Flywheel Power

1. Read the Article, ``Reinventing the Wheel'' by Will Hively in Discover, vol. 17, no.8. This article is available online. Go to their website and search for articles written by Hively.
2. What is radius of the disks discussed in the fourth paragraph of Hively's article? (Calculate the radius using the revs per minute and the speed on the edge of the disk given in the article.)
3. Calculate how much energy can be stored by this 50 pound disk. State your answer in both Joules and kilowatt-hours.
4. How much would it cost in Maine to spin up this flywheel? Assume that electricity can be converted to flywheel energy at 96% efficiency.
5. Estimate how far a car powered by 16 such flywheels could go between recharges. One way to do this is to compare the energy stored by the flywheels to the energy stored in gasoline.
6. Estimate how much energy is stored by the flywheels in use in the pottery studio. (If you have questions about their specification, ask Ernie---he made them.) Your write-up should state how you arrived at this estimate.
7. Do some web research and try to get a sense of where the "state of the art" is in flywheels. Are they in commercial production? Could you purchase one for your home?

The following web sites may prove useful. (I compiled these a while ago; there are likely additional website to find.)

1. http://www.trinityflywheel.com/index.htm.
2. http://godzilla.lerc.nasa.gov/ppo/flywheel/program.html.
3. http://www.windbreak.com/.

Web page maintained by dave@hornacek.coa.edu.