[HN Gopher] High Voltage "Lifter"
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       High Voltage "Lifter"
        
       Author : mindcrime
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2021-01-11 02:12 UTC (19 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (electricmuseum.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (electricmuseum.com)
        
       | opwieurposiu wrote:
       | These are pretty easy to make, using an old CRT monitor as the HV
       | power supply. I made some in the early 2000s. Back then there was
       | a lot of chatter about how "asymmetric capacitors" could provide
       | reactionless propulsion. Of course it turned out just to be an
       | inefficient and dangerous way to make a desk fan.
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | A team at MIT made an ionic wind glider a couple of years back
         | that flew across a room.
         | 
         | https://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-p...
        
         | beerandt wrote:
         | I always used neon-light transformers.
         | 
         | Dirt cheap or even free, since bars often had promotional ones
         | they didn't pay for, or ones with broken glass that they were
         | happy to be rid of.
         | 
         | I also clearly remember thinking that these were a lot safer to
         | use than old CRTs, but I have no idea why and don't recall the
         | reasoning for it.
        
         | phkahler wrote:
         | Townsend Brown. I knew a guy who spent years trying to
         | replicate that stuff. Wonder what became of him?
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xn8CLhEU4jA
       | 
       | By the way, if you like this then you might also like this video
       | about acoustic levitation:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABjRnSYw-4k
        
       | mrfusion wrote:
       | I really think there's a lot of potential for high voltage
       | technologies. No one really explores it because it's absolutely
       | terrifying.
        
       | benibela wrote:
       | I tried to build one in high school, but it did not work :(
       | 
       | I think the school had a hand powered high voltage generator with
       | some kind of leather band
       | 
       | I took it to university and gave it to a professor who might have
       | a more stable HV power supply. I got it back after a year, and
       | they said it was too dangerous to try it out, or something
        
         | 0_____0 wrote:
         | probably would have worked on a real hv supply. maybe time to
         | reprise the experiment? :)
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | Related (not electrostatic, but also propulsion without
       | macroscopic moving parts):
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamic_drive
        
       | phreeza wrote:
       | I wonder if the same effect could be used in reverse to build a
       | solid state wind "turbine"/generator without any moving parts.
        
         | opwieurposiu wrote:
         | Yes, such a thing exists!
         | 
         | https://medium.com/greener-together/the-solid-state-wind-ene...
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | Yes, you can even build a glider!
         | https://news.mit.edu/2018/first-ionic-wind-plane-no-moving-p...
        
         | gus_massa wrote:
         | I think it is possible to use this as a fan, but this design is
         | very inefficient.
         | 
         | Somewhat related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster
        
       | hatsunearu wrote:
       | My first exposure to this was Steins;Gate. Bit obscure unless you
       | take a close at the S;G lore though. It's merely a passing
       | reference in the anime AFAIK
        
       | wolfram74 wrote:
       | This same principle has been incorporated in full blown air
       | planes. Admittedly very short operational range at the moment
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IorDYGI1uqc
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | From reading their research, it seems the range was
         | artificially limited to the size of the gym because the team
         | didn't have access to a larger test area.
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-11 22:02 UTC)