From Brownian Motors to Maxwell's Demon

[Charlie Brown ARN]

Aeronometers are wheels of vanes used to measure wind speed regardless of direction. I expect that fraction of a micron scale aeronometers would work off the random movements of gas molecules. A cylinderical surface covered with very many vanes set to capture wind  favoring one direction of axial rotation should rotate with great torque as a brownian motor. The opponents of this strategy argue that favorable vane surfaces always have anti favorable backsides on a real perimeter. Conical cup vanes may work. Someone should dare to try it.

Aloha,

Charles M. Brown

[Kysmett]

Similar to other sharks, dogfish have placoid scales, which are spiny and covered in an enamel-like substance. Sometimes referred to as dermal denticles because of their similarity to teeth, shark scales slant towards the tail end of the shark and reduce friction against water, making swimming easier. Sharkskin is so rough that it used to be utilized to polish wood, as sandpaper is used today. When the scales are removed, however, the skin can be cured and employed as leather.

the above was pasted from http://www.olympusmicro.com/galleries/abramowitz/pages/dogfishsharkskinscalessmall.html

It also has a pic of sharkskin under a microscope....if you coated your cylinder with this so that the 'teeth' faced in one direction (cicumfirential as opposed to axial) and you had a small enough fricion coeficient in the berring you might have something....perhaps apply to a levitating magnet to test your theory?

[Charlie Brown ARN]

Slanted teeth are one way for Maxwell's Demon to work. They should work for the simple pressure demon where a pressure differnce is built up by a differentiated response to moving gas or liquid molecules according to the direction of movement. The opponents of? Maxwell's Demon argue that the small mass of the tooth tip causes it to flex rapidly and anti sort at the same time sorting is attempted nullifying the differerentation. I don't think anti sorting will happen. The opponents desperately want to hold on to the world yiew of the Grey Death of the Universe because it gives a role for God as the Great Clock Winder. A world of endlessly recycled energy would have a more sophisticated God rather than no God. I think the diode array is simple and powerful so I want to focus the limited devlopment resources on it. Anyway, wouldn't a chip with a total area of many square nanometers resting on slanted perhaps slightly flexible teeth and / or slightly flexible surface drift in one direction under brownian impacts of a gas?

Edit added ~ +1/4 hr: Alternately the whole rest surface can be covered with oriented teeth that nanospheres resting on top drift across.

Aloha,

Charles M. Brown

Edit 2: I emailed the idea to nano lab as an important experiment.
Edit 3: Email not accepted through.

[Kysmett]

"The opponents of  Maxwell's Demon argue that the small mass of the tooth tip causes it to flex rapidly and anti sort at the same time sorting is attempted nullifying the differerentation"

Voila...there you have it...a nano quartz crystals dream....peizoelectric sharkskin drums?  either it will rotate and generate or vibrate and generate....if it vibrates, we have less friciton loss...all the better

[Charlie Brown ARN]

I'm inspired within this group to think of extracting biochemicals from mixtures: A  row of metal stripes like train track is coated with a selective binding agent that is directly (possible) or indirctly (very likely) responsive to electric charge. Serial triads of the track are fed the sweeping pattern of electrical pulses (1)+00 (2)0+0 (3)00+ (& repeat) which carries the biochemical of interest down the track as it is passed along the charged stripes. The device will not change in temperature if powered by intamately integrated diode array electricity. I was inspired in general by zone refining, the cover featured article in Scientific American ~Dec. ~199x.

Aloha, Charlie