h a l f b a k e r yMake mine a double.
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Winter is approaching in the northern hemisphere, and with it comes snow covered roads. Global warming will effect some places and there won't be any snow, but for others there will be even more. Until plowing and salting can take place, some roads become featureless vistas of white snow. Heated road
lane spacers solves this problem.
The idea is to provide a low powered heating element under each of a series of black dashes that run along the centre of the road, interspersed between the normal white ones.
These black dashes are all connected via a wire that runs to a central point, and delivers the current needed to cause them to heat up to a sufficient degree to melt any snow lying on top of them.
This results in them being revealed as a series clearly visible of black dashes against the background of the white road. This is almost a complete negative image of the road that usually appears as a black surface with white dashes.
Ground temp by depth: Fig 2
https://igws.indian...eothermal/HeatPumps
[bs0u0155, Oct 05 2020]
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Annotation:
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But won't this add to global warming... ? |
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Oh how amazing! I never heard of that. You know
so much more than me. What you forget is that
this is the halfbakery and the idea is about
creating a negative image, not about solving an
actual real life problem. |
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<Ignores "not real life problem" comment in typyical passive-aggressive way/> |
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Just melting in the "dashes" might cause more problems than it solves. The runoff water has to go somewhere; it will seep under the surrounding unmelted snow, and may well re-freeze, but as sheet ice rather than snow crystals. This will create patches of loose snow with sheet ice underneath ... what fun. |
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It does seem to be a case of "clear the whole surface, or not at all" if it's safety you're after. |
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//solving an actual real life problem// I thought we had finished dealing with all those a few years ago? |
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8th becomes "practical man". This is like Japan’s
"salary man", only without the mad Kirin beer
drinking :-) |
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// the state of technology was for snow melting systems // |
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Well developed; it relies on increasing the atmospheric CO2 content, by oxidising fossil carbon deposits. |
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It's working well, apparently. |
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//if it's safety you're after// |
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Given that, at least here on the US east-coast, we can't
seem to keep anything resembling a continuous paved
surface, I worry that adding complexity and cost would be
practical. Honestly half the reason people have SUVs
around here is just to cope with "road" conditions. My
particular favorite is the removal of 2" of road surface
leaving the road open, but with 2" cast iron drain
installations sticking out at random intervals. |
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Anyhow, electrical heating is energy intensive, but the
goal here is just to melt water ice. So all you need is
access to something that is warmer than 0C. For that,
just go down a couple of feet <link> and you're above
freezing. Even 6" would probably do it in most places.
Ohh, that gives me an idea... |
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//just to cope with "road" conditions//
After the earthquakes here (Christchurch, New Zealand),
the roads were (understandably) somewhat messed up. After
a (rather long) time, some were fixed, and some clever nut
put up signs saying "Warning - Smooth Road Ahead". |
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Based on previous evidence of what passes for "humour" in NZ, that's entirely consistent ... |
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Do you have tumbleweeds there, or did they all die of boredom ... ? |
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Perhaps sell of the rights to install heating strips to various
advertising companies. Soon 98% of the roads will be
covered in black asphaltic advertisements. |
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If quantum entanglement can be crystallized, such that perturbations don't cause collapse, cold country roads could be tunneled to hot country roads/spaces. |
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// If quantum entanglement can be crystallized, such that perturbations don't cause collapse, // |
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Crystals exist at a supratomic level. Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon associated with subatomic particles. The two concepts operate at entirely different physical scales. |
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Could you explain your idea in a more muddled and confusing way ? (Since it would be trivially easy to explain it in a less muddled and confusing way, we are attempting to set you a meaningful intellectual challenge). |
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Failing that, someone can talk down to him. That's probably a
better match for the skill sets we have here. |
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You're being almost nice again ... why are you being almost nice ? What are you up to ? What are you planning ? You're in league with [xenzag], aren't you ? |
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A gloved hand turns a dial one spot clickwise. |
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Oh, so you're in it too ? Might have known ... |
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Out there, in a corner of the expanse, there might just be supratomic structures that carry quantum tunneling abilities, like any good science fiction extrapolates.
. |
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Wouldn’t the heated black lines on the road be
covered in animals (foxes, wildcats, deer,
raccoons, etc.) warming themselves up? |
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No, they'll prefer using the larger road side heating
pads that serve as clear areas for cars to pull over
to and park on in the event of a flat tyre etc. |
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