Nanosolar

At last it looks like the cost (and hopefully this equates to the energy cost of manufacture) is coming down. Nanosolar are quoting $0.99/Watt. With the exchange rate that equates to about 50pence/Watt.

If we assume that electricity costs 7 pence/kWhr then this means we need to generate 7kWhr before we break even.

Lets assume we get 5 hours of sunshine a day and so that means 5 Whr/day and so 200 days to generate 1 kWhr.

That means 1400 days to breakeven. That's just under 4 years, not so bad.

Fame at Last
When writing some of the pages for the encyclopedia it is nice to illustrate them with images where possible. One such image was for Flemings Right Hand Rule where I took a photograph of my hand against a white background I then took the image into Paint.net. From here I had some fun making it black and white and increasing the brightness and of course removing my arm. The result was rather effective.

Not sure just how special the image is, but I had a request to use it in a book and agreed in return for a link and now it is about to appear on lots of physics students T-shirts at Kalamazoo College in the format shown below, rather nice seeing it with some professional graphics work.

Fame at last, at least for my hand. Now need to think of a page and perhaps an image of me, you never know......

If you would like to use images from diracdelta.co.uk we are happy if they are used fairly (e.g. credit) and if you contact us first to ask.

Science & Engineering
I got my Eeepc at Toys R Us where they had plenty of stock, it seems that traditional computer suppliers are running out very quickly. As mentioned here - http://eeepcworld.wordpress.com/2007/12/15/pc-world-now-selling-the-eee/trackback/ I wouldn't try PC World just yet until they have trained their staff on just what this little gadget is.

Eee bah gum - Small is Beautiful

...or rather the new Asus Eee PC 4G laptop is small, light, portable and really everything you need for computing on the go. This is aimed at the kids, but really is the perfect companion for writing a quick email, surfing the net or even some more serious work with the Open Office pre-installed. Great if you need to give a presentation somewhere and do not want to lug 3kg of laptop with you.

The keyboard is small and you would not want to use it for writing reports, but for the odd note or blog it is just about perfect. If you need a portable computer then this is the device.

The solid state disk is only 4Gb and 2.5Gb of that is for the pre-installed linux, office and many other applications. However, an SD slot allows you to add another 8Gb and 3 spare usb ports allow you to plug in a hard drive. I remember not that many years ago ordering a serious desktop computer for home with just a 6.3Gb drive - how did we manage!

The best bit is the price £219 a fraction of the price of the very desirable small Sony laptops and the build quality of the Asus is far from shoddy, it is rather solid and should handle some fairly rough use with that solid state drive.

Thanks Dinosaurs, now lets move on with elegance…

The average person weighs 75kg and yet requires a vehicle weighing 1500kg to haul them around. That really is quite obscene when you think carefully about it. Is it vanity, greed or just all of the manufacturers have become dinosaurs laboriously sticking to their old ways and not daring to do anything different.

There are some out there that have always promoted lightweight design e.g. Lotus. This has always been with performance in mind and not the pursuit of fuel economy. I can forgive them for that as there has to be a reason and being environmentally friendly has only just started to sell.

If we take a good look at the Toyota Prius we see a very hi-tech vehicle with a huge amount of components that gives a reasonable fuel economy. The vehicle weighs an incredible 1325kg. Is this an elegant solution? The following quote comes to mind:

"To define it rudely but not inaptly, engineering is the art of doing that well with one dollar which any bungler can do with two after a fashion.”, Arthur M. Wellington

There are a new breed of vehicle designs that are turning up with a very strong environmental theme e.g. Aptera – daring design, fantastic fuel economy claims and a vehicle that weighs around 386kg, this just feels more sensible. A simple fundamental concept where weight is kept to a minimum, aerodynamic drag is reduced and the power unit is simple and much smaller as a result of the diet.