I need someone to explain elctricity to me.

[luvinlife offthegrid]

The "Lance Armstrong on crack" analogy is a good one.

The youth group I work with went to a presentation with an "energy bike" from Cornell University. It's really neat. It has the bike hooked up to a circuit board with a few different electrical items on a display board.

A 5th grader was told to hop on the bike and pedal normal speed. Then the presenter flipped stuff on. First, she flipped on a fan. Hardly any different. She shut that off, then flipped on a CFL bulb. It was a little harder to pedal. She turned two more on, and it got more difficult to pedal.

Then she turned all the CFL's off and flipped on an indandescent bulb. It was at the "more difficult to pedal" range. It was interesting to hear the bike suddenly slow and watch the person have to visibly pedal harder. The she flipped on another incadescent and the kid had to pedal standing up, and was obviously struggling. Then she turned on a hairdryer and the bike came to a screeching halt. It was a great hands-on lesson for the youth and adults that attended.

 

[Joel_BC]

Here are some short videos related to the topic of this thread. One of them comes on automatically at this link, others are listed on the page - just click.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNfDpKk5IOI&feature=related

 

[User4960]

It'd be nice if some of the gadgets "The Professor" on Gilligan's island made really worked. That bamboo bicycle generator might do a trickle charge for batteries. That'd be about it. Oh, maybe it could work a small LED light.

Ya know, one of these modern bicycles all geared right might be the ticket to trickle charging the batteries while exercising.

 

[~gd]

It'd be nice if some of the gadgets "The Professor" on Gilligan's island made really worked. That bamboo bicycle generator might do a trickle charge for batteries. That'd be about it. Oh, maybe it could work a small LED light.

Ya know, one of these modern bicycles all geared right might be the ticket to trickle charging the batteries while exercising.

I must disagree About 50 years ago I had a generator on my one speed bike that would power a 3 volt headlight and a weak tail light OR I could leave the generator engaged all day and it would charge a small 6v Lead/acid {pre NI-CD] battery. As I remember it most of the boys that lived in the country had these rigs Because the cops insisted on lights on any bike on unlighted roads after dark, I also had a electric horn built into the tank. I saved my money and bought just what I wanted $69 top of the line at Western Auto! Coaster Brake and Fat Tires it might Have been called a "Road Master" model but I am fuzzy on that.~gd