More Physics for my fellow leakers. Standby power.

Guys,

Granted, I'm a mental case. I agree with you. But I just can't help myself. (Remember back in August I was the nut case who calculated the heat capacity of a full pee pad.)

I was just working on a project calculating the current and power of a certain type of RFID tag and the answer came out to 5 uW. 5 microwatts. When I got up from the chair to stretch, I immediately peed in my pad, as usual, but this time a light bulb went off, and a physics problem flew into my head:
At my leak rate of 450 ml per day how much potential energy am I throwing away in pee pads. If I attached a generator to my ankle and ran a hose from my nozzle, assuming 50% efficiency, can I power the RFID tag by incontinence alone?

I'll save you the trouble of figuring it out. While I am standing, if a generator and capacitor are attached to my ankle, my steady drip will generate 20.92 uW continuously. That is enough to power 4 of the ID tags! Talk about Standby power!
I can't wait to tell the DOD about this. Maybe I can get a research grant.

Bonus points for anyone who calculates how far above my ankle Willy is.

Finally, I found something positive about incontinence. If only I could find something to do with ED.
Jeff

For the bonus points, Jeff, can you least tell how tall you are?

As they say deep down here in the south, "Pie are round, cornbread are square." (SC physics lesson)

Guys,
It's high school physics. You don't need to know how tall I am. Here are a couple of hints:I assumed the density of pee is the same as water. If you use the English system think foot pounds per day.

By the way, I did think of a use for my shrunken, ED challenged, unit. If I silver plate it, it would be perfect for a 10 GHz antenna. I can use it to pick up Disney Channel UK, and RTE 1, 2 on Sky UKs satellites Astra 2A/2B/2D & Eurobird 1 at 28.2°E.

Here's some extra credit for any radio guys out there. How long is Willy?
Yep... a mental case indeed...
Jeff

Maybe with a little trimix and bimix I can get back to my old 2.1GHz size and pick up Australia's Space Operation Service (Earth-to-space) and (space-to-space) communications.

"Honest Officer I was just communicating with the ISS."

Clearly it is dangerous to leave me alone figuring out stuff all day. Supposedly it improves concentration. If they only knew...
Jeff

Jeff,

If you are going to branch out into a new line of work, you're going to need a company name.

All this talk about angles of dangle, distances and willes, reminds me of the love story of Janice and Tiny.

They had been dating for years when they finally married. Janice had always only known him as Tiny. Additionally, they had dated for all these years and never been intimate.

On their wedding night, at the motel, they start to undress for the first time together. As Tiny removed his shorts Janice burst out laughing. Pointing at his willie she said is that why they call you tiny? For running down the side of the rather small unit was a tattoo, "TINY".

He sheepishly replied that the knick-name had always been a joke. For if she would just wait a little while the tattoo really said "TICONDEROGA - NEW YORK".

Good luck with your new company name and endeavor,

Sonny

Hey MaxBuck

Well, I am a PE and I do qualify, but alas I never did join. I just listened in class and actually remembered how use and do the stuff I was taught. I can figure out anything. Want to know bladder pressure? Go outside and measure how far the pee goes before it hits the ground. How large is the leak in my sphincter? Measure how much I leak in a day and calculate equivalent orifice. (72 um) . How much energy do I save by letting my full pee pads cool down to room temp before I throw them out? How much air can I heat with that energy? 8x10 ft room 1 degree. What is the carbon footprint for my pee pads and wrappers? How many BTU's does a pee pad release when burned? How much CO2?
I weigh my pads on a Mettler lab scale. If you don't measure, how can you tell if you are improving? I plot it with two forecasts: linear and 2nd order polynomial.

And just to add to the geekiness, I hold an Extra Class amateur radio license. The frequencies I quoted above are real. It's all physics.
Now, if I could just get all my plumbing to work to factory specifications.
Jeff

Sonny, I'm going to have to work on that name. It needs to be very short.

Well, let's see what I can remember about potential energy...
PE = m*g*h j
1L = 1Kg of water
1W = 1j/s
50% efficient

Assume standing for 16 hours and sleeping for 8. No sitting allowed. So, 21uW for 16 hours at 50% efficiency is
2*21uW*16*3600 = 2.4j total
h = 2.4j/0.45Kg/9.6m/s/s = 0.55m = ~22 inches - kinda in the ball park

And, as for half wave dipole antennas at 10GHz...
c = 2*f*d

d = 300000000/10000000000/2 = 0.015m = ~0.6 inches - kinda small
Maybe you considered a different type of antenna?

The plumbing normally gets better with time!

Geezer. I should have mentioned adding the drain in my boot. No need to grow taller continuously.

Ricky D and Ron
You guys are right on. I assumed the rate of 450 ml for 24 hours. I figure it goes in spurts, so to speak, so if I have a sufficiently large capacitor I can just assume my flow rate is 450ml / 24 hours. My leak rate is actually about 420ml per day but I made it 450ml so anyone using the English system could call it one pound. With rounding errors, the answer is 32 Inches.

As for the antenna calcs, I should have specified a full wave antenna. c = f * d So multiply Ron's answer by 2 and you (sadly) get 3 cm. Still "kinda small" is a correct answer. Those really are the frequencies for Disney on eurobird and Astra by the way
Bimix and/or Trimix hopefully will allow tuning to lower frequencies. Space operations service is 2.1 GHz Rounding to 2.0 GHz yields c = f * d yields 15cm.

Ricky, I like your calculation for the kinetic energy. It is negligible. The heat content of the pee is much larger than potential energy.
Let's use English system and convert. 1 lb of pee per day body temp 98.6F, Ambient 65F
BTU definition: 1 pound of water one degree f.
Therefore, if I let my pads cool down to room temp I am extracting 33.6 BTU of energy per day that I would normally flush down the toilet.
Converting to metric (1 BTU/hr = 0.293 Watt) yields 0.41 W. I can either simply heat my house with it or use a Peltier thermoelectric generator at 5% efficiency to light a string of 2-3 LEDs.

Since it is winter, I have elected to heat my home with those BTUs. My wife just does not understand the need for a string of LEDs around the pee pad bucket. Women.

You guys made my morning.
Jeff

I'm also a PE (in electrical). I'm currently studying to get my second license in civil. I've been studying the water resource sections recently.

Jeff said
"This is the only place I know where you can have these kinds of discussions. "

Actually I believe that there still a few high security mental hospitals where they have the same sort of discussions. Although modern thinking in mental health is that the inmates "patients" should use metric measurement. The English system is just plain crazy.

I refer to mine as a rabbit ear. The floppy kind of course ! Not sure the nerves are connected, so I am getting no reception. Who cares about the frequency, which is none ?

Hey guys, something I don't understand. It's common knowledge that PCa tends to strike the top studs more than other groups of men. So why do so many engineers get it?

Steve