How Energy-Generating Sidewalks Work

We locomotion here, we locomotion there, we locomotion everywhere. Maybe you’re headed to activity aliases to luncheon successful a engaged city. You’re expending energy, and nan workout is bully for you. But what if, connected apical of that, we could recapture each that freely supplied power and person it to usable electricity?

This is simply a existent thing. Systems person been installed successful dozens of countries. Check retired this video. And why extremity there? You could put them successful discotheques and harness that fancy footwork to powerfulness nan strobe lights. Or build them into playground hopcotch grids. When you commencement reasoning astir it, nan possibilities are endless.

But really does it work? And really overmuch powerfulness tin it generate? Obviously 1 personification wouldn’t make overmuch difference, but person nan teeming sidewalks of New York and you mightiness really person something. Could we put this each complete nan world and extremity utilizing fossil fuels? Let’s find out!

Follow nan Bouncing Ball

First we request a exemplary of a stepping human. No sweat, right? Walking is truthful easy a 1-year-old tin do it. Well, actually, bipedal locomotion is horribly analyzable from a physics perspective. Seriously, if you had to study to locomotion from a physics model, you’d still beryllium successful a stroller. So let’s commencement pinch thing simpler: a bouncing ball.

Believe it aliases not, this is simply a beautiful bully analogy. We tin spot instantly that location are 3 types of power involved: kinetic energy, gravitational imaginable energy, and outpouring imaginable energy.

Kinetic energy has to do pinch nan mobility of an object—the faster it’s moving, nan much kinetic power it has. If you return a shot and driblet it, it will accelerate downward, which intends its kinetic power is increasing. But wherever did that other power travel from?

Answer: It’s stored successful nan gravitational field. This is gravitational imaginable energy. The magnitude depends connected nan spot of nan section (g = 9.8 newtons per kilogram connected Earth), nan wide of nan object, and really precocious supra nan crushed it is. As a shot falls, nan gravitational imaginable power decreases and nan kinetic power increases.

Right location you tin spot thing very powerful. We telephone it conservation of energy. This says that if we person a strategy pinch nary power inputs aliases outputs—what’s called a closed system—the power tin alteration form, but nan full magnitude of power remains constant.

Finally, we person spring imaginable energy. This is nan power stored successful an elastic entity erstwhile it’s compressed. When nan shot hits nan ground, it deforms and stops. If you had a high-speed camera you’d spot it flatten retired for a divided 2nd arsenic nan kinetic power is converted to outpouring energy.

Then nan shot rebounds to regain its shape. The outpouring imaginable power is converted backmost to kinetic power successful nan other guidance and nan shot trampolines upward. Here’s what it looks like: