The Perfect Alternative to Gas Powered Vehicles
I'm sure by now we're all of the opinion that we have GOT to find an alternative to gas powered vehicles. I was musing on this very topic last weekend while sunning myself on the banks of the Guadalupe river, and came up with what I think is a GENIUS idea (though my wife whole heartedly disagrees for some reason):
A giant wind up car.
We know how the little wind up cars work...wind up a spring, then utilize the potential energy as the spring uncoils. Well, why not make one that's big enough to seat two or four people? Of course, we'd have to engineer the "perfect" spring, perhaps a pair of them to work in tandem. I'm thinking some elongated, layered, torsion type spring, working similar to those airplanes that use a rubber band that gets twisted. And we'd need some really good gear ratio math in place to get the most bang for our potential energy. And here's the cool part: each passenger is fitted with a set of pedals, so when the spring gets to say, 50% or less of its total wind-up, the passengers and driver start pedaling to wind it back up again (from its center, or opposite end) and the car just keeps rolling along.
Now tell me that isn't PERFECT! It isn't like you'd have to pedal yourself around, just pedal on occasion to keep the spring wound up. and with good gear ratios on the pedals (and even a shifter so you could choose how hard or easy to make the pedaling), it shouldn't take a lot of leg work to keep things going.
Whadayathink???? NO pollution, NO high tech, NO noise, EASY maintenance (like a bike!)...sheesh, what's not to love? Let's make this thing happen. Any high torque spring engineers out there in whose brain I have spawned the beginnings of a blueprint???
:0)
A giant wind up car.
We know how the little wind up cars work...wind up a spring, then utilize the potential energy as the spring uncoils. Well, why not make one that's big enough to seat two or four people? Of course, we'd have to engineer the "perfect" spring, perhaps a pair of them to work in tandem. I'm thinking some elongated, layered, torsion type spring, working similar to those airplanes that use a rubber band that gets twisted. And we'd need some really good gear ratio math in place to get the most bang for our potential energy. And here's the cool part: each passenger is fitted with a set of pedals, so when the spring gets to say, 50% or less of its total wind-up, the passengers and driver start pedaling to wind it back up again (from its center, or opposite end) and the car just keeps rolling along.
Now tell me that isn't PERFECT! It isn't like you'd have to pedal yourself around, just pedal on occasion to keep the spring wound up. and with good gear ratios on the pedals (and even a shifter so you could choose how hard or easy to make the pedaling), it shouldn't take a lot of leg work to keep things going.
Whadayathink???? NO pollution, NO high tech, NO noise, EASY maintenance (like a bike!)...sheesh, what's not to love? Let's make this thing happen. Any high torque spring engineers out there in whose brain I have spawned the beginnings of a blueprint???
:0)
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Re: The Perfect Alternative to Gas Powered Vehicles
You forgot to mention one additional benefit of your idea, that as a bonus it would help decrease obesity. Get those people exercising, dammit!
Posted by Thomas Messier on May 9, 2008 at 12:47 PM