Simple engines that work with just temperature differences
No, this is not a goofy free energy thing like I saw at Gnomedex on Saturday (ugh, it still bugs me). This is real science, real physics, and doesn’t violate the laws of thermodynamics: heck it uses them!
This papercraft engine only needs to sit on a cup of hot coffee to drive its pistons. No, it’s not the precious caffeine that drives the motion, but the Stirling engine design, in which the difference between alternating hot and cold gas pressure is harnessed for power. Source: Cheaper Than Gas: Paper Stirling Engine Runs Off Hot Coffee – Gizmodo
Boing Boing has the best description of what’s going on–but essentially what you’re seeing is the expansion, contraction, and circulation of the air in the little area below the engine will drive it. This strengthens something I was probably boring people to death with later on Saturday evening, there are hundreds, probably thousands of creative ways we can take current technology and improve it or apply it in creative ways. That’s freakin’ open sourcing energy man!
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