Atmosphere Powered Car

[@TomStantonEngineering]

To those who disagree that this is atmosphere powered, and instead human powered because I wind it up by hand, what about when I use the drill to wind it up? Is it now electrical powered? Or because that electrical power most likely came from a fossil fuel power station , is it now fossil fuel powered? Or because the energy in fossil fuels originally came from the sun, is it now solar powered? Do you also classify rubber band powered cars/planes as human powered? It's an endless circle of debate due to one simple law, the first law of thermodynamics, which states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. Thanks for watching!

[@dainielmaldo7624]

Wow what a smart reply

[@dainielmaldo7624]

Oh btw first reply!!

[@wiil6390]

the winding up of the car can use any power, but as long as what makes it go is air it is air powered

[@Gabriankle]

Make it a submarine Tom! Put in whatever energy it takes to draw the vacuum, then drop it into a pool. Next rig it up to a propeller and I think you can figure out the rest. Technical caveat: if one pulls hard enough, the rubber plunger cap will pull off. This has many applications for offshore energy generation. Think of the thousands of pounds of pressure which deep water exerts. This should be explored.

[@TimmmmCam]

"Atmosphere powered" strongly implies that it derives its power from the atmosphere, not that it uses the atmosphere as a temporary energy storage. It basically implies something like the Atmos Clock. "Rubber band powered" doesn't imply the same thing even though it is worded identically because it's obvious that there is no way to extract energy from a rubber band without putting energy in yourself first. With the atmosphere you can (admittedly it's a tiny amount but still).

[@theCodyReeder]

Send me one: i'll test it out in my big vacuum chamber. I already know what's going to happen but it'd be a quick demonstration.

[@tarrantwolf]

I'm pretty sure absolutely nothing would happen or, depending on the vacuum in the syringe, it might pop the plunger out would be interesting to see.

[@tarrantwolf]

What I'd be really interested in seeing would be a vacuum chamber large enough to disprove the "theory" (and I use that word very loosely in this context) that rockets can't work in a vacuum.

[@TomStantonEngineering]

Sure Cody! I can send one to your UPS box? Any maximum size constraints to fit your vacuum chamber?

[@Videoswithsoarin]

Cody'sLab yay cody is here

[@nahueljo]

Is there an update to this? :P

[@johnstewart8849]

‘Sorry, boss I can’t come to work today....car won’t start....atmospheric pressure too low.

[@decodedbunny101]

We need a real one

[@yt_bharat]

Legitimate reason

[@breadboardrookie3762]

lol

[@taboosaboo]

That would only apply to a combustion engine. Low atmosphic change would charge the atmosphere car. Combustion on the other hand does not favour low pressure. Electric would be fine too. And solar works on sunny and cloudy days double to half, at any pressure... only the combustion suffers, at low pressure.

[@knoxieman]

Your a very clever young man, talk about inspiration to young kids, everyone bangs on about footballers being roll models when it should be people like you, superb job.

[@michaelmo2528]

knoxieman His job is my dream

[@praveenb9048]

Roll model is very right.

[@redsquirrelftw]

Heck I'm 32 and I'm inspired. :P

[@analarmingnumberofbees4571]

*role

[@Fluzz574]

You're

[@georgiostsirtsidis1125]

Nick Tesla: "My car has 250 horse power" Me: "Mine has 250 syringe power"

[@thecaptainnoodles]

*atmosphere power* I'll let myself out

[@diamondtermite2187]

That’d mean there are live horses powering your car. Uh oh

[@johnwolves2705]

@@diamondtermite2187 you still use horses to power your car? I assume its very expensive.

[@csours]

Fun fact, you are about 80 grams heavier than a scale would measure you, due to the buoyant force of the air you displace.

[@_Piers_]

Are you calling me fat?!? :D

[@Funnygalsproductions]

Cameron Sours do we weigh less when the moon is overhead?

[@Gribbo9999]

@@FunnygalsproductionsAnd do we weigh more when the moon is underneath? And what about the sun? Do I weigh less at midday in the tropics than at 6 o'clock or more at 12 midnight? Can Tom 3D print an engine that uses this differential? Good question ;)

[@csours]

@@Funnygalsproductions According to my calculations, a person of 100 kg would produce approximately 0.3 fewer grams of force (3 milli-newtons) with the moon overhead. In other words a normal breath (0.5 grams) is more than the force of the moon (but, that same breath would have almost no net effect on the scales, again due to the buoyant force).

[@KuraIthys]

An interesting fact for sure. But, given that the majority of scales that are used to measure people with are accurate to within a single kilogram to at best 100 grams, that's well within the margin of measurement error. XD Add in the errors introduced by wearing clothing which can add anything from 500 grams to 5+ kilograms, and unless you're willing to go naked, or weigh your clothes separately is a value that has to be estimated, and you can definitely assume that most attempts at weighing a human being have a margin for error of several kilograms. Plus the weight of a human being can fluctuate quite quickly - going to the toilet for instance can cause the loss of 3-500 grams at least, and eating or drinking something... Well, everything you eat doesn't just magically vanish, so that can add hundreds of grams to a kilogram or more in a short space of time. For that matter, height is equally variable. - given the effects of gravity a person tends to be taller in the morning after getting up than in the evening, and the variation possible in a single day is in the order of 5 cm of height difference. Which in effect means that giving your height accurate to a single centimetre is actually meaningless and only kind of an average. (for those playing along with Imperial units that means a person's height fluctuates by about 2 inches in any given day.) OK, so the range in which it fluctuates is fairly stable, but it's still a pretty large amount of variability relative to how tall a person typically is...

[@toddkobelljr.2004]

“The diameter of the shaft has increased by a lot!” -Tom Stanton

[@basedmax9029]

0-0

[@Steve-vn8iy]

pp joke

[@ksp6091]

Ingeneers when they finaly get a social life afger their long studies :

[@WeirdSeagul]

its not just wheel spin. its drifting

[@austin3013]

Insert Tokyo Drift music XD

[@pacman10182]

@@austin3013 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnTMdaivadKljbc

[@matthijswesthoff7866]

Deja vu

[@FranseFrikandel]

That chattering sounds like it's mostly just understeering to me... However cool it would be if it did actually drift 😅 Good luck recovering from that with your throttle literally stuck wide open.

[@igorbubic403]

Front wheels are not perfectly parallel, and with ruber they are fighting each other. He should put ruber only on one front wheel (for example right wheel if the turns are left), so the left wheel can slide a bit.

[@winschmitt4919]

"Tom Learns about Understeer"

[@KhanggiTanka]

Explain?

[@106640guy]

His front wheels also turned the same angle in a curve even though the outside wheel has to turn less far than the inner wheel so it starts to slip sideways

[@Reinhard_Erlik]

@@manitoba-op4jx ye but its next level when you manage to understeer and oversteer at the same time and I see that he was using some tiny Scandinavian flicks to turn that was pretty cheeky

[@tyrantstomper]

And then oversteer in the next scene when it's spinning rear tire around corners

[@daemn42]

Your parallel steering geometry is causing the front tires to fight each other in the corners (inside tire follows a tighter radius curve so it needs to turn more) which is really slowing it down. That's why the rear started spinning out initially. Look up "Ackerman steering geometry". This is a fundamental requirement of all vehicles with two front wheels/tires that turn independently (unlike the classic wagon where front tires are attached to a common axle).

[@Butterkin]

petition to have him build another, more efficient and stream lined version

[@francescozambuto1713]

Sharpe guy, thank you.

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

@@Butterkin make the Bugatti of syringe cars, 16 cylinders

[@alexanderstohr4198]

see at 6:00 and after. the front wheels have each their own axle. but the hint for "Ackerman" is right. as a first approximation, the steering rod connection points should head towards the rear wheel rather than being rectangular to the wheel axle. the vehicle is relatively long so the deviation might not be that much - still it could make a noticeable difference. the other thing that brought control loss in was definitely the hard and slippery grounds. that sees already best compensation with soft rubber gum wheels and extra weight. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ackermann_steering_geometry

[@SidneyCritic]

He should've gone with a rubber band on the outside front only.

[@mac8ist]

8:53 - maybe using gears instead of strings on the 2 wheels could eliminate the increase in diameter.

[@dgt1938]

or belts, belts a easier to implement

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

I'd build it out of legos, it'd be heavier and need more gear.. stages? But it would work

[@Noah-qs3rq]

Had the same idea I had

[@hesterclapp9717]

Arguably, the string being thicker at the start is a good think because it reduces the gear ratio, making the car accelerate faster, but then later on when the car's going fast, the gear ratio is lower and the car can go overall faster. Like how in your real car, you would start accelerating in gear 1, not 5 because you have more acceleration, but you'd go down the motorway in gear 5, not 1 because you can go faster.

[@Kandsmerlin]

That's a fantastic demonstration of physics, engineering, and innovation! I'm glad I subscribed and can't wait to see more. :)

[@Mireaze]

So... can you make it fly?

[@pauliusgaivenis2665]

I believe he has done it already, can't really remember if it was him or some other youtuber.

[@zyadhq8672]

@@pauliusgaivenis2665 I think you mean the air pressure engine,right?

[@tyholbrook7664]

Do I sense a Peter Sripol collab?

[@revimfadli4666]

That's roughly how some Air Hogs planes work, albeit with the opposite pressure

[@4ru-brawlstars111]

@Skott yeah judging from that video I think it is possible

[@noahmcelwey2598]

I used a similar idea when designing a mouse trap car for my highschool physics class. And I figured out that instead of running a string from the drive pulley to the rear wheel it is easier to essentially make a belt out of string. The way you do this, you have a small pulley on the rear wheel axle and a obviously the drive axle. Then you take a piece of string and put it over those pulley like a belt and twist the string and pull it as tight as you can, then you super glue where the twist is to keep the tension, it works surprisingly well and then you don't have the problem of the diameter of the shaft being increased and it is significantly easier to wind up.

[@DDubyah17]

Always look forward to your projects. Looking forward to whatever you get up to in the new year. Enjoy the hols!

[@TomStantonEngineering]

Thanks! You too!

[@dustinvidrine3954]

I'm starting MechE in university soon and I watch these videos for motivation and the science behind all the things I may learn. Truly awesome to see. I hope that one day I can learn the principles I'll need to design my own projects.

[@rasmus9311]

I honestly got goosebumps from the 2018 compilation haha, so many projects I had forgotten about and you have come a long way. Thanks for all these videos Tom.

[@BrightBlueJim]

Subscribed after watching the compilation. I'd forgotten how many of these I watched.

[@Kaziklu]

That is really neat it is basically an Atmospheric battery. You store the energy in the syringe though any number of methods and then the energy is released turning the wheels. It is really neat :)

[@hypurban]

I got chills by watching that dry marker write. ouch.

[@ministrychannelsa4216]

I can't help but wonder, is that car capable of doing right turns?

[@TomStantonEngineering]

It is... but I'm not

[@ministrychannelsa4216]

@@TomStantonEngineering Glad you saw the humor in there. Merry Christmas mate.

[@mzampell]

Nope. NASCAR!

[@crackedemerald4930]

*_NEXT GEN NASCAR FOOTAGE REVEALED??? IT'S AMAZING?!?_*

[@nealramsey4439]

No it's a NASCAR

[@TheLilconker]

Hey Tom! Nice video, cool idea to use the pressure gradiant to power the car! I noticed one quirk though in your calculation for the total work the syringe would produce when allowing atmospheric pressure to push the piston back to it's original position. Originally, there is some air in the syringe (a small amount!). Then when you pull the piston as you say the pressure of that air volume decreases since as you say the volume increases. The absolute pressure of the air in the syringe is inversely proportional to the distance by which the piston is pulled. What produces the force on the piston is as you say the resultant pressure distributed over the area of the piston. That resultant pressure is the difference between the atmospheric pressure (nearly constant over the small time frame during which the piston contracts), and the pressure of the gas inside the syringe which varies with the position of the piston. Hence the total work is not produced by the force of atmospheric pressure alone, but the differential pressure and it varies with piston displacement. I am a big fan of your projects keep going :) your engine projects are very cool!!

[@als.4568]

Great stuff Tom! Much more interesting to me than a “mouse trap” car, and one is less likely to get “nailed” by the mouse trap when it inadvertently slams shut” Just had a thought about a possible “next level” experiment: would winding the string on a cone shaped drum improve the speed toward the end of the run? If I had the time I would propose to run a spread-sheet calculation to study the parameters. The idea would be to initially wrap the string around the large end of the conical drum and then work toward the small end as windings are added. It seems to me that this would increase the “average” moment arm length for the string, thus increasing the torque on the shaft as it unwinds. A spread sheet would allow evaluating various changes in the geometry to maximize the average torque on the shaft as the “motor” unwinds. It might also uncover a major flaw in my thinking, but it wouldn’t be the first time that happened! Thanks for all your interesting work! Al

[@rens2998]

11:47 DEJA VU I've just been in this place before Higher on the street And I know it's my time to go Calling you, and the search is a mystery Standing on my feet It's so hard when I try to be me!!! It's actually drifting xDDD

[@n3on_face659]

This coment deserves more likes, SOLID 10/10

[@OninDynamics]

Waaaaaaah!

[@averygoodfantasticname4206]

Onin D. Bruh you waluigi

[@jbirdmax]

This is only the second one of your videos I’ve seen and I can say one thing without a doubt: YOU Sir, are a damn GEEK! Just like me. Love your videos man.

[@gabrielferry8242]

Make a syringe powered boat and put the syringe under water so that the force is greater , maybe ?

[@aleksandersats9577]

the force would be stronger but a very very little bit unless it is very deep in the water like 1km

[@Sikorsky66]

interesting idea, to really take advantage of the hydrostastic pressure of water it would need to be more of a submarine, few inches of water just wont provide enough pressure.

[@Cynyr]

@@Sikorsky66 i will say though that even a few inches of water on a surface the size of a door will make quite the force. you just need a larger piston (of course that will increase drag, especially in water.

[@deadmeat1126]

Or submarine, the deeper in the water, the more force.

[@41A2E]

Even if it did have more force, wouldn't it be net neutral or even net negative due to the increased resistance and friction from the water?

[@JonPrevost]

They way you play is giving me great ideas on how to connect with students who did not get the same play that I did. Most of my play (learning through doing) was by tinkering with manufactured products that were either broken or discarded. Your play seems like a reboot of the world where less is know about manufacturing methods so as not to cloud one's creative abilities by realities. New tools, new ideas, but it's the same physics and the same results. Love it! Keep up the great play!

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

Seems to work really well. However, those front wheels create a lot of friction on the axle, causing a loss of energy. I would recommend fixing them tighter and with small bearings that you can salvage from old harddisks, those have incredibly smooth tiny bearings in them that spin with very low resistance. Because the wheels are wobbling from left to right they kind of 'pinch' the axle a bit causing more friction. If you add these bearings, the car will be a little bit heavier, but you can compensate by 3D-printing a clamping axle instead of using a metal nail to fix the front wheels and you can add some weight to the big wheel so it doesn't slip as much. One more thing, try to make the front wheels as thin as possible and use a tiny amount of hot glue (smear out with a piece of silicon rubber). This will give a friction surface too, and now you can make the surface superthin so it has less contact with the ground.

[@ThegMAH]

I think this was more of a "proof of concept".. The bearings you mentioned in harddisks was very useful to me though, I have plenty of old dead ones that I could salvage, cheers!

[@Conservator.]

Marinus I had the same thoughts when I saw those wobbly front wheels. Using 💿 player bearings is brilliant! I’m sure it would work very well leaving the back wheel grip as the remaining issue. Thanks for sharing!

[@RCinginSC]

As long as as the rear wheel doesnt slip or spin in place , then no energy is lost.

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

@@Conservator. Hi Eduard, just make sure you use Harddisk bearings instead of CD drive bearings haha ;) Small difference. I use them for small hobby projects when the HDD has 4 pins. I normally only use the 4-pin HDD motors as a motor for a small project so the ones with 5 pins I take apart and salvage the bearings from.

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

@@RCinginSC Energy is never lost, it's just spread out more along the universe. But to stay within the scope of this project: the friction of the wheels is a big energy eater for the car. Friction with the ground, as well as the friction of the wheel and the axis.

[@arjdroid]

In The Explanation Of Work And Force And Distance, The Word You Use For Work Is Actually "Moments" I Learned This Last Week In School!

[@TomStantonEngineering]

A moment is actually slightly different from work. A moment is force x perpendicular distance from a pivot. Imagine the force you apply to a wrench, multiplied by the length of the wrench. Whereas work is force x distance it's applied. Imagine the force you apply to push a car a certain distance. Hope this helps!! Thanks

[@gormauslander]

Ooh. From an engineering standpoint, this opens up a whole new can of worms. I will have to look into atmosphere energy storage.

[@Tonatsi]

Gorm Auslander the problem with atmospheric potentio-storage is that compared to other types of similar storage, it is impractical. However, I can see potential if used in conjunction with atmospheric descent/ascension. Take the kinetic electromagnetic suspension dynamo battery: can hold insane amounts of energy with minimal loss, but is not useable on anything that moves. The greatest advantages to atmospheric batteries would be extreme cheapness and simplicity.

[@littlebigmanlbm]

As I see it it's not just atmospheric pressure alone that drive this little car it is the stored energy from you pulling against the syringe. Great videoes keep them coming.

[@saltzmanweniger]

"I'm trying to turn as smoothly as possible" proceeds to drive in a square. :)

[@eva2602]

im p sure his steering was on/off so giv the man some credit

[@dasfritos3965]

You successfully drifted an atmospherically powered vehicle. Kudos

[@discopoe]

Hey Tom, great work again. However, I think you should have mentioned that the force is actually not constant but a function of distance, changing with changing pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the syringe. Best, Joe

[@wantu2much]

one thing that comes to mind, is not just making the pullies bigger, but adding more of them. it would give you more mechanical advantage.

[@KT-ut9zg]

The Dalkey atmospheric railway is (was in 1840) a couple of miles from my house in Dublin Ireland. Here's a snip from Wikipedia: "A 15-inch traction pipe was used, with a single pumping station at Dalkey, at the upper end of the 2,400-yard run. The engine created 110 ihp and had a flywheel of 36 feet diameter. Five minutes before the scheduled departure of a train from Kingstown, the pumping engine started work, creating a 15-inch vacuum in two minutes. The train was pushed manually to the position where the piston entered the pipe, and the train was held on the brakes until it was ready to start. When that time came, the brakes were released and the train moved off." Wonderful to see you using probably exactly the same physics and engineering principles that remain unchanged over time. There's still an 'Atmoshpheric road' in Dalkey.

[@KT-ut9zg]

@Please Complete All Fields Yeah, just thought it was interesting nonetheless :)

[@MrRyanroberson1]

2:53 interesting time save: pressure = energy (or work) / volume. Energy being *raw thermal energy* for a gas. So you could have multiplied the pressure of air by the volume of the vacuum you created in one step.

[@roidroid]

Suggestion: *Ribbon* instead of string. It's flatness allows it to wrap tighter around the axle, while the width gives it strength. Ribbon is very cheap on ebay. Oh also if you're going to add weight, attach that weight to the spinning grip wheel itself - tada it's now a *flywheel* and it's rotational inertia will stop the "juddering".

[@mrpovpov298]

NANII!!?!!? ATMOSPHERIC DORIFTOO!!!

[@SirRichard94]

multi-pulley drifting!

[@tomasferreira3415]

69th like

[@rami-succar7356]

@@tomasferreira3415 i will ruin it into 70

[@rami-succar7356]

Muahahaha

[@xXxserenityxXx]

Subscribed not just because of the projects but also for how much you genuinely look like your enjoying yourself. Keep up the good buddy. :D

[@patricioiasielski8816]

I waited for your videos every week this year! Wonderful channel! Thanks a lot Tom

[@imsundee]

Tim station #1, enjoy your 2 week holiday slacker :P

[@jackfrost2146]

It's gratifying to see "pressure differential" getting some credit for a change, rather than the illusion of "suction". Suction cups sucking to the wall, getting sucked out of a damaged airplane, vacuum cleaners sucking up the dust, octopus tentacles sucking onto the fish etc. With all of these, "suction" is usually described as a pulling force --where such a force doesn't exist. As far as I know, the only pulling force in the Universe is magnetism. Correct me if I'm wrong. It might be interesting to see a video on the subject of "suction cups" to clear up some misconceptions about this gadget.

[@cowcar87]

Today I learned that Mr. Stanton's kitchen cabinet knobs are HUGE!

[@MrZadazz]

Thanks Tom. Your channel is one of my favourite. Not just building because it's fun but also educational. Merry Christmas and see you in 2019

[@quertize]

So you made a clockwork. Just add escapement and hands to make the clock complete.

[@redsquirrelftw]

You know this could totally work, atmosphere powered clock! Wonder how long it could run for.

[@jk44593]

This! An atmospheric powered clock!

[@raykent3211]

@@redsquirrelftw they do work and can run until the mechanism breaks! The channel "British Museum" has a great little series on clocks. I think it was on one of those videos that a guy showed an atmospheric clock. Imagine inflating a balloon in a warm room. Overnight the temperature drops, the ballon shrinks. Next day it warms up and the balloon swells. Attach a lever and a precision ratchet to wind a light mainspring. Bingo! It uses air pressure variation to wind itself up. No good for centrally heated homes, but they were made in the old days. Amazing.

[@Cynyr]

@@raykent3211 i bet one of those would work in my home ~5F variation every day, and if placed in the correct location more than that.

[@MegaEmmanuel09]

It was actually very satisfying seeing it go around in circles with no music

[@bunescudesign3923]

You face the same problem that we all face: the conservation of energy and its use in proportion to the needs we have. Thank you for this experiment.

[@StevenViets2006]

All Oil Companies want to: Know your location Allow Deny

[@TheOriginalCoolDad]

First, look up drifting cars on KZbin. Second, conservation of energy. When drawn out, that syringe is potential energy. That energy has to be transferred into the syringe somehow. Drill, hand, whatever, it's all transfer of energy made possible by atmospheric pressure. Love your videos!!

[@BaddaBigBoom]

Aagh! This is bringing back chilhood memories of my failings with physics.

[@mrdovie47]

For a few years now, I have been playing with Wisteria pods that twist and untwist with humidity. They snap open on cold winter nights and sound like a rat trap going off as they fling seeds everywhere. I'm sure a clock could be made from them. I make wool felted figures that twist and turn with the humidity. My favorite is a boy and girl that kiss in fair weather and turn away from each other in wet weather, also a dog that lifts it's rear leg to say rain is on the way.

[@joelverboom8467]

Couldnt you use gears instead of rope and pulleys?

[@TomStantonEngineering]

Yes, however there is a limit to how small a gear can be before the teeth can't handle the torque and this will therefore limit how small the larger gear could be. I think the smallest gear I've been able to 3D print with a decent tooth definition is about 18mm in diameter, which would mean I'd need a pulley 700mm in diameter for the first stage (instead of the current 150mm) and a rear wheel 750mm in diameter (instead of current 170mm). So using the string/pulley method helps keep everything more compact and simple.

[@Blubb3rbub]

@@TomStantonEngineering I guess that same problem also applies to a planetary gearbox?

[@srboromir452]

You could skip the small gear by having a toothed shaft coming out the back of the syringe instead

[@gtjack9]

Tom Stanton Have you tried a worm wheel setup, given that the syringe provides plenty of torque to overcome the friction of a worm wheel and pinion.

[@Conservator.]

Blubberbub Yes but x100 ;-)

[@Gkitchens1]

Seems that the rear wheel itself needs the additional weight. I absolutely love your videos man.

[@linedtripod2075]

try driving it backwards that might reduce the amount of wheelspin

[@DannickFox]

This is genius! I wish I had known this in my kinematics/dynamics class as we were given the challenge to make a miniature car propelled by any means other than electricity. We went for a tiny mousetrap car, but this looks more compact and controlled. I'd love to try to make one.

[@nixie2462]

You could just have made a pulley system (like a heavy lifting crane) instead of that giant primary.

[@SomeBeautyfulArt]

Its like making cold reservoir (by spending energy, thus increasing entropy) of heat engine to make heat flow from atmosphere to the artificiality created cold reservoir. Instead of making higher pressure air flow to lower pressure atmosphere he made lower pressure than atmosphere, so air can flow from atmosphere to the vacuum. Just an analogy.

[@supernifty]

What if you used dental floss? Seams like that may work better.

[@SuperFrodo95]

I don't know about you, but the dental floss I've seen is kind of like plumber's tape and would stretch and break easily.

[@supernifty]

@@SuperFrodo95 The dental floss I know is very resistant to stretching and tearing. Where are you from?

[@camhollo1139]

uummmm. Dentil floss can be ripped with a single tug on blunt metal, I don’t think that is very resistant to tearing.

[@dustinbrueggemann1875]

fishing line. There are 1.5 mm monofilament fishing lines that can withstand roughly 200 lbs of tension force.

[@Mycatisinapiano]

*smells minty*

[@mikeh2850]

I really appreciate the vacuum/battery/fuel comparison.

[@PatDavis-qg5no]

If you think about it, because the string wrapped around the Axle makes it increase in diameter, the gear ratio changes to shorter, giving it more torque to the wheels. So because it has more torque from a stop, it should take off quicker, and as it drives, the string unwraps. This makes a taller gear ratio giving at a higher top speed. In conclusion, the string wrap around causes a quicker and more torqueyer launch, and a high top speed. You just made a constantly variable transmission (cvt). Sorry for the mass amount of words. Great video! 👍🏻

[@krulltomten7008]

Imagine one of those things on venus.They would go on forever

[@Smickster01]

its still all potential energy, but im intrigued with the atmosphere/vacuum principle. what would happen if this syringe device was submerged in water attached to a similar setup on a toy submarine? given that water pressure is higher than air at sea level. the device should have more power the deeper it dove. hence, you could essentially gear it higher and drive the propeller for a longer time which would only increase its power and speed the deeper it went. id like to see this experiment in comparison using the same syringe.

[@kajetanw4471]

Hi! This project interested me and I'm making it for my school project, but i need some meaning of this car for science or human. Do you have any idea?

[@Oddman1980]

Just one more video that is working to convince me I need a 3D printer. What a neat idea, though. Almost like a reverse steam engine. Instead of using pressure higher than the surrounding atmosphere, it uses lower pressure.

[@agepbiz]

This is just awesome! Looking forward to you projects in 2019

[@crimpinpimpin8890]

Me: whatchu mean, B? Tom: * explains it * Me: okay, but still, *whatchu mean?*

[@drewduncan5774]

Rubber bands actually "store potential energy in the atmosphere" in the same way as the syringe. The contraction of a rubber band is caused by bombardment of air molecules causing the long polymer chains to kink. When you stretch a rubber band, it pushes the air away, producing a small but perceptible amount of heat, and likewise a perceptible cooling when it's released.

[@V843v3r]

Have the same struggle owning a 400hp car, very hard to keep the wheels stick to the ground lol.

[@pyromaster5569]

The back wheel might have also been jumping from the slight bumps in the tile, and amplifying that with the wheel speeding up and slowing rapidly once it regained contact with the ground.

[@Nordmann03]

Hmm. It's actually a gravity powered car🤔

[@raykent3211]

I take your hmm and raise you another hmm. It's actually solar powered, via the food that Tom ate to power his muscles in winding it up. The rest is just temporary energy storage, using the tugging of gravity on all them bits of air out there to push the piston back in.

[@Nordmann03]

Ray Kent OO yes. I didn’t think of that😄

[@lio1234234]

@@raykent3211 Have a look at my comments under Tom's first comment. I talk a lot about this.

[@raykent3211]

@@lio1234234 ta for the response Elliott, I agree with what you said. I think that "atmosphere powered" is a reasonable name for this. My comment was playful. I'm sure you don't need telling that there are other contexts where it is important to trace through a bit. Electric cars are advertised as zero emissions irrespective of whether the owner recharges the batteries from hydro or coal fired. In that case the difference between the two ways that solar energy is captured and released is mightily significant. So I don't quite agree with tom saying, in effect, that it's useless circular argument. Though in the context of this toy car, yeah, it's insignificant.

[@lio1234234]

@@raykent3211 of course. I knew that what you said was playful. I was just explaining my thoughts to people.

[@baladar1353]

Technically it's you who's powering the car, because you pull the piston of the syringe out to make partial vacuum inside. So you have to do the work before the atmosphere equals the difference between the inside and the outside, by pushing the piston in.

[@TheChrisLeone]

This reminds me of when we made stuff out of syringes in elementary school. I can't remember exactly what it was, but I remember using them to give myself hundreds of tiny little hickies on my arms

[@陳思齊-f9w]

Now do a "Vacuum powered car."

[@cherriberri8373]

Watching Tom skitter across the tile in his kitchen gives me more joy than I thought it would.

[@thePronto]

Tom, Tom, Tom...you know that is potential energy, and where it came from. Also, there is a net energy loss. It's just like a 'friction car' (maybe you are too young for those) in the way that uses potential energy. However, a windmill is atmosphere powered; a sailing boat ditto; both of which are net energy positive (for the windmill/boat owner). So, don't give up on atmospheric power.

[@nathansmith1876]

It's kind of cool that it is less torque-y at the end. If you worked out one with multiple syringes and a remote trigger to release each one you could create some really interesting racing possibilities where you had to manage turn speed to avoid wheel speed, deal with bumping other cars and to decide when to switch your syringes for best whole race performance.

[@ch98hb]

A German automotive engineer here, there is a lot wrong with this: It makes much more sense to contract the syringe because the maximum pressure you have otherwise is just the atmospheric pressure. Its like hydraulics first lecture. Furthermore, the power that can be used to drive is variable over the stroke and tends towards 0 when the internal pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure, so in order to get your Power integrate F=(p0-p(s))*V(s) to stroke s. Just make a free body sketch from the syringe. Please dont spread false knowledge. Just call the video "making a pneumatic battery from a syringe (in the wrong way)"

[@TomStantonEngineering]

British aerospace engineer here: I explained why I chose to expand the syringe rather than contract it. Expanding it applies a 'more constant' force (obviously not constant due to it not being a perfect vacuum, as explained when I hung the weight from it) on the system which is easier to manage. The calculations were carried out in high school detail to help with convey the theory, therefore it was assumed there was a perfect vacuum. Using P1V1 = P2V2... if P1 = 0 --> P2 = 0, therefore theoretically, if there is a perfect vacuum, the force is constant.

[@IlIlIIIIlIlIIlIll]

Phil Swift here!

[@sathirafernando6036]

@@IlIlIIIIlIlIIlIll with flex seal to seal your ego

[@ch98hb]

@@TomStantonEngineering P1V1 = P2V2 is an isothermic assumption, which is alright (id prefer isentropic because the temperature decreases when expanding but ok) but as you know from thermodynamics using the ideal gas law and integrating: The volume change work released in your process would be W=-m*Ri*T*ln(V2/V1), and not just W=p_atm*A*s It´s just wrong mate Let me calculate an example for you: Assumptions: T=293K, Ri_air=287J/kg*K, Density at Point 2=1,3kg/m^3 -> m_air=1,3*10^-6kg Before) V1=20ml=2*10^-5m^3, p1=1bar=10^5(relative to the outside) After) V2=1ml, p2=0bar, absolute pressure is then 1bar We get W = 0,327J You on the other hand assumed that we can mechanically use the entirety of the hydraulic energy stored, which is W = p_atm*V1 = 2J, which is a completely wrong assumption because its actually W = integral of (p_atm-p_system(s))*V(s). If you remember thermodynamics: this is the volume change work, W=-integral of p*dV So congratulations, in this case you would be off by 512%

[@ecicce6749]

@@ch98hb I didnt follow your calculation but isnt toms assumption based on the atmosphere volume being almost infinitely huge while the syringe volume is a tiny tiny fraction of it so the force coming from the atmosphere is constant because atmospheric pressure will change by an amount so small its even impossible to measure... It makes total sense to me what he did. Or did I completely miss your point? Seems like you ignored the fact that he pulled a vacuum instead of pressurizing it. So even if made a syringe 100 times longer the atmospheric pressure and therefore the force would be the same as with the small syringe over the entire length of the syringe

[@abhirammadhu2973]

So not only you made an atmospheric powered car, you also drifted it🔥

[@hrvojebartulovic7870]

I'm so glad you use that formula for work. It's the same one I was using when explaining my employees (programmers) their wages for their work; namely since the distance their fingers travelled and forces they were exerting while they were typing was minuscule, they couldn't expect much bigger wages, could they!? You can't fight the science and call yourself an educated man! Much less an engineer!

[@jamesford3549]

Works really well. This would make a great model plane!

[@donfout2830]

increased that rolling resistance tremendously adding rubber to the track.

[@19inzanetoney]

Title: Atmosphere Powered Car Video: Syringe make car go brrr

[@jeffreydrummond9082]

Can anyone else hear the happiness in his voice sometimes

[@Len02013]

I think I’ve watched all your videos this year :) lots of cool projects & I’ve learnt a heap from your videos. Thanks... Highlights at end was cool :)

[@Londrino]

I guess it's entirely possible there's none nearby, but you could try looking for an indoor running track. They're much smoother than outdoor tracks, and it would be a good way to keep track of the distance for these sorts of projects.

[@savvageorge]

Genius idea. I'm sure you could make a fortune selling those around Christmas time.

[@letsdosomething6691]

If you traded tube length for tube diameter (something that resembles a giant subwoofer/speaker diaphragm) could you power something really big like a full size car? It would be really cool if you bought like a junkyard rwd car and stripped it down to the frame. You could wrap a string (tow strap is more likely lol) around the driveshaft and hook that to the giant syringe and pulleys. Then you could ride in it. Sounds like loads of fun and plenty of collaboration opportunities with other KZbinrs. To name a few; Robotcantina, integza, backyard scientist, and warped perception I’m sure would be pretty interested in being a part of it.

[@leonetassinari6654]

Great idea! If you ever revisit this car you could improve it by getting rid of the string on the second reduction stage and use a gear or a belt instead. You could also get rid of that giant wheel in the back in favour of something smaller, to increase stability during turns and eliminate that jitter. Keep up the good work! Subscribed!

[@Lloyd_CK]

Tom: starts talkin about how this works. Me: I definitely know what he is saying.

[@schelx1705]

You should take this to one of those college tracks and see how many laps it can make. With the rubberband wheels and the rubbery concrete track, the grip would be really good. Though because they're outside the direct sunlight may affect the final results. Maybe an indoor track with a moderately controlled climate (AC) would perhaps assist in performance?

[@steinroehder]

Here's an improvement: print a platen to sit beside the string, have a piece of soft plastic, rubber or leather opposite of it on a servo arm and wire that up as a throttle... pushing the throttle would release the pad, allow the string to pass, hey presto, speed control. Old video yes, but there isn't such a thing as necro'ing for mechanics projects ;)

[@koenjanssen81]

As always, awesome video Tom. The compilation in the end was cool to watch

[@miguelpinto1]

Hi Tom, You can only use ~ 70% of the volume of the syringe, because the pressure varies with the volume and is not constant.

[@paulharland7280]

The constant tension this provides seems like it would be good for a clock.

[@arandomfox999]

You can probably get away with an additional piston and an extra back wheel, depending on how much vacuum each loses with potential wheel spins might affect steering as the torque for each set of wheels may vary but since you already have counter steering that might not be an issue. Neat things one can do with a 3D printer. If these practical applications were very common in school science might genuinely be a lot of students favourite subject. Everyone likes toys, right?

[@thomasmore260]

You could use a RC Wheel (Scale Plane) or similar. An alternative would be gluing foam rubber (window gasket?) as a suspending tire around the real wheel.

[@lander1591]

Absolutely loved it.. Instead of a second pulley I would try using a set of gears.. along with the gears I would add a brake pad to control the speed. Would look great as a steam punk wind up toy in brass.

[@LloydHZA]

Instead of winding so much string between the shaft and the pully you should just use a double loop around each to create a loop which will act as a chain/band and keep the speed constant, and furth prevent the tangling of the string. You only need string running to the syringe plunger and the first shaft.

[@canamcarpenter]

Drifting an atmospheric car... awesome