h a l f b a k e r yA riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a rich, flaky crust
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Standard laser pointer with a hand grip built in. Squeeze the grip, and piezoelectric power runs your laser pointer.
Piezoelectric lighter
http://chemistry.be...ht/pages/piezo.html [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
How BBQ Lighters Work
http://home.howstuf...com/question383.htm [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
Hand powered flashlight
http://www.4physics...h/28/products_id/89 Like this, but a laser using piezoelectrics and requiring less squeezing [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
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I always have trouble with that word,i read it as a |
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'pudding powered spinning illusion trick'. |
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I think the sound would get annoying, no? |
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Do piezoelectrics make noise? Or you talking about the "Bzzzt" "Zap!" of the laser gun? |
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Hey World, could you give a crash course in Piezo whatsis for artists 101? I looked it up and it made no sense. or a link that explains it. Thanks. |
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The piezoelectric effect is a property of certain crystals to generate a voltage in response to pressure (and a pressure in response to a voltage). The piezoelectrics you're likely familiar with are in lighters. When you press on the lighter button, a mechinism takes all of your button-pushing energy and concentrates it into a quick action (the "click" sound). The large sudden pressure on a small crystal generates a voltage difference, which causes a spark. |
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OH, thats why one website was talking about piezo shoe inserts, pressure from the walking, etc. Thanks guys |
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another question, could this be used in an automobile to create the spark? |
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I don't know why not. Though I do wonder why you would want to. |
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dent - artists 101! great name. |
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So, instead of a laser, you could have a blow torch lighter with a really long, blue flame. |
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Wouldn't that be distracting? |
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So turning back to the original idea, how long would the laser light stay on?, and wouldn't you have to spark it repeatedly to maintain say 5 seconds of light? |
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and po, that's PiezoWhatsisforArtists 101 |
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Lasers require very little power, which is why I think this would be a good fit (versus, say, a piezo hair dryer). I haven't done the calculations for the force requirements for 5 seconds of laser light, but it seems reasonable to me that this shouldn't be a problem. |
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Plenty of volts, but no amps.
Piezo crystals have a very high internal resistance. The output power is important, not the voltage by itself. Laser pointers consume a few mW. Off hand, I don't know how much power could be generated from a typical crystal. |
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"another question, could this be used in
an automobile to create the spark?
dentworth," |
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My uncle actually made a few
prototypes of self powered spark plugs
using piezo crystals and used one on a
single cylinder moped for years without
problems. The problems arrived when
he tried to apply the setup to
multicylinder engines, and engines with
high rpm's, there was too much lag in
the setup and it would fire at the wrong
times. These were self contained units
all incorporated on the spark plug not
attached to anything else. Was a very
cool idea, he was using the pressure
from the cylinder to fire the an auto
resetting hammer that would pound the
crystal. |
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