Is it possible to use human power, instead of coal or nuke?

Question

I have a question which is engineering based. i understand this question is probably not possible but I am wondering if anyone with a greater understanding of physics and engineering might have something forward looking ideas or something to add.

In a simple explanation i think it would be possible some how to use human pedal like power to turn a generator of the same size you would use at a nuke plant. Its clear a human can not directly turn it pedal power so no flames please, my question is what what laws of physics could we integrate together to allow this to happen.

Don't forget coal plants and nuke plants which turn these generators are very very costly to run. I should say Extremely costly to run. So try to think of it this way you have let say 12 humans per 8 hour shift per one generator, and they are going to be cream of the crop for this duty.

Give your best answer, answers which say its not possible are fine just back it up. Thanks and have fun

Jasun

sickle - i just wanted to comment on your answer, your example numbers are so way off, but i like that you gave me an answer. Im looking for answers that tap into physics and engineering. A human could directly power several TVs in real time just resting car alternators on the back tire of a jacked up rear wheel of a bike. which is hardly pressing the limits of whats possible

thanks thou

superkitten - i would like to comment on your answer. Although it was not what i was looking for im impressed by your answer. Im sure most people wont understand what your talking about in whole. Just thought i would let you know that i do!

carl p - you said this

Yes, remember Einstein said it in his theory "power is neither created nor destroyed it merely changes form"

very strong statement which i would love to believe, but how many humans goto gyms and lift mega tons of weight or exert mega watts of engery ridding bikes etc etc and zero of the engery is collected. Where did it go? if we looked at all of NA and all that type of energy that we see was not recollected as you say it might be, but then we collected 15% of it. Man alive that would be interesting and totally possible.

Answer 1

i watched this program once... this was timee ago.. and three kids pedaled for 10 minutes or something...and the pedaling made water move up a tank...and the water flowed out of the tank and spun a wheel.. making energy to watch a tv...but the tv only worked for 5 seconds... not worth it id say..

Answer 2

In peak condition, a person can only generate a couple hundred watts, and probably not for very long.

For simple math, let's assume a person pedaling can sustain roughly 100 watts of electrical output for more than an hour. This is 0.1 kW.

A typical generating station produces more than 1,000 MW. That's 1,000,000 kW continuously 24 hour a day, 365 days a year.

You would need 10 million people pedaling full time. If they worked 8 hour shifts, you'd need 30,000,000 people just to produce the power of one nuclear unit. And that doesn't even begin to address the support service logistics, such as producing food, shelter, clothing, transportation, for this extra 30M people.

Every watt used by these 30M people when they're not pedaling is another watt that must be generated by more people pedaling on another generator.

Excerpt from web page:
"The power levels that a human being can produce through pedaling depend on how strong the pedaler is and on how long he or she needs to pedal. If the task to be powered will continue for hours at a time, 75 watts mechanical power is generally considered the limit for a larger, healthy non-athlete. A healthy athletic person of the same build might produce up to twice this amount."

Answer 3

There have been many devices invented which produce useful quantities of electricity from human power. Field telephones in WWII rang a bell at the other end with a hand crank. Bicycles with headlights powered by generators that attach to a wheel are common. For higher power requirements, it's usually more efficient to bye-pass electricity altogether; use a shovel instead of a rototiller, for example. It just comes down to energy requirements as to what is practical. The energy per pound of high energy foods like cheese and ground beef is comparable to that of coal. Coal plants burn many tons of coal per day. That's a lot of cheeseburgers.

Answer 4

there is chitosan formerly liposuction - a a lot less complicated food supplement that stops fat from being digested. playing and drug habit do seem the look after of optimists, yet such habit are risky except they're thoroughly in examine - human beings at conferences are combating that. seem up words/words like 'panacea' & 'rose-tinted spectacles' on the component of politics and 'the plenty'. I once defined one of those element transpiring and stated as it the 'rolling second' which required halting truth and starting up each thing back in sync, and continuing to halt and restart till it truly is clean synchronised progression without halting is what must be and maintains to ensue - likened to an previous episode of the unique Battlestar Galactica sequence the position a Cylon replaced into reactivated and close down consistently till it now no longer posed a homicidal danger - something alongside those lines.... you'd be doing something alongside the lines of creating millionaires of human beings on the hour each hour even with the actuality that, then the business device will crash as funds will change into valueless and different issues bobbing up will replace the reason of suffering

Answer 5

Don't count this as too hypothetical of a question, people often tell us what they see in the future and we often don't pay attention. So say if we had a population of people that half of them were seen as useless and feeble minded, what could we do with them?

Don't hold to expectations that anything and everything is impossible, that no one would ever do anything to harm anyone we know that is not true, we have seen too much of what certain individuals can do unfortunately.

I certainly have seen things that I have said were probably never possible and would not come true, come true over time.

Now the only other thing here is do we accept humanity as humanity or do some people think some of it is a waste and a burden?

One of these people said it would cost to much to feed these people??? they eat now don't they, so there is food in plentiful amounts tied up in certain peoples hands.

We are speculating right? Let me then say that I think anything is entirely possible, unless we understand it and see it ahead of time, look what happened in Germany. Many people laughed, right up to that chamber. They wouldn't do that to me would they? Till they did.

Answer 6

Theoretically, it would be possible if the energy produced was added to a large flywheel that could absorb changes in energy input for short periods of time. Once the needed energy was built up, then the flywheel would keep the alternator spinning while only needing sufficient energy input to maintain it's speed. A series of pedal devices linked to the flywheel, or walking belts, or some other source of energy input that would be coupled to the flywheel, then as stated, theoretically, it might be possible. It would only be a matter of adapting technologies that already exist. The energy needed to get that flywheel up to speed, however, would be enormous.

Answer 7

Yes, remember Einstein said it in his theory "power is neither created nor destroyed it merely changes form"

Human power can be converted to "other" power or better a general power collector should be built to absorb the power that is all around us anyway, being expelled by all the equipment in use and life itself.

Human generate a lot of heat as a byproduct of doing work.
Maybe we should harness some of it.

Answer 8

It could be possible if there was a way to make a type of tredmill where the runner moves the belt. Or something similar to a hamster wheel. Just hook it up to a manual generator. It would be very easy to do with a stationary bike.

Answer 9

The technology exists to power houses as well as schools, churches, businesses, etc.. without polluting and destroying the entire planet. the problem is super wealthy corporate thugs and their monopolistic strangle hold and the raping of the Earth.

Answer 10

Solyent Green.