Gravity as an energy source?

[X facter]

Sorry if this has already been posted, but this has been bugging me for a while and a search didn't turn up anything. We keep talking about alternative energy sources everywhere when there is a constant energy around us all the time. What I want to know is, could gravity be used as a feasible source of energy?

[JustStuit]

Not currently. Until we learn more about how gravity works we won't know for sure. It has a section on gravity in Wikipedia's perpetual motion machines. You can read that.

The main problem is that it takes force and energy to get an object up to use gravity. It would have to be done a different way than this.

[Maddad]

Gravity represents potential energy. It's there if you've already put the work into making it there. There's energy in a bowling ball at the top of a tower if you've already hauled it up there. Once you use that energy, it's gone until you haul it back up again.

[gcol]

I made a gravity powered generator last summer. I hauled a 50lb. weight up a 25' tree, which drove a small generator as it descended. Generating enough electricity to fully charge one small ni-cad was a struggle. It opened my eyes as to just how weak the gravitational force is compared to the electro-magnetic.

[JustStuit]

I made a gravity powered generator last summer. I hauled a 50lb. weight up a 25' tree, which drove a small generator as it descended. Generating enough electricity to fully charge one small ni-cad was a struggle. It opened my eyes as to just how weak the gravitational force is compared to the electro-magnetic.

Yea. Keep in mind that much of the energy used in the system was you hauling the weigt up the tree. The coeffeicent of gravity in the (newtonian) equation [math] F=G \frac{m_{1} m_{2}}{d^2}[/math] is

[math]

G =

6.68

\

\rm x

\

10^{-11}

[/math]

and for electromagnet force in the equation [math] F=k \frac{Q_{1} Q_{2}}{d^2}[/math] it is like

[math]

k = 8.988 \ \rm x \ 10^9

[/math].

Gravity is a very weak force.

[gcol]

All the system energy was put in by me. My work was stored as potential energy in ft.lbs, then released as I wished. I had much fun in determining sticktion, friction, pulley and gear efficiency, generator efficiency, and relative efficiency of electrical storage devices. I handcut the gears myself, too, very tedious!

[ecoli]

It is used... indirectly anyway. Hydroelectric damns make use of the fact that rivers flow from high elevations to low elevations, due to gravity.

[swansont]

It is used... indirectly anyway. Hydroelectric damns make use of the fact that rivers flow from high elevations to low elevations, due to gravity.

 

 

Of course that's really solar power moving the water to the high elevation.

[EvoN1020v]

Gravity is probably a weak force, but strong enough to keep humans on the Earth.

[insane_alien]

Gravity is probably a weak force, but strong enough to keep humans on the Earth.

 

its obviously a weak force. i mean look how big the arth has to be to keep us on it. and it only takes a bit of charge to counteract gravity.

[The Thing]

Gravity's the weakest of the fundamental forces by far. Heck, the nuclear "weak" force is not as weak as gravity, in fact, much stronger. But gravity is a long range force.

[theorein]

Not currently. Until we learn more about how gravity works we won't know for sure. It has a section on gravity in Wikipedia's perpetual motion machines. You can read that.

The main problem is that it takes force and energy to get an object up to use gravity. It would have to be done a different way than this.

 

 

I have a theory on Gravity, and how we can use it positively. But first I need assurance that it will never used for evil. Will you take my word seriously?

[swansont]

I have a theory on Gravity, and how we can use it positively. But first I need assurance that it will never used for evil. Will you take my word seriously?

 

Post it in "speculations"

[X facter]

My idea was actually something along the lines of having some sort of generator that created energy while people walked over it, or something. Maybe build a city over it. I don't know how feasible this is, though.

[swansont]

My idea was actually something along the lines of having some sort of generator that created energy while people walked over it, or something. Maybe build a city over it. I don't know how feasible this is, though.

 

You could do it, but human-powered generators won't give you that much power. There's a reason we invented machines. You'd be better off trying to get energy directly from the food than running it through people first.

[lightwave]

I have a theory on Gravity, and how we can use it positively. But first I need assurance that it will never used for evil. Will you take my word seriously?

 

You could try going to the www.WeDon'tUseAnyThingForEvil.com website

[SmallIsPower]

Actually, so NASA scientists are experimenting with gravity shielding and some other wild ideas, in the hope of someday reaching the stars, but we're quite far off. But then when the idea of a Space Elevator first came up in 1890, who would have thought carbon fiber would make that a possibility?

[Pleiades]

I have a question then: you suspend a permanent magnet several inches from the ground and roll a steel ball under it, the magnet picks it up. Where did the energy come from to move the ball against gravity? This is driving me nuts.

[JustStuit]

I have a question then: you suspend a permanent magnet several inches from the ground and roll a steel ball under it, the magnet picks it up. Where did the energy come from to move the ball against gravity? This is driving me nuts.

The electrons - this is the electromagnetic force. Magnets do not last forever though.

[Pleiades]

I still don’t understand where the energy comes from. Are you saying that if you used a permanent magnet to lift the steel ball enough times it would be depleted and no longer magnetic?

[swansont]

I still don’t understand where the energy comes from. Are you saying that if you used a permanent magnet to lift the steel ball enough times it would be depleted and no longer magnetic?

 

 

There's energy in the field. If you then remove the ball you have to do work, which returns the energy to the system.

[Pleiades]

Oh, ok, that makes more sense now.

[trvlrpsmyrph]

Outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[trvlrpsmyrph]

Sorry if this has already been posted, but this has been bugging me for a while and a search didn't turn up anything. We keep talking about alternative energy sources everywhere when there is a constant energy around us all the time. What I want to know is, could gravity be used as a feasible source of energy?

Our current motors and engines operate by two-dimensional design. Therefore, the third dimension is wasted energy (commonly heat). Once you have figured out how to design a machine that operates in all three dimensions simultaneously, then gravity will work for you; silently, effortlessly, and without creating heat. Get my drift?

[swansont]

Our current motors and engines operate by two-dimensional design. Therefore, the third dimension is wasted energy (commonly heat). Once you have figured out how to design a machine that operates in all three dimensions simultaneously, then gravity will work for you; silently, effortlessly, and without creating heat. Get my drift?

 

Sounds like you want to repeal the laws of thermodynamics.