA - Monday, July 10, 2006 at 21:59:00 (PDT)
The traffic waves analysis is excellent, and confirmed by a lot of current research. Any of the detractors of this theory should do a search for "traffic shock waves".

Indeed research shows that people who drive a lot, like taxi and truck drivers, learn to instinctively swallow traffic shock waves by accelerating and braking smoothly.

Detractors have argued that slowing down and leaving space ahead of you won't solve anything because it will cause a jam behind you. However the point is that smoothly flowing traffic has a greater flow rate than stop-start traffic. So yes, if you brake suddently to leave a huge gap in front of you, you'll probably cause your own shock wave behind you. However if you slow down smoothly before the jam, you'll cause the people behind you to slow down smoothly as well. And smoother traffic flows much better than stop-start traffic, even if it's maximum speed is lower than in the stop-start traffic.

As mentioned before, if you would register the domain name "www.trafficwaves.com", we could make a short, snappy overview of how to drive to increase traffic flow. I'd be happy to create an bumper sticker that any visitors could download and print out to raise awareness. It could be the next internet meme... mysterious bumper stickers that say "stop traffic shock waves... www.trafficwaves.com" and then the curious masses log on to find out...

Ah the dreams...

Peter
peterandNOSPAMjess gmailcom.NOSPAM
Perth, WA Australia - Monday, June 19, 2006 at 00:12:38 (PDT)

I hope you will get to read this Bill B.
Your FAQ inspired to me to create my own website. I had noticed that there is little or no info on the web about Mental Arithmetics, so I thought I would write something about that.

As I was wondering about addition, I noticed some things. Firstly, if I ask you to perform a simple sum like 25+46 , you will most likely start from the left hand end, add it, and adjust the first digit later. The same thing might be true for 3 digit and even 4 digit numbers.

But as the numbers get longer, we need to work from the right hand end, because constantly going back to adjust the numbers is just too much. But why should we do it that way in the first place? It's because we THINK about numbers from the left hand end. Which leads me to my revolutionary idea...

THINK ABOUT NUMBERS FROM THE RIGHT HAND END.
For example 53 217 - seven ten two hundred three fifty housand. I believe that if we thought about numbers from the right hand end, we could add awfully long sums very easily, as easily as adding 213 + 552 for example (you add that one from the left end, right?).

Since you (Bill B., or maybe others of you reading this) enjoy experimenting with weird stuff, I hope you will join me and try THINKING of numbers from the right hand end in normal life.

Anyone interested send me e-mail: vlad_dolezal AT atlas D0T cz

Vlad
Brussels, Belgium - Saturday, June 03, 2006 at 10:57:50 (PDT)
i have really liked your site.I am in form 7 that is year 14 and am taking pure science. i just wanted to know the medical field related to my subject choices.
nilufa
suva, fiji - Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 03:46:30 (PDT)
Great site! I was, however, surprised that Gateway Electronics wasn't among your listings. Any chance you would add us to your page. We've got tons of electronic parts and lots of kits...rookies and pros come to Gateway. We have stores in St. Louis and San Diego. I know this is not your typical guestbook entry, but wasn't sure how else to get my info to you, since you said you are backlogged with email.
lisa
st. louis, mo USA - Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 18:35:29 (PDT)
I like your traffic jam analysis. I had made the observation years ago in LA that the problems in heavy traffic congestion are analagous to problems in hydraulics. However I don't necessarily agree with your solutions; slowing down to create a large space which will eventually 'swallow' cars compressed together in a wave only creates another wave behind you, usually. The cars which would have normally occupied that space now have to occupy another space. Where would that be? Certainly not by the side of the road. They'll be in traffic somewhere behind you, being compressed from behind them by other cars. Presto, another 'standing wave'. Then there are the drivers who see the vast stretch of roadway in front of you as an opportunity to cut 2.8 seconds from their commute.

Better to eliminate cars altogether and build a truly world - class mass transportation system. We have the skills and means. We're just lacking the motive. But with gas crossing the $3/gal threshold it's getting nearer. I hope.

Dave Z
Everett, WA USA - Sunday, May 21, 2006 at 19:01:23 (PDT)
Thank You very much for explaining How Transistors Work in such a fine way.It really cleared up a lot of misconceptions.Thanks again.
Rahul
New Delhi, India - Saturday, May 20, 2006 at 08:46:21 (PDT)
While in Chile I witnessed a meteorlogical event. From everything I've read it would appear that it was a form of "ball lightning". It is perhaps rare in that it lasted for over 10 minutes, it moved in many directions including straight up, it was witnessed by a large number of people and I managed to get 5, 13 second exposures. I have submitted the photos to NASA's lightning research. They told me the photos are rare and it was very interesting, but I had hoped to be able to share the details of the experience with some valid researchers interested in gathering data. Anyone know who might truly be interested? mccowan mac com 561-676-2330
Michael Cowan
Miami Beach, Fl USA - Thursday, May 18, 2006 at 13:39:14 (PDT)
ON THE POSSIBILITY THAT KNOWN PHENOMENA REGARDING THE ELECTROMAGNETIC NEARFIELD REGION CONTAINS A BLATANT VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF PHYSICS (a-vectFE.html)
William J. Beaty 8/28/99

"In donut-inductors, the magnetic field-lines from each turn of wire extend over to the area enclosed by the next turn of wire, and as a result the magnetic field connects in a circle, and no field extends past the surface of the donut... The question arises: how does the magnetic field inside the donut-inductor create a current in the secondary coil if no magnetic flux comes anywhere near the secondary coil? Electronics students always ask this question"
------

It is true that the magnetic field enclosed by the wire windings in the interior of the toroid does not extend passed the wire coils, but there is a perfectly functioning external magnetic field counter part in the air surrounding the toroid core. It is this field which produces all the induction effects wondered about in the beginning of the article.

Just imagine the very basic schematic of the magnetic field along a single wire with a current passing through it: it is in the form of a sheath of concentric magnetic rings wrapping around the wire - remember the Right Hand Rule. With these rings there is no overt 'N' or 'S' pole, but rathter simply a indication of direction of flow that deflects a compass needle tangent to the axis.

To form an electro-magnet, wire is wrapped in a tight spiral (rings) around an axis (generally a straight metal core). The magnetic fields generated around this column of wire rings 'join' together (as mentioned in the quote above) forming loops of magnetic lines of force parallel to the axis enclosing the wires, with the complete magnetic field taking on the classic toroidal shape with the 'N' and 'S' magnetic poles simply being where the flow of the lines converge at the ends. Similar to the Earth's magnetic field the internal field through the core is denser than the external field and the direction of 'flow' is opposite to each other.

When you wind a circular doughnut core you are simply switching geometries, with the electrical windings now taking on the toroidal shape and the magnetic lines forming concentric rings both internally and externally to the core - at right angles to the axis through the doughnut hole. To envision it just imagine all the fields as they exist around the electromagnet and then in your mind slowly bend the magnet into a loop and you'll see the geometries change shape with the internal and external fields becoming separated as they form into their own complete, but opposite flowing, individually closed magnetic rings. Because the magnetic fields in this case are closed rings with the toroidal axis at their center, just like the field around a single wire there are no poles. Since their creation is due to the combined result of the magnetic effects of the current flow along the wire windings there has to be an external field as well as an internal field. There is no way to get around this using electricity to generate the magnetic fields. If you want a magnetic toroid with only an internal field you have to use permanent magnets.

There is nothing mystical or magical going on here, [ Actually, there is. Drs. Bohm and Aharonov looked at Maxwell's equations, but unlike all others, actually could SEE. Is the "vector potential" merely a mathematical fiction as everyone knows? Or is it a genuine field, like an e-field? The truth was revealed by electrons diffracting on two sides of a micro-thin inductor. The "A-field" surrounding a magnetized iron ring is a very bizarre thing. Large currents are induced in metal circuits wrapped through closed iron cores, yet no magnetic fields touch the metal circuits at all. "Flux cutting" doesn't explain induction. And more bizarre, this stuff was totally ignored for almost a century. For those who got a creepy feeling when seeing a current induced in a large copper hoop surrounding a totally shielded iron ring-core ...YOU WERE RIGHT. Your intuitive bells were ringing. Bohm and Aharonov paid attention to theirs. The strangest of science is hidden in plain sight right under everybody's nose. We must be very careful to avoid telling ourselves "there's nothing magic here." We do that to comfort ourselves and reduce our "cognitive dissonance" so the world seems understandable. Scientists in pursuit of discovery must do the exact opposite: PURSUE the horrible feeling where you realize that you know nothing, and the rug is pulled out from under your entire grasp of simple physics. Some scientists utterly loathe such things. I suspect that this habit of loathing has killed their creativity. To remain creative we must beware of sneering to ourselves "millions of people have already investigated this topic." Ah, but what if each of those people had the same false preconceptions and blindness, and every one of them ignores their intuition ...but YOU DON'T? Go search google for "Bohm-Aharonov effect" or perhaps "Aharonov-Bohm". Of course this has no bearing on whether my weird feeling about Maxwell's equations is true. Maybe I'm just getting some backwards-time spillover from the Bohm-Aharonov discovery. Perhaps I'm suspecting that something big IS hidden there, but in reality something big WAS hidden there. -billb]
this is basic elementary stuff. The complications seem to arise because we are all familiar with the way electromagnets are wound around segments of 'open' straight cores with their resulting toroidal electromagnetic fields with 'N' and 'S' poles, and we forget to make the necessary adjustments for the change in geometries when we think about windings on closed toroidal cores. Also just like the confusion involving the various terms and meanings of terms relating to electricity that Bill has done such a great job explaining, there is great confusion regarding magnetic 'poles'. They are simply the result of geometries, and should really just be thought of as more or less indicators of direction of flow and convergence in magnetic fields which are always closed loops whether they be rings or toroids.

H. Short
USA - Monday, May 15, 2006 at 10:41:05 (PDT)
Hi Bill,
Recently, having foud your site at work, I have been looking into the realm of amateur science, and with particular interest at the IR GOGGLES, some of which me and my friend made. We work with thermal imagers on a regualr basis and were intruigued (sp?).
We've made some, and WOW! Because the Uk weather is less sunny we're using 3 layers of lee's congo blue, and a sheet of UV filter for good measure. Lee do their own IR, which at some point soon I will be testing. I'm also trying to get hold of some black IR LEDs, and attach them to the helmet. I will try and get pictures of me wearing this somewhere if anyone is interested.
I've also looked, and found some other filters that may work, ad give better IR transmissivity.

Thankyou for inspiring me to try some science of my own

Tim (19)

Tim Peters
Near London, UK - Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 15:24:50 (PDT)
I am a non-professional cosmologist whose study has convinced himself of the existence of an energy medium which pervades all of space, and which provides the substance from which Free Energy machines should be able to obtain their "free energy", without magic.

It all started when I decided that an Expanding Universe was nonsense and devised a means by which the cosmological redshift (CRS) could be obtained in a static universe. The means rests on the truth of the statement "If there is a medium in space that supports electro-magnetic waves and if that medium is effectively increasing in density at a constant rate, then we would have a CRS that is a function of that rate-of-change and of the distance traveled by the electro-magnetic wave.".

Further study led me to accept the actuality of this medium (which I call aether, for convenience) and determine that it permeates all of space, from within the atom to inter-galactic, and has as one of its characteristics an intrinsic negativeness (a new concept).

Consider, now, the parallel plates of T. T. Thomsend's device surrounded by this negative aether and charged to (say) 20,000 volts and located in a vacuum. The positive plate of the device would be drawn in a direction perpendicular to that plate. No gravity involved!

I would be delighted to find a serious person who has an adequate education who could look at my cosmological model (which violates Conventional Wisdom) and appreciate where it is that I am headed and perhaps flesh out the scheme somewhat in directions that I haven't pursued.

For those Free Energy researchers, I am convinced that my aether is actually negative energy, that energy which is released by the stars of the galaxies of our universe and which is eventually recycled into new galaxies with an efficiency of 100%! (another new concept) As energy it surrounds us and permeates the atoms of our bodies and should be accessible, somehow. The most obvious grip we have on it is via the permanent magnets that we have, many of which seem to truly be permanent! Consider a solenoid with a DC current flowing in its turns. For all practical purposes it is indistinguishable from a PM. Now, consider the effect of this current flow on the negative energy surrounding the coil. ??? Bearden seems to be onto a setup which could have a COP>1 and if optimized might be workable. Sweet may have had a grip onto a workable device but was too secretive to leave adequate clues. These devices, and apparently many others, all use PM's. I have some ideas on this but have run out of money so can't continue my benchtop research, much as I'd like to. My cosmological research is with a pencil, so far, so that's where my attention is focused.

Jim Wrighat

Jim Wright
CA USA - Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 10:53:37 (PDT)
Hi all , I head the Physics Dept.in Gov. High School Atiela and run an N.G.O. for the promotion of basic Edu and Child- centred Dev.(www.geocities.com/orescameroon).Affordable solar furnaces constructed if possible using local materials can transform the lives of my people. In Bamenda where I live energy from petroleum and electricity, being monopolies (in the hands of one corporation) are used as tools to overtax the people. The people are getting poorer and poorer by the day and are resorting more and more to wood for fuel.Deforestation and its consequencies are already visible . The paradox is sunshine is abondant .In my own little way I tried to construct a solar cooker which could be made out of local materials for the cost to be down to the level of the masses.It was challenging but very interesting.Mine didn't work because I had difficulties with the mirror. I wanted to try polished steel for the mirror;I coudn't lay hands on it. I wanted to use pieces of plane mirrors;I had difficulties mounting them. I tried the silvered side of parcelling paper. The result was impressive but fell short of being reliable.(it wrinkles easily). I have not given up yet.We have adopted the solar cooker as our project for next year in the Physics Dept.Meantime if it is possible for anyone out there to construct an effective and reliable solar cooker to cost say, $80 to $100 my organisation can purchase them and make them available to the masses.Thanks Julius shenga Email: jshenga yahoo
Julius Shenga T
Bamenda, North West Cameroon - Friday, May 05, 2006 at 10:26:21 (PDT)
I just came across the site. I think it is going to be interesting reading. I'm into astronomy to some degree, and not the actual science matters....too much of thumbs and not enough of brains I guess. I like the metaphysical...the individual spiritual life, and mysteries to read. Some tragedies could have warped my mind, but fortunately, I had some grounded directions to keep on the straight and narrow. Got two kids, three grandkids, and a wife of 49 years. Sigh. How my kids have gotten old. George
George W. Dixon
N. Richland Hills, TX USA - Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 18:07:57 (PDT)
In your How Transistors Work article, you advocate the melting of lead and sulfur. I've never tried this experiment, but it sounds quite dangerous, as lead will evaporate, though slowly, and sulfur will form hydrogen sulfide, another toxic gas. I can't tell whether this article is part of your K-6 page or not, but either way there should be a safety warning involving ventilation.
Cole Petersburg
USA - Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 17:29:05 (PDT)
You use caps way too much - it looks like you are screaming. Other than that, nice site.
Joshua
USA - Saturday, April 29, 2006 at 15:00:00 (PDT)
WoW! This website is really great for the imagniation, TOO bad not everything in the website is true. Fix up the Bio section. The posting in the bio section is absurd. The guy asks how can cells move. [ No, I ask how paramecia can act like insects or hamsters, yet without having a nervous system. Have you ever watched live Paramecia before? They use cilia for navigation... how are the cilia motors controlled? How are they even synchronized? Where is the computation which determines paramecia behavior? These issues have nothing to do with the subcellular "muscles" of the cytoskeleton. There's also a separate question: what are paramecia's fast-acting muscles? Amoebic flow has been explained (as I specifically mentioned in the article: it looks to me like a big blind spot among researcher.) Paramecia perform motions on the scale of tens of milliseconds which obviously *don't* resemble the slow cytoskeletal changes responsible for amoebic flow. How do paramecia do it? (Perhaps their surface cilia are somehow used to change the cell's shape rapidly, as well as being used to propel the animal around. -billb]
Overly simplified reason: chemical reaction that occure at the cellular skeleton called, Microtubules, Microfillaments, and a number of other cellular support structurs. These intercellular bodies are easily broken down or enlarged through the use of Tubulin. Some of these structures also use the same protien that muscles use called, Agrin, and is used in the movement. As for Flagellum, they are also made up of Microtubules.

JO
Milton, NY USA - Thursday, April 27, 2006 at 10:57:36 (PDT)
I've been on this planet 54 years and electricity,Ohm's law etc. has always been a complete mystery to me since being introduced to it some 42 years ago. I'll never make an electrician but at least it's no longer a black art! Thanks.
Vernon Ralston
Shoeburyness, Essex UK - Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 15:19:51 (PDT)
I really enjoyed "Spirituality? Or just intentionally triggered psychoses?" at http://www.amasci.com/stuff.html. It is nice to see people interested in pursuing a form of enlightenment that involves strengthening, instead of attacking the ego. I particularly liked the comparison of the Buddhist ego death to joining an ant colony.

The "hive mind" idea can be generalized if you take into account the evidence that the average human brain is at least physically capable of "telepathic" communication. If the class of neural activity commonly referred to "subconscious" is in touch with this mechanism, then one person's subconscious could hypothetically connect to others and form a sort of network. This would provide a physical mechanism for phenomena such as "astral travel" and the "collective unconscious". If this were true, what would we expect to find in the World Wide Brain Web? [Heh. Great minds think alike. Those same ideas are EXACTLY what I realized myself when I was writing the article (but I didn't transcribe it all from paper, it's still in my notes.) I was led to the idea of a "telepathy internet" by the claim made by psychics that separate animal species each have a distinct "goddess" which humans can contact. If true, this might be the same idea as termite or ant colonies having an emergent consciousness... but instead applied to non-colony critters like beetles, cats, cows, people. If we humans are part of a telepathy-internet which connects all humans, then all sorts of paranormal phenomena become physics-based, since "the net" might usurp our perceptions to produce miracles which are nothing but complicated mass hallucinations. If "net viruses" can mess with the images on your "web cam," then perhaps you shouldn't always trust your eyes. The mental-internet might even be doing this constantly, moment by moment, since Western mankind lives in a concensus reality. As kids, we learn from our parents how to see concensus-reality. This is extremely useful for survival in society, but also it blinds us, and we cannot see past the mental filters without lots of effort. These "filters" which create our perceived world... they might be learned, but then again they might be "installed" automatically via the telepathy-internet, with little conventional learning involved. In addition, a "telepathy internet" becomes a wilderness full of viruses with a scale of power from simple infectious memes, all the way to genuine "gods" powerful enough to manipulate huge populations. Also, wouldn't each kind of animal brain have its own telepathy-internet? There might be a "goddess of the ants" and one for the hamsters, etc., mass intelligences with which humans could communicate. Individual birds and deer might lack much intelligence, but the colony-minds such as the "bluejay goddess" or the "white-tail deer goddess" might be far more intelligent than any human. And then Native American Religion would be closer to physics than our own physics is PS, The movie "The Matrix" is filled with Carlos Castaneda references... or perhaps both the Carlos Castaneda books and the movie are full of references to this telepathy-internet idea: The Matrix. -billb]
Given that there would be very few people capable of consciously manipulating this realm, it would probably be saturated with the psychic equivalent of viruses and ad-ware. Now add Richard Dawkin's "memetics" to this mix, and you get the possible existence of whole ecosystems of brain parasites living and reproducing in the WWBW. Since their environment is a network of complex organic computers, it wouldn't be surprising if some of them developed a form of rudimentary intelligence. They could probably manipulate a host animal by making it consciously aware of selected thoughts and use fear to discourage any line of thought that would lead to their discovery. If infants are consciously telepathic, they could be scared into “correct” thought patterns with threats that appear to be coming from the parents that they rely on for survival. [But suppose that all of us were manipulated by the mind-parasites in that way. What do you recall during childhood that could have been the side effect of living memes tearing pieces out of your mind? How about... CHILDHOOD NIGHTMARES? "Night terrors?" Maybe parents are right when they say that kids have to be good, otherwise the boogie man will come to get them. The boogie man gets you anyway, and rapes your brain. The result is that, against your will, you turn into a grown-up. -billb] Better yet, start the conditioning before birth when they are still directly dependent on the mother’s body for nutrients. Disobedient fetus? Oops! Looks like another miscarriage.

Dustin
FL USA - Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 21:12:06 (PDT)
Sir,

In High School, straight A’s, in College, a GPA of 4.0. I’m now 43 and have been in “technical” fields my entire life.

Until I read your explanations of electricity and how it works, I felt as though a physical brain clot was preventing me from “understanding” electricity. That or my blonde hair….

Thank you for your clever use of analogies, and your gift to simplify the concepts of electricity. You’ve opened up an entire new world for me and an opportunity to further excel at whatever job I may find myself in, in the near and distant future.

The time it must have taken to incorporate all of this easy to grasp information onto a website must have been considerable. I applaud your dedication, passion, and “way of explaining” electricity to someone who has always wondered why he didn’t “get it”.

I GET IT NOW. THANK YOU….

Humbly,


Richard L. Laney


Richard L. Laney
Austin, tx USA - Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 19:26:45 (PDT)
I am trying to look for some advice on living off of the grid, in regards to electricity. I have a seed of an idea, and I would like to bounce it off of someone that is knowledgable about steam-generated electricity in particular. This involves use of tremendous amounts of sunlight. Someone please send me a message, so that I can get a little help. shawn underscore hookings at yahoo dot com
Shawn Hookings
Fort Worth, TX USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 08:23:39 (PDT)
Did you ever see magnetic flux as a scaler wave? Browse the gallery images. These are real camera photos and NOT digitally
generated or electrically produced. Check out: www.magnetostatics.us

Timm A. Vanderelli
Ligonier, Pa USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 at 05:11:29 (PDT)
Your web site is featured today on oddtodd.com!
Ruth Alan
New Rochelle, NY USA - Friday, April 14, 2006 at 06:40:19 (PDT)
Up to now I have not obtained an explanation intelligible to myself for the following phenomenon and practice of home electricians who are self-taught small time electrical contractors.

In my place the current is a.c. 220 volts. I have appliances which run on a.c. 110 volts. So that I would have outlets in the house giving 110 volts a.c., the electricians I hired would use only one wire from the two wires from source of 220 volts a.c., and the other wire in the mains outlets is not linked to the source but connected to any exposed reinforcement steel bar of any concrete component -- out of the way and out of sight of course, for example the concrete posts supporting the gate of my property wall.

So, now I have a 110 volts a.c., with one wire from the a.c. source and one wire from any metal component like as I described above, or even from a steel water pipe buried in the soil or -- and don't think that I am fooling you -- even to the steel frame of the box housing the fuses or trip interrupters where the source from outside is distributed to various parts of the house.

But the power is limited because when I use two appliances of this kind of a 110 volts a.c., they will both work slower, for example several incandescent bulbs of 110 volts.

What is the explanation for this phenomenon and practice?

I have not read about this practice anywhere; but from a book written by a guy who is a home building contractor, he mentions that a 110 volts a.c. can be obtained by using one wire from the 220 a.c. source and the other wire from the neutral wire from the same source: namely, the 220 volts a.c. is supposed to have a third wire, between the two, so that one wire is 110 volts above this neutral wire and the other is 110 volts below this neutral wire.

Now, I want to tell you this: in my first house the local electricity provider allowed home owners the option to have both the regular 220 a.c. and also if requested the 110 volts a.c.

But now this provider does not give this option anymore -- and that is why self-taught electricians resort to thetrick I described above. Why doesn't the electricity provider allow this option anymore? Maybe to help businesses selling step-down transformers -- hahaha?

Well, what do you say about all these observations I have described here?

gerry gonzalo

gerry gonzalo
USA - Friday, April 14, 2006 at 04:48:42 (PDT)
hello sir
i m working on visulisation of electricity but there is problem in components fabrication because picture given in site & no idea of connection of two PCB as given in this site so plz send me clear picture of fabrication of the components

narayan
uttar pradesh, u.p india - Wednesday, April 12, 2006 at 11:15:48 (PDT)
Please visit my website, dedicated to light pollution education, thank you, Jina
Jina Saccacio
summerfield, fl USA - Sunday, April 09, 2006 at 05:21:52 (PDT)
I saw a TV show many years ago where an inventor used a 55 gallon drum to build a solar engine that rotated slowly but had high torque. On the show there were other devices used to focus sunlight. Does anybody remember this show. I am interested in finding out more about the solar engine. Maybe it was based on the principles of the Minto or Sterling engine.

Thanks

mark
USA - Saturday, April 08, 2006 at 13:01:44 (PDT)
Do you have any plans for an astronomy science fair in the near future? I'm really like your site.
Peter
Portland, OR USA - Friday, April 07, 2006 at 07:00:59 (PDT)
hello, i am try to get feesback on a new theory about physics/chemistry and a model of the nuclues of the atom.
I have posted the theory at http://www.phasedparticle.com.
If there any help or comment yopu have, it would be greatly appreciated. thanks Michael. emails within the posting,

Michael Carlson
seattle, wa USA - Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 15:39:22 (PST)
This site is of great interest. There is alot we do not know, or fully understand. It is vital that we keep an open mind. I,myself, am involved in the research,and development of Multi-Dimensional Science which is headed by the Kheper website which is hosted by Alan Kazlev
Robert Searle
UK - Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 10:34:50 (PST)
WRT to your desire to "dope" plasma fireballs with simple metallic salts. A variety of these may be obtained from folks who sell pyrotechnic supplies. They are listed under materials for "colored stars" and the like. Barium salts give green, strontium salts give red, copper as you know is usually blue (copper chloride is best). Have fun.
Robert
san diego, ca USA - Sunday, March 26, 2006 at 15:50:25 (PST)
An excellent site! Very informative.

I especially like the section on Bad Physics. My personal favorite example of bad science is the IQ test (though I know that's not physics ;) )

Fiat Lux
Guelph, ON Canada - Wednesday, March 15, 2006 at 14:02:58 (PST)
Dear Moron, I just read your article about "bions." You state that the "bions" you see in the sky are artifacts the human body and not something in the sky. Well idiot, "bions" have nothing to do with the phenomena you are describing. You are talking about what Reich called atmospheric orgone energy. Bions are something else entirely and are microscopic units that Reich considered to be precursors to life, eobionts in the modern parlance. Sheesh, you sure are an ignorant jerk, and an arrogant one at that. Thanks for the laugh.
GerryL
USA - Tuesday, March 14, 2006 at 14:40:17 (PST)
Listening to the news this am and they said it was 6 celcius in the arctic circle - I never gave it much thought before but where does the cold come from? The heat from the sun but the cold.
Allen
Prince Rupert, BC Canada - Tuesday, February 28, 2006 at 15:59:44 (PST)
junior high kid.... need science fair idea aviation/ helicopters freemando.at.adelphi#a...net
freemando
USA - Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 07:52:19 (PST)
I was sent a website by some IPO investment outfit about a device that somehow increases efficiency in the home just by plugging the unit intoa wall socket. Suspiciously the website does not offer prices. Anyone heard of this "MEGAPOWERSAVER" (www.megapowersavercom) Is this possible or likely?? Mr. Beaty, your articles have really got me thinking differently about electricity. Thanks!
[ Sites selling 'weird technology' are usually scams, although some are honest. The site you mention sells a device which they don't explain. Which appliances are supposed to become "less efficient" over time? They don't say. And how can a plug-in product have any effect on them? Try searching google for info. As for home appliances, brushless induction motors in appliances never change (except their bearings might need grease after decades.) Electric heaters are always 100% efficient. Stereos, TVs, computers, etc., don't draw more power with age. So where is the problem that their product is supposed to solve. I know of only one possibility: the "green plug" energy saving device developed by Frank Nola of NASA. This device is connected in series with AC motors such as refrigerators. "Nola" devices are real, and they save some energy by turning down the voltage after an AC motor has started up (since then the motor needs far less torque to keep going.) But "green plug" devices MUST be wired in series with the motor, and the device you mention is connected in parallel. -billb]
Damon
Van Nuys, CA USA - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 12:44:16 (PST)
Yo Billiam,

I have approached the transport dept of NZ asking if they have data on what causes congestion. And guess what? they aint got anything.

I have studied the cause, like you have, and thought it was time to make changes. Changes to the way drivers use the road, and changes to the information on the signs around our motorways.

I was hoping that you might want to help me create the worlds first standardized driving and traffic system.

My thinking is, that because traffic is not regulated, there are jams. If all drivers (a little like formula 1) took off at the same time, and kept the right distane, there woudl be far less accidents and subsequent congestion.

Imagine the joy of having ALL cars traveling 4 lengths behind, not necking, and keeping in fast, slow or merging lanes. I think traffic owuld flow much better, BUT, you have asian drivers, islanders, middle aged and teen whites. Many of whom drive slow, cannot pace for space, and have no idea how to elp smooth traffic out.

So, my thought was to lillicit assitance from you if you have the time, so that we can both hit the MOT at the same time.

The reason I ask for your assistance is that you are an engineer, therefore in the the eyes of the experts, must be more intelligent than a layman like me.

If you have the time and inclination, I would like to hear back from you.

Ric Chan

Ric Chan
Auckland, New Zealand - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at 03:31:17 (PST)
bill beatty. I wanted to thank you for all the info on van de graaff generators. i built one for my daughters 7th grade science fair and with all the great info you posted i was successful the first try. (maybe a little lucky) I used solid teflon for bottom roller. nylon for the top roller and neoprene weatherstrip 1 1/2" wide for the belt. a 12" stainless garden globe for the collector 4" pvc for the column and plexiglass for the base. a standard 1/2" drive drill is used for the motor. (up to 2800 rpm) none of us could beleive that it worked so well. her fair is 1 month from now and i'm sure it will be the hit of the fair. thanks again!!!!!
jim walsh
DES PLAINES, il USA - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 at 16:46:03 (PST)
What if you applied the principles of fluid dynamics and materials science to traffic? (See http://www.amasci.com/amateur/traffic/traffic1.html)
When the particles (cars) in the fluid (traffic) are moving at a higher speed, they are under less pressure. When they are moving at a lower speed, they are under more pressure. Higher pressure causes more stress. Repeated cycles of high pressure cause fatigue until the cracking point.

Greg
Seattle, WA USA - Monday, February 20, 2006 at 18:00:32 (PST)
Hi I know you can't answer, but I wanted to tell you that my entire life I have never been able to wear a watch more than a few weeks, that when I get in and out of my car, I get shocked no matter what time of year, OH yes I was born in seattle... Wash, Thanks Kat
Kat B
MADISON, WI USA - Friday, February 17, 2006 at 01:04:32 (PST)
< Dear Bill,

I suffer from pathological lying and it has, almost completely, ruined my life. I lie about trivial things and it upsets me that i'm not able to be a moderately honest person. I wonder if you or any of your team members could help me out because i don't know how to go about fighting this monster. SOS. arjun_menon83.at.yahoocom

Arjun Menon
Dubai, UAE - Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 20:02:41 (PST)
If a transformer is grounded internally, how does it not blow up when the feeder is put in service?
tony tedeschi
new york, ny USA - Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 11:27:08 (PST)
If a neutral is needed to complete a circuit, how does it not blow up being that it is grounded? How does current pass through the neutral back to its source without going to ground?
tony tedeschi
new york, ny USA - Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 11:24:19 (PST)
Hola Everyone ,
First time here , found you by looking for my a project I wanted to do years ago , now have better reasons to do it , only the right way , to benefit a bunch of people in many ways . I'm looking for a person or persons that got the time and interst in doing something good and a bit different .

Fred Alexander
Granada, Nicaragua - Monday, February 06, 2006 at 18:06:17 (PST)
Your site about the Kelvin water-drop electrostatic generator is very very helpful!

I wondered if you could answer a question. I have build a generator, and ik works!! But i wondered why it also works with a distance of 5 cm between my droppers and upper cans (called 'inductors'). i don't get it! Seperation of charges have to take place, so i thought that the droppers had to be very close to those upper cans. But my aparatus says something else...How does this work?

Can somebody help me? it's for a very important school paper, (so i can take part in my exams!) for some sort of Grammar school in Holland...(that's why my Enlish grammar isn't perfect ;) ). My e-mail is: *****lienekebos.at.hotmail dot com (just remove the *'s)
Lieneke Bos
Gouda, Holland - Monday, February 06, 2006 at 16:12:05 (PST)


Stuff of electricity is bloody marvelous: down to earth and for a school kid level with some sharp albeit unexpected parallels. It should be helpful in my tutoring.
I also laughed my both kidneys off.

Logan
Toronto, Canada - Monday, February 06, 2006 at 09:34:20 (PST)
This web site it great. It is really good to see people communicating. I was wondering if anyone had any idea's on how to build a self- propulsive devise using a small motor from a hand held fan, rubber bands, and model toy car parts, such wheels and an axil.
Sara Callaghan
Toronto, Canada - Thursday, February 02, 2006 at 09:38:05 (PST)
My topic is a little less complex than the other entries, but nonetheless, important. I’m gaining elementary teacher certification and I am currently taking a science methods course. I see the website explains science misconceptions in text books, but would anyone happen to know of a children’s book containing a science misconception? It can be a cute-sie fiction book with illustrations, but there needs to be a misconception in an illustration or in the text.
Carlie Bankston
USA - Thursday, February 02, 2006 at 08:33:12 (PST)
I was reading up on your homeade hovercraft and I had an idea, why not use a mounted fan on the back as a propeller?
Alex
Texas, TX USA - Tuesday, January 31, 2006 at 06:03:50 (PST)
Thank you so much for the very clear information you provided in "How Are Watts, Ohms, Amps, and Volts Related?" I'm currently enrolled in a high school electricity course that failed to explain some of my more abstract questions. I look forward to reading more of your work.
Joanie
USA - Monday, January 30, 2006 at 18:03:12 (PST)
I liked your site. Very beautiful design.
poll
Arvada, CO USA - Monday, January 30, 2006 at 16:54:40 (PST)
I have found this to be a very informative sight. Please keep up the good work.
Richard Nacamuli
Califon, NJ USA - Monday, January 30, 2006 at 14:27:57 (PST)
Well, this is not quite free energy or is it? If only it will augment friction. Imagine a wheel or an axle that helps to spin itself.
James Morris
Hollywood, Fl USA - Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 09:15:39 (PST)
i'd like sientific, i like read the books, talk to the people about the sciences and everything, i hope i will companion with many people on this website.
Kitty
USA - Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 23:56:21 (PST)
Your theory is nice and all. But it is lacking a real solution. Slowing down to achieve a greater average speed does work, but to what extent. We millions of cars entering and exiting our highways everyday. Highways that have real, defined capacities. There is NO getting around maximum capacities of these highways. Once these capacities are approached, reached or exceeded traffic slows or halts. Simple as that, and it takes hours to recover.

which brings me to my point. Your theory accounts for alleviating traffic pressures, but does not look to the cause of the problem. THERE ARE TOO MANY CARS IN THE UNITED STATES. To reduce traffic we should develop mass transit systems, not physics models.

Mike H
West Haven, Ct USA - Friday, January 20, 2006 at 09:24:39 (PST)
I saw an incoming visitor from your website in my Dec05 web-stat so I follow the link and end up here. Fantastic site - although the forum seems not supporting images, which is great when illustration can support the discussion and sharing of steps/method.

Feel free to visit my company site too! We build games and physic+maths is some subjects that we have to like. sarah
Msia - Friday, January 20, 2006 at 02:17:12 (PST)
Plants need photosynthesis.
CHLOROPLASTS ARE PHOTOTACTIC.
Do warm-blooded animals need "Magnetosynthesis"?
WHAT IF MITOCHONDRIA ARE MAGNETOTACTIC?
Then you must move in the earth's magnetic field, like a 5 year old, to have the best health.
I have been working on a idea for some 12 or more years now, and back in Dec 97 I built a device that should have the power to make people live a lot longer, healthier. The device, I call it "THE SHIFTER", causes a person to be moving in a magnetic field, (like the earth's), like kids do, or better.
The device moves a magnetic field around me while I sleep. It is just a high-tech rocking chair or cradle. Facts have lead me to the understanding that we use the earth's magnetic field. And that people who do not move enough in a magnetic field like the earth's are unable to maintain good health.

Alan E. Jackson
Price, UT USA - Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 16:09:53 (PST)
i like skittels!!!you stink!!!i like skittels!!!!you stink!!!i like skittels!your site is sooooooo boring!!!
you should go to eskimo bob!!!go 2 gooogle type in eskimo and skroll to find eskimo bob he's funnny!!!bye bye!!!!!:)

skittels
toronto, 45 USA - Tuesday, January 17, 2006 at 07:53:13 (PST)
Looking for information to build Van De Graaff generator... found this site. What an awesome resource! May the static force be with you
RR Anderson
Tacoma, WA USA - Monday, January 16, 2006 at 17:47:49 (PST)
Dang! Weird Science and its links are great but way too extensive. I'm trying to refind something I spotted a few days ago. Rough description; a guy in perhaps eastern Europe who has developed some kind of "accumulators," (my word, I think). You supposedly charge them by simply staring at them. There is also something, in the description I'm looking for, about his researching records that were maybe 400 years old. If you recognize what this is about drop me a note, or tell me where to find it, or give me his name (maybe it starts with "P".) [That would be the Pavlita radionic device. Try the "Infolios" guy for info -billb]

C.

Chuck
Bainbridge Island, WA USA - Sunday, January 15, 2006 at 20:57:17 (PST)
This website is a useless website, who every made this gay webiste u need to get a life!
Tony
Sanfransisco, USA - Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 16:09:38 (PST)
THIS WEBSITE SUCKSSSSSSS SO MUCH!!!
Tony
brazil, USA - Thursday, January 12, 2006 at 16:06:08 (PST)
I am writing in response to the I.R. Goggles. I would like to make a pair. I was wondering if they would work with a very powerfull flashlight with an I.R. filter on it. In my line of work it might be a lifesaver. [If you have a powerful source of that type of near-IR light, then you don't need the filter goggles. And most people will be able to see it. However, if you use a B&W camera, then you can make a very inexpensive illuminator by putting a few layers of congo blue in front of a normal incandescent spotlight. -billb] I see security companies are now using active I.R. systems with black and white cameras and I.R. illuminators........hmmmmm Thanx for all the tantilizing information.

Frozen in Minnesnowta

Ron Konieska
Willmar, mn USA - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 at 21:42:49 (PST)
Bill,

Your description of the rationale for polarized plugs is incorrect. No manufacturers intentionally connect one of the plug wires (on a 2 prong plug) to their metallic housings. Certainly not today, but I once had an inexpensive old tube-type guitar amp from the 1950s which lacked a power transformer. The input jack's shield conductor was "hot," and they relied on plastic and masonite insulation to keep anyone from touching the live metal parts. I suspect that very sleazy audio equipment like this is still around, since the main effect would be that people get electrocuted from touching a metal microphone while standing in a puddle. Polarized plugs are used to provide an additional measure of safety for appliances that typically have an on-off switch and a motor. The hot wire goes from the plug to the switch, another wire goes from the switch to the motor lead A, and the neutral wire goes from the plug to motor lead B. The motor is the device that is most likely to short to the case so when a short occurs and the switch is off, voltage is prevented from reaching the motor and potentially electrocuting someone. If the short occurs when the switch is on, the current is interrupted when the operator releases the switch. This might still result in electrocution but at least it's a little safer than continuing to supply voltage to the motor even after the operator has released the switch. Not only is this not an adequate safety precaution but it is easily foiled when outlets in the building are wired incorrectly and voltage is provided to the large prong instead of the other way around.

David Mills
Cincinati, OH USA - Friday, January 06, 2006 at 11:52:44 (PST)
Wings that don't cause spinning vortices might be the tips of vultures wings,ie,shaped like our hands.I think they;re using this design now because of how high a vulture can fly on very short wings.
Scott N
USA - Thursday, January 05, 2006 at 05:19:19 (PST)
Bill thank you so much for your website. It is truly unbelievable how much I have learned in just a few weeks about "electricity" through your amazing ability to get concepts across. Problem now is, everywhere I look for further info I find many of the misconceptions you speak of and realise it is little wonder the subject is so hard for people to learn.
Karl
Sydney, NSW AUS - Thursday, January 05, 2006 at 00:39:22 (PST)
Just wanted to let you know that if you put a bit of water and dry ice in a baking sheet, you can draw in the smoke that it creates with a wire from a VDG
Nicole
Austin, TX USA - Wednesday, January 04, 2006 at 17:22:56 (PST)
Has anyone downloaded the entire Amateur Scientist Handbook?
Dan
Campbell, CA USA - Tuesday, December 27, 2005 at 22:00:39 (PST)
I periodically enjoy visiting your site. I ran across a footnote in an old book from the 1950's that might interest you. It's intriguing but rather vague on the specifics which would be interesting to discover and replicate for fun and/or profit:

Associated Press: "The eminent French chemist, M. Georges Claude, [a.k.a. the father of the neon] performed "miracles" at Fontainebleau in 1928 through his demonstrations of oxygen transformations. The Associated Press reported that M. Claude, at a scientific gathering, 'turned a handful of sand into precious stones, iron into a state resembling melted chocolate, and, after depriving flowers of their tints, turned them to the consistency of glass.'"

M. Claude also experimented with the extraction of energy via the difference in deep vs. shallow sea-water temperatures. He had a literal monopoly on neon lights, and was respected as a serious scientist and inventor even to this day.

Karl Malmberg
Midwest, USA - Friday, December 23, 2005 at 20:13:05 (PST)


Hi Bill (and everyone),

Wow - that's a lot of great links on your site. I wanted to let everyone know about my free Tesla coil design program at my new website www.teslamapcom

Please feel free to check my site, and if you deem it worthy, maybe you could do me the favor of adding a link from your website.

Thanks,
Kevin Wilson

Kevin
Panama City, FL USA - Monday, December 19, 2005 at 10:04:53 (PST)


Your hydraulic capacitor analogy is very well done. Would it be possible to extend it? For instance, electrical capacitance can't be analogous to just the volume of your sphere, since the flexible divider could be anywhere from balloon-thin to immovably thick and stiff. But capacitance can't be analogous to just divider stiffness, because a larger divider would always allow more hydraulic capacity. Can't be just divider area, either, at least after the divider gets pressed against the far wall... Maybe the hydraulic analogy just can't be taken that far?

What I'm looking for is an analog to the perceived "stiffness" of an audio amp power supply - a concept that approaches superstition in the electrical realm. Personally I've given up on capacitors for that purpose - there is no capacitor remotely as "stiff" as a bank of car batteries!

Loren Amelang
Philo, CA USA - Sunday, December 18, 2005 at 14:50:45 (PST)
If you drive at a steady slow speed you will use less fuel than stopping, accelerating and running at higher speeds. I think it will cost less to run your car if you leave breaking spaces.
Dr Peter Cage
Birmingham, UK - Saturday, December 17, 2005 at 04:29:27 (PST)
Just to let you know, you little pop bottle electrostatic motor fried my 27" tv. Please pass this information on to to your web page viewers.[The warning on TV set as power supply isn't clear?!! Someone already reported that it killed their TV set. I can change it -billb]
thanks Steve

steve d.
asheboro, nc USA - Saturday, December 10, 2005 at 12:53:52 (PST)
Hi Bill,
I am an Instrumentation engineer from India. Its been 2 years I passed out of college, but could never understand how a transistor worked. Basic queries never got solved and I never wanted to just summarise the mathematical equations to satisfy myself. I was too scared of Electronics, since everything was built from transistor, about which i had no clue. No good books, be it Millman, could sove my queries. Your article today has created an interest in learning electronics and getting a hang of this subject. I have recommended this site to everyone. Thanks a lot.
Vatsala

Vatsala
Bangalore, Karnataka India - Monday, December 05, 2005 at 10:32:37 (PST)
My son used my 37" JVC TV to generate an electrostatic motor. Now the TV powers on and quickly goes off. I have to unplug it to turn off the ticking. Can anyone tell me how to save my television? PLEASE!!!!! Please email me at debbielynn.at.frontiernet.net or dlaphotos yahoocom Thank you
Debbie
Elk Grove, CA USA - Sunday, December 04, 2005 at 23:55:28 (PST)
I know you said no advertising, but this is a non-commercial (educational) site, and I do think you would find it interesting ... however if you absolutely will not tolerate any advertising of other sites then just ignore this message. :P

The website is www.larryspringcom and it details the findings of Larry Spring in areas such as physics, electromagnetism and quantum mechanics. The site also features Flash visualizations of Larry's discoveries such as magnespheres and the Spring atom.

I find the visualizations and information presented to be very educational, and it is all 100% free, without advertising, no membership required, etc. etc.

I hope you'll enjoy the site as much as I have. Thanks for your time,

-Jonah Dempcy

Jonah Dempcy
Seattle, WA USA - Saturday, December 03, 2005 at 19:04:41 (PST)
For the first time in 30 years of tinkering with electronics, I FINALLY understand what the third prong is for! I'm trying to debug a vexing house wiring problem and this article was the one thing I've been able to do find that actually reduced my frustration level. Thank you so much! (Re: Why Three Prongs -- http://amasci.com/amateur/whygnd.html)
Jonathan Dubman
Seattle, WA USA - Friday, December 02, 2005 at 19:34:09 (PST)
I miss Carl Sagan. If he were still alive, what would he be doing now?
Darin
Bend, Or USA - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 at 20:40:11 (PST)
Bill: Your summary of wing theories is very good. One comment though: The link for Gale Craig dead ends. I have a fairly extensive page at Regenpresscom

I hope you read this and change the link. Thank you and best wishes.

Gale Craig

Gale Craig
Anderson, IN USA - Tuesday, November 29, 2005 at 11:45:27 (PST)
I am doing a project on a maglev train and I am extremely close to experimentation. I have all of the parts but I was wonderig if you know of a cheap, inexpensive way to measure the ohms for the LSM hall effect circuit IC (SS41). An e-mail reply from just about anyone would work as well, of c