What happened to the brigde? - Perfect Steel.

Why is half the bridge gone ?

Original Picture Source : Wikimedia

It should look like this.

Source : Wikimedia

All metals used today to build structures , especially steel and Aluminum are strong but not as strong as they should be. 

In theory steel should be 10 to 30 times stronger than it is. So far, with the industrial methods used to produce steel, it is impossible to make it that strong.

The metal material is generally formed of a main metal atom (Fe for steel) arranged in cubic form and attached together in what is called a crystal. Steel has a body centered crystal form (BCC), as shown in the picture below ,which means an atom in the center and four atoms on the corners of the cubic shape. These cubes grouped together make the large solid object.

It is also exactly like the Atomium structure in Belgium, it is meant to represent a single steel crystal.

Source : http://architecturelinked.com/profiles/blogs/the-atomium

What makes steel weaker ? 

The reason is simple... imperfections.

Imperfections are other atoms that should not be in the mix, atoms that are in the wrong place, not belonging to the crystal or snuggling additionally in a crystal where it should not be. The picture below shows some examples, and the video after it has a nice young lady explaining how steel deforms easier with the existence of imperfections.

Source : http://www.corrosionclinic.com/corrosion_online_lectures/ME303L02.HTM

Watch this video till the third minute, the remaining 1 minute could be too technical. 

The strength of steel is slowly improving, with the development of manufacturing technology and processes used after casting, like quenching and annealing, which are two methods the control the cooling speed of the metal so that the imperfections could decrease or increase and other properties of the metal change too. (Without diving into details here, if interested to know more simply google the words).

So why is half the bridge gone ? 

Because it is redesigned and manufactured from Perfect Steel. 

So if steel was produced perfect. How would the Tour Eiffel look like ?

How would Sydney Harbor Bridge look like ? 

What other structures do you think could change drastically ?

Source : Wikimedia

Original Picture Soure: Wikimedia

Source: Wikipedia

Original Picture Source: Wikipedia

Perpetual Popcorn Machine

This is a concept design of a perpetual motion machine. A perpetual motion machine is a mechanical system that is able to move without a source of energy, without ever stopping, some designs are too bold to even claim that the system generates free energy (free energy machine).

Of course this design is not a functioning Perpetual Motion Machine, it is nearly impossible to design such system, energy is always lost while it makes its cycle in the system. It is lost in form of friction, heat dissipation and by moving the surrounding air which absorbs the energy.

Here is a brief explanation of how this simple machine could operate. An individual corn kernel falls on the heated platform (colored in red), the water in the corn kernel heats up and eventually causes an explosion (The POP), the explosion allows the corn to expand into a popcorn and this expansion pushes the piston downward and the Popcorn with it. At the bottom, the Popcorn exits the piston from the right side. The motion of the piston drives a gear which rotates a shaft connected to an electric alternator. The alternator generates electricity which is fed back to the heating platform. 

By this design, the energy of the exploding Popcorn is partially recovered and sent back to heat up another corn.

 

I should point out however that this system can be multiplied to several pistons connected to the same shaft and flywheel , each allowed to input energy to the alternator freely but also keeping a more continuous motion for the flywheel. The gear and the flywheel are not connected by a straight shaft, the gear drives the main shaft by a torque in one direction and free rotation in the other direction, exactly like the drive gear of a bicycle.

There are few mechanisms removed from these pictures.There is a mechanically connected gate , that allows one corn kernel to fall into the piston when the piston moves downward and returns to place, this gate will allow feeding in the kernels, one by one. This system also assumes that all corn kernels will explode. It is of course possible to later add electronic smart systems that detect a bad corn kernel and disposes of it to keep the Perpetual popcorn machine running.

Of course a system like this has no point other than interesting mechanical design , popcorn making and just a fun thing to try out. All previously design "Perpetual Motion Machines" had no purpose, at least this one , while consuming energy from the electric grid to keep running, it will also make you something to munch on while you watch a movie.

There could be in fact a perpetual motion machine, if you can cheat with the conditions, for example, two bodies in the vacuum of space connected together by gravity, can rotate around each other endlessly if there are no external gravity fields affecting their motion and no contact between the two bodies to create friction.