Thread: Capillary Power.

Get a long skinny tube, put the bottom of the tube in contact with something like water, and like magic, the water will move up the tube. By itself.


Plants do this every day. Water gets sucked out of the ground without any motive force.


There’s no external energy source. And yet, mass, weight, is moved. Moved uphill.



Every hour, trillions of tons of water (and etc) are being moved against gravity, uphill, just because the tubes are quite skinny.


Even if, the Sun, is the energy source, why can’t we make Capillary Power Plants (pun)?

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

Get a long skinny tube, put the bottom of the tube in contact with something like water, and like magic, the water will move up the tube. By itself.


Plants do this every day. Water gets sucked out of the ground without any motive force.


There’s no external energy source. And yet, mass, weight, is moved. Moved uphill.



Every hour, trillions of tons of water (and etc) are being moved against gravity, uphill, just because the tubes are quite skinny.


Even if, the Sun, is the energy source, why can’t we make Capillary Power Plants (pun)?

I have though about this before when thinking of how wicks work and I even though of how a generator could be made.


A massive wick that would suck up tons of water and dump it through a turbine on the other side to washed back in to the other water.

It's simple and seems to work, but there is obvious problem. Energy can't be created in LR.

I think this action is due to the intermolecular forces, so they don't come from no where and they energy is simply transferred.

Ok, 'Noob'.

So we still don't know why we can't have a Capilliary Powered civilisation.

It's been invented before. The capillary bowl.

Perpetual motion - RationalWiki

The capillary bowl, or Boyle's Flask (after Robert Boyle) makes use of a few "paradoxes" of hydrostatics. Particularly it's related to Pascal's Vases, where water remains at the same level regardless of the shape of the flask, so an apparently small volume of water can resist a large volume of water - demonstrating that the level of a fluid is dependent on depth and doesn't act like a set of weighing scales.^[7] The theory behind the flask is that capillary action, which is responsible for creating a meniscus and draws water through a small enough tube, would keep the water flowing constantly. It is not powered by gravity, as might be suggested by a quick glance at the hypothetical apparatus. However, the flask would fail to fill regardless as water tension (related to the same force that causes capillary action) would prevent the flow emerging from the capillary at the end.

Another version. The capillary wheel.

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum...htm#capillary2

Capillary motor:

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum...htm#capillary1

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Harold14370 , in a sentence, why we can't have a Capilliary Powered civilisation?

In a sentence, it is because capillary action is not a source of energy. Did you read and understand the above link about the proposed capillary motor?

>> Did you read and understand the above link about the proposed capillary motor?

If -you- had, you'd be able to offer one sentence in reply.

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

>> Did you read and understand the above link about the proposed capillary motor?

If -you- had, you'd be able to offer one sentence in reply.

He did.
I know you intentionally ignored it, but everyone else can see it.

Would it help if I repeated it? Probably not - but here goes:
"In a sentence, it is because capillary action is not a source of energy."

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

Harold14370 , in a sentence, why we can't have a Capilliary Powered civilisation?

Read the last sentence of the quoted extract.

The capillary attraction responsible for attracting the water will also STOP IT COMING OUT OF THE END.

So it can get sucked up until the wick is saturated and then the process will STOP.

Get it?

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

Ok, 'Noob'.

So we still don't know why we can't have a Capilliary Powered civilisation.

Because it's not practical and I'd rather that scientists researched nuclear than this crap

Originally Posted by exchemist

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

Harold14370 , in a sentence, why we can't have a Capilliary Powered civilisation?

Read the last sentence of the quoted extract.

The capillary attraction responsible for attracting the water will also STOP IT COMING OUT OF THE END.

So it can get sucked up until the wick is saturated and then the process will STOP.

Get it?

From which it can be taken from the wick and fall creating kinetic energy, so the process could be endless but not practical because the energy required to draw the water would be equal or greater than the gravitational potential energy.

No.

Originally Posted by Echelon Eight

Get a long skinny tube, put the bottom of the tube in contact with something like water, and like magic, the water will move up the tube. By itself.


Plants do this every day. Water gets sucked out of the ground without any motive force.


There’s no external energy source. And yet, mass, weight, is moved. Moved uphill.



Every hour, trillions of tons of water (and etc) are being moved against gravity, uphill, just because the tubes are quite skinny.


Even if, the Sun, is the energy source, why can’t we make Capillary Power Plants (pun)?

This won't work.. how are you going to get any physical work out of the water molecules? You have to understand that the water molecules are finding a more stable conformation or interaction stuck to the glass chemicals than they are to its self. Therefore, it moves towards that conformation.. which in this case is up the glass tube, (until it meets gravity, forces equal and the water stops traveling up the tube ect ect).

Since the water molecules are in much more stable conformation or interaction, you would actually have to PUT in energy to remove the water molecules from that conformation. Your not actually going to get any work out of this system....