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Leafblowers are nifty. But I suspect the wind which comes out the nozzle is just a turbulent blast, which my feng shui advisor stated would be bad.
I propose that a nozzle could be devised to route the airstream into a vortex. The vortex would retain coherence longer and possibly allow loner projection.
Also, it may be possibile to generate vortices which then detach from the leaf blower and move to other objects.
Vortex Heaters
http://vornado.com/circulators.htm
and similar stuff [neutrinos_shadow, Nov 14 2007]
Smoke-zooka
http://www.youtube....watch?v=JYrH4g_aGww
Giant Smoke Rings Being Shot From A Giant Home Made Air-Zooka [baconbrain, Nov 14 2007]
[link]
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The technology exists (linky), so it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to add it to a leaf blower. A blower is also more powerful than a home heater fan, so you could probably get quite a mini-tornado going. |
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Actually, a vortex only works when the air is coming together. If you put an axial spin in outgoing air, it will centrifuge apart, not hold together. (Those Vornado fans cannot work as the advertising would like you to think.) |
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You could maybe make a vortex-ring projector, which shoots "smoke" rings. That's as close as the laws of physics will allow you to get to this idea. |
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Or make a laminar flow nozzle for your leaf blower. |
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As I ponder the mysteries of vortices, my ignance is evident. I don't understand why they dont fly apart. Even after reading wikipedia. Me, not them. |
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Ow! That Wikipedia article is confusing, indeed. Most vortices involve air flowing inward, with some rotation already present, and an outflow somewhere. Wingtip vortices keep expanding, since they don't have any flow in or out. |
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Back to the idea, and sorry about not thinking of this earlier. You could make a vortex leaf blower if you put four smaller nozzles out on arms, pointed forward but angled a bit in and with a twist to the array so the airstreams meet and twist around each other. You might or might not want to keep a main nozzle in the middle. |
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