PV Gap

Kelly Said:

ladies and gents! the coolest handbag ever! new gadget!?

We Answered:

It's a neat concept, someone is thinking!! However, for me, personally, I try to buy from Americans. Call me an isolationist, call me whatever, but Americans buy my shirts and I, in turn, spend it in America.

Jean Said:

Solar Panel wattage for my Electric Bike?

We Answered:

You will want to have some sort of voltage regulation.
If the panel voltage drops off you don't want to discharge the batteries on your bike.
And you would not want to overcharge your batteries.

Harbor Freight has a fold out 18 to 24 vdc solar recharger.(see link)

For a work/home commute you might not want to haul the charger around everyday.
Ask the folks at the farm if you could set up a solar charging station. They might even help.
I'd suggest a bicycle locker that has the panel on top and a couple spaces for bicycles with charging stations inside, out of the elements. Your employers may like the idea.

Lloyd Said:

11th grade Science Model requiring Architecture+Science. Help if you can please. :)?

We Answered:

escalators seem better..id say stairs to so people can excersise and use less electricity and fire safety. id put large wind proof windows and skylights for all natural lighting. solar panels keep cool air/ warm air inside depending on the season. u can run the place on methanol ( garbage) like Johnson and Johnson does now so ud be recycling. in china i think they have made buildings were if theres an earthquake the building will sways with it so it wont fall. use ur waste to power ur building...and for foundation concrete always works!

Carmen Said:

Solar Panel wattage for my Electric Bike?

We Answered:

wow
i;d just say abandon all hope
get a regular bike and learn to ride it
get enough of your own juice to ride 'up hills'

you work in an organic farm and you want to get one of these silly heavy slow environment destroying resource wasting electric bikes?
dude

organic farm ===> real bike
seriously

otherwise you are in for some serious electrical engineering or spending about 3 times what a good, regular bike would cost


wle

Holly Said:

11th grade Science Model requiring Architecture+Science. Help if you can please. :)?

We Answered:

Watch "Extreme Engineering" on Discovery Channel. One episode is on the proposed Sky City by the Japanese. This should answer most of your questions.

Kirk Said:

If you could travel back in time to the 1850's, carrying a back pack, What would you take with you?

We Answered:

A complete set of specifications, blueprints, and machinists drawings for the Avatomat Kalisnikova model of 1947, (AK47)

(Why the AK47? It has relatively loose manufacturing tolerances and is a simple, basic, and rugged design.
A good gunsmith from the 1850's could look at the specs and make perfect sense of them. The same gunsmith might well be baffled by an AR15 or god forbid, a P90)

specifications for 7.62x39 cartridges and blueprints/design specs for case drawing machinery,

blueprints and specs for primer manufacturing machinery,

jacketed bullet construction techniques and machinery blueprints,

automated reloading machinery blueprints,

chemical composition recipes for smokeless powder and primer compound.

The recipes for C4, Dynamite, and instructions for safe manufacture of both,

The blueprints and construction techniques for Claymore mines, and examples of modern batteries.

Specifications of modern internal combustion engines and blueprints of modern and sub-modern milling machines and lathes.

Blueprints for simple wireless 2-way radios.

A concise history book of the occurrences between 1850 and the present.

American history might have turned out better had the South won the Civil War. The South was subjected to economic RUIN in it's wake. This set the USA back technologically and in terms of trust between the South and the North. With a stronger government and a policy of expansionism, We certainly could have prevented both World Wars and the Cold War as well as nuclear proliferation..... if only we could have become the dominant world power by 1860.....