Gravity powered generator

[Art Vandelay]

"You can't power something with... thingy! I guess it will make charted engineership much more exciting!"

Well, I suppose you could, but I don't think the moderators would appreciate a detailed discussion of the matter

The moon is 7.36*10^22 kilograms, and orbits at ~1028 m/s. That comes to a kinetic energy of 3.89*10^28 joules. I'm not sure how to calculate the moon's potential energy because the dropoff in earth's gravity at that distance is significant, so multiplying the mass time acceleration times distance would give an innacurate answer.

You can do it be writing out the equation for gravitational acceleration versus distance, then integrating from the current radius to the radius of the earth. It comes out to 1/(earth radius)-1/(moon radius) times some constant. I'm just too lazy to figure out what it is. Actually, I believe that for a circular orbit, the ratio between the KE and PE energy is a particular number that I don't remeber.

 

[fishbob]

I have an even better idea. Let's wrap planet earth in copper wire, and put a bunch of magnets on the moon.

But this will slow the rotation of the earth. The days will get longer. And most likely those hours will be spent at work. With your interns.

 

[Soapy Sam]

"But I can't get a river in my cubicle." - Bruce.


I can.


What are your coordinates?

 

[Bruce]

"But I can't get a river in my cubicle." - Bruce.


I can.


What are your coordinates?

You are either an Ent or a very talented civil engineer.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Wasn't there a song called "Cry Me a River"?

Hans

 

[Soapy Sam]

Ah! Upstairs are we? That just makes it more fun.