Harnessing cosmic energy

[Killa Klown]

Is it possible to Harness Cosmic energy with the technology we have today. And how could it be harnessed.

[ecoli]

define "cosmic energy"

[Killa Klown]

Energy created by the Sun and other outer space sources, for example energy that is reflected by the earth's magnetic field.

[ecoli]

energy created by the sun... like sun light?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail

[swansont]

energy created by the sun... like sun light?

 

Or coal or oil, which are examples of solar converted into hydrocarbons via biological and geological processes. Or wind, which is solar causing pressure gradients in the atmosphere. Or nuclear, which is stellar, rather than solar, coming from a previous supernova.

 

It's all "cosmic energy"

[someguy]

what about using something like the storms on jupiter? I guess here the big problem is transportation. perhaps you could power a large laser with energy from jupiter's storms shine it on a specific place on earth and convert that? probably that would be too complicated and only usable in somewhat short periods of time when the planets are just right. are there any other sorts of ways to send energy like that?

 

 

but i guess bringing more energy from outside onto earth might not be the best idea since most of that energy would eventually become heat and we'd just be making global warming even worse.

 

what about heat? is there a way to convert heat into energy? maybe some type of thermometer that will grow with little temperature change but would lift something with huge resistance. you could put it in antarctica and if the temperature rises there that heat would be converted to electricity or something and that way could keep the temperature there in check? could something like this be possible?

[ajb]

Heat is energy.

 

And yes you can convert heat into useful mechanical or electrical energy. That's what all engines and power plants do. They release stored chemical energy convert it to heat and then use that to drive turbines etc.

 

Heat can be converted into electrical energy using a thermocouple.

[Killa Klown]

I Know Heat Can Be Created Into Energy. I Think We All Know How Steam Power Work. This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

[ajb]

This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

 

By someguy's post.

[insane_alien]

I Know Heat Can Be Created Into Energy. I Think We All Know How Steam Power Work. This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

 

just because this is a science forum, i doesn't require that every member is a fully fledged scientist. i'm sure there are many members and people who visit regularly who only have a rudimentary knowledge of science or maybe not even that.

 

this is a place of learning, if we discriminated against all who didn't know something that may be obvious to us then we would have no members.

[swansont]

I Know Heat Can Be Created Into Energy. I Think We All Know How Steam Power Work. This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

 

Yes, this is a science forum. Some people here know, for instance, that heat doesn't create energy. Using the scientific definition of the term, heat is a process that transfers energy. A subtle (perhaps) but important distinction from the lay use that equates the two.

 

Perhaps you meant to say that a steam engine is used to convert thermal energy into mechanical work.

[Phi for All]

I Know Heat Can Be Created Into Energy. I Think We All Know How Steam Power Work. This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

Calm down, there's no need to go all "title-case" on us. Let's keep things civil.

 

Harness is a key word here. There is a lot of energy available here in our own solar system but it's not easy to control it for our use. If we could build a massive solar array in space how can we efficiently get the energy back to Earth?

[ajb]

Yes, this is a science forum. Some people here know, for instance, that heat doesn't create energy. Using the scientific definition of the term, heat is a process that transfers energy. A subtle (perhaps) but important distinction from the lay use that equates the two.

 

 

You are absolutely correct. Heat is the transfer of energy. The distinction is important.

 

I should have been more clear in my postings. I made no distinction between heat and thermal energy, this is ok if you know the difference. I am sorry if I confused anyone.

 

The question posed by someguy should be more like "can we convert thermodynamic energy into mechanical/electrical energy?".

[alan2here]

Electromagnetic waves enter the atmosphere of lots of freqancys, so why do we only harvest energy from light? lots of lower and higher freqancy waves hit the ground too, they are not so emedtatly obvious as we cannot see them but there are there.

[insane_alien]

the peak intensity is in the visible spectrum. thats why we generally harvest that light.you could justify going up to near UV and down to near IR but outside that it wouldn't be worth it.

[alan2here]

ahh, ok, ty. So no point looking at gama and VLF then.

[Killa Klown]

Yeah my bad, just that that post was just too much in lamans terms and I thought the post was kind of unnessessary in a way, but ya are right I kind of over reacted.

 

And I only put the heat into energy into lamans terms too, what I really ment to says was that I and many others hava a really good understanding of how thermal energy works, but some noobs or members may not so good post, very informative.

[insane_alien]

when you want to discuss something try and refrain from dumbing it down. if someone doesn't understand then they should speak up and ask. things lose meaning when they are dumbed down.

[Sisyphus]

...and yet you're wondering if it's possible to get energy from the sun.

[someguy]

I Know Heat Can Be Created Into Energy. I Think We All Know How Steam Power Work. This Is Science Forum How Can You Possibly Think We Don't Know How Energy Is Created From Heat.

 

if you would have read my post then you would know that i was talking about a specific type of heat transfer into energy being that you could only harness a change of less than a degree over a huge area and yet accumulate a reasonable quantity of energy and you would keep this plant in the antartica and north pole thus essentially keeping the temperature in those places in check and preventing desalination of our oceans. steam power is completely different as is nuclear and as is coal. my question was less can you use heat to make energy, though i did word it that way, and more for this specific use, or in terms of natural heat of the planet not artificial concentrated heat caused by combustion or other means specifically for the use of energy, only using that heat which exists in the atmosphere like a windmill does for wind. But not a windmill even though wind is technically caused by temperature differences.

 

thanks for the thermocouple idea though, ajb but upon reading, it says that thermocouples aren't really useful for changes in less than 1 degree C and also need to measure the difference between two points and so for this application it might not be so handy since the two points would need to be too far away. so i think in this case that wouldn't really work. still it was good to know.

 

I think for this application you would need something that works with absolute temperature. maybe something like a giant thermometer, giant in radius not height, that would push up a huge plate and get energy this way. the distance traveled by the plate in this case would need to be very small and the resistance very high so you can get alot of energy from it but perhaps this would be too inefficient to help regulate the temperatures there.

[alan2here]

http://users.zoominternet.net/~matto/M.C.A.S/electromagnetic_spectrum.gif

Seems there is a window at extreemly high freqancys. (which due to there extreemly high freqancy have a lot of energy)

[Jean Maxwell]

if you would have read my post then you would know that i was talking about a specific type of heat transfer into energy being that you could only harness a change of less than a degree over a huge area and yet accumulate a reasonable quantity of energy and you would keep this plant in the antartica and north pole thus essentially keeping the temperature in those places in check and preventing desalination of our oceans. steam power is completely different as is nuclear and as is coal. my question was less can you use heat to make energy, though i did word it that way, and more for this specific use, or in terms of natural heat of the planet not artificial concentrated heat caused by combustion or other means specifically for the use of energy, only using that heat which exists in the atmosphere like a windmill does for wind. But not a windmill even though wind is technically caused by temperature differences.

 

thanks for the thermocouple idea though, ajb but upon reading, it says that thermocouples aren't really useful for changes in less than 1 degree C and also need to measure the difference between two points and so for this application it might not be so handy since the two points would need to be too far away. so i think in this case that wouldn't really work. still it was good to know.

 

I think for this application you would need something that works with absolute temperature. maybe something like a giant thermometer, giant in radius not height, that would push up a huge plate and get energy this way. the distance traveled by the plate in this case would need to be very small and the resistance very high so you can get alot of energy from it but perhaps this would be too inefficient to help regulate the temperatures there.

 

The issue with making use of change in heat to perform work or create electricity is that you need a closed system, to acomplish this on the level you refer to would require a huge facility to make use of the temp change to a great enough degree (pun intended)

 

(And about heat being the transfer of energy, I think a more specific definition is heat is molecular kinetic energy, heat is the motion of atoms)

 

I agree lets use information from a top down veiw, make it as specific as possible, then if it needs clarification the indivual can speek out asking for such clarification, I know when something interests me I will ask a multitude of questions to better understand and be able to relate it in a more practical way.

 

I am curious about the differing range of energy that encompasses Cosmic rays, and the change in energectic reactions (in the atmosphere) from our sun as it changes from a state of low quantities of solar flare to high quantity, ( hope I stated that meaningfully teehee)

 

Anyone have an info on the subjeck?

[swansont]

(And about heat being the transfer of energy, I think a more specific definition is heat is molecular kinetic energy, heat is the motion of atoms)

 

No, it's not. Ever use a microwave oven? Burn stuff with a magnifying glass, focusing the sunlight?

 

Molecular kinetic energy is thermal energy, but you can have thermal energy without any heat flow (i.e. in thermal equilibrium)

[Jean Maxwell]

No, it's not. Ever use a microwave oven? Burn stuff with a magnifying glass, focusing the sunlight?

 

Molecular kinetic energy is thermal energy, but you can have thermal energy without any heat flow (i.e. in thermal equilibrium)

 

Yes, every day. The microwaves excite water Molecules generating heat. Motion of Atoms.

Heating the molecules speed up in there movement, so regardless of how they attain there heat atoms being heated is expressed in there motion. Transfer of heat is the kenetic interactions.

 

At room temp, air molecules move 5 miles/ minute, or the speed of sound. This makes great sense. If you raise the temp of the air, the molecules travel faster, and subsequently it will increase the speed of sound.

 

Photons strike atoms causing them to move. Very simple very true statment, im curious what you feel about that is invalid?

[swansont]

Yes, every day. The microwaves excite water Molecules generating heat. Motion of Atoms.

Heating the molecules speed up in there movement, so regardless of how they attain there heat atoms being heated is expressed in there motion. Transfer of heat is the kenetic interactions.

 

At room temp, air molecules move 5 miles/ minute, or the speed of sound. This makes great sense. If you raise the temp of the air, the molecules travel faster, and subsequently it will increase the speed of sound.

 

Photons strike atoms causing them to move. Very simple very true statment, im curious what you feel about that is invalid?

 

The microwaves have to have energy in order to excite the molecules. The former is the heat. The latter is thermal energy (of which temperature is a measure). What you're presenting is the lay use of the term, which is different than the physics definition. In physics, heat is a process, not a property.