Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #03983



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Richard Weait crs0274@inforamp.net
Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 10:53:05 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Efficiency and Good Old Stryder


At 04:00 PM 5/29/99 -0600, Zoz wrote:
>At 05:32 PM 5/28/99 , Dave Hrynkiw wrote:
>
>>Actually, I'm pretty sure it is dragging only one leg to a significant
>>degree.

[snip]

>Gotcha, although I reserve judgement until I see the video.
>Still, I think measurements are the best idea... Argumentation is fine,
>but it is hard to argue with numbers if one has obtained them properly.

Don Lancaster has written, in his columns, on how easy it is to
make bad measurements of efficiency. He has said that poor lab
work and assumptions can give answers that are " . . . not even wrong."
That is to say worse than wrong. Mr. Lancaster discusses this
subject in regard to "free energy whackos" (there, I said it again)
and it comes up fairly regularly. The truth is that measuring
average current and average voltage, even on an accurate meter
will not give you the correct answer. When loads are complex,
that is when the load varies in time, and / or the load has
inductive / capacitive / resistive components, voltage and current
are out of phase. . .

Is the 'how far in how long on a standard battery' test any good?
Hmmm, I'd think that you would have to use it statistically, that
is run many trials. Side by side comparison is probably better
and a control for temperature and other atmospheric conditions
would be nice.

Cheers,

Richard.


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