I read in a sci-fi novel that if one end of a tungsten rod is heated, and the other is chilled, there will be an apreciable electical current along the length. And, with a very, very large beam of tugsten, you can sink one end in a deep body of water, put the other end in a green house on the surface, and draw off the current by a wire in the middle. Voila! "Free" energy.
Of course, i have no idea if this is even vaguely factual. That's where you come in.
2007-02-02 14:33:42 · 2 answers · asked by juicy_wishun 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
For one thing you can't have a current unless you have a circuit. If you heat a rod of any metal you might drive the free electrons away from the hot end but you couldn't draw off a continuous current this way. There is a device called a thermocouple which involves a junction between two metals. When this junction is heated a small voltage is produced and if the other ends are connected to a load like a light bulb then a small current will flow. By stacking up several of these junctions in series you can get a larger voltage and a larger current. So the effect is not exclusive to tungsten and while it gets used for measuring temperature it doesn't seem to be useful for producing power in commercial quantities.
2007-02-02 14:50:26 · answer #1 · answered by rethinker 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sell it to a lightbulb factory. That's what they make filaments out of!
2016-05-23 22:02:35 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋