this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2025
1301 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

17484 readers
2842 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The only viable electric generation that doesn't involve spinning a turbine is solar and not even all solar.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

That depends on how you define "viable". And "generate".

Peltier devices generate a voltage from a heat differential passing through a bi-metalic matrix. It's not a huge voltage, so the definition of "viable" comes in there, but it can be used to power low power things and works well for heater accessories. I first saw its use for wood stove fans that get powered just by sitting on the stove. I've also seen them power USB chargers for pellet stoves.

And then there's batteries that generate a voltage from submerging two types of metal in acid. And more modern battery designs might be doing it a bit differently but still no spinning magnets and coils. Obviously they are viable for powering many things, but usually themselves are powered from another source rather than using fresh acid for each charge, so the "generate" bit comes into question.

I think there's some others. Like fiction can be used to generate a static voltage and I'm pretty sure I've seen some tesla coils that use friction to generate their voltage. If you continuously generate that voltage, you could make a circuit out of it rather than shock high school kids or make their hair stand up, though I don't know what kind of amperage you could generate like that (that 5 figure voltage isn't fatal because of a lack of amps).

I asked an AI out of curiosity and, while I won't paste the response (feel free to ask one yourself), it gave a list of 20 methods, though I'd say this thread on its own covers about 9 of them, since some are different specific ways of doing similar ones (eg there were 4 based on moving something relative to a magnetic field).

[–] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Viable meaning used for power plants or as an alternative to power plants to generate power for the grid.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Like fiction can be used to generate a static voltage

sounds ficticious.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Something about spelling nazis spinning in a grave attached to a magnet and coil setup...