Thursday, August 9, 2012

Move Over Flying Cars: Here Comes Hydroelectric Engines


For years, man has dreamed of cleaner, more efficient means of transportation. The dream, first, led to the idea of a flying car, similar to one seen in the cartoon “The Jetsons”. The flying car sparked worldwide interest, and inspired various individuals to construct a similar device. To this day, the search for a similar flying car continues, but to little avail. The search for this car, though not entirely successful, has sparked interest in others methods of clean transportation vehicles. One such vehicle is a water-powered car, an idea which a Pakistani scientist claims to have successfully developed.
                 The water-powered car is, as the name suggests, a car that has an engine which runs entirely off of water. The separation process of molecules of bound water produces energy, but until now, nobody has been able to successfully utilize the energy released. As with any ground breaking discovery, the claim is under speculation. If one recalls the Higgs-Boson Particle (God Particle) incident back about a month or so ago, they will understand what I mean. As soon as it was claimed that particles which were in existence during the Big Bang were discovered, people everywhere experienced mixed feelings of uncertainty and hope. This seems to be the case in any situation with a major discovery.
                In the article in the NY Times, the car is criticized highly. The author of this article, titled “Boast of Water-Run Car Thrills Pakistan”, claims that more evidence is required before anyone is to get excited about the car. The author describes the claims as “spectacular” and “violating ironclad laws of physics”. Despite this, the article seems to have taken the tech section by storm in the last few days. The very idea that a water-powered car has been created fills my mind with wonder and pure hope. I’ve always believed that anything can be accomplished if one sets their mind to it. This case is no different. The fact that this author agrees that the laws of physics are definitive and unchanging is frustrating. It has been proven time and time again that there are ways to defy physics. The boundaries set by physics exist only because mankind allows them to exist. As was said in my other article, “Touchdown Confirmed”, mankind’s greatest characteristic is its ability to question the known and the accepted. It is through this questioning that new ideas form, and hundreds of possibilities are revealed.
http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/genepax-water-powered-car-001.jpg
A model for a water-powered car
It seems clear that either this man is either going through an immense amount of effort to gain an excess of attention, or that his claims are accurate. The man went through the trouble of displaying his invention on live television, and allowed some unaffiliated individual to test it. He must be undergoing extreme stress, attempting to prove he has made a groundbreaking discovery to no avail. I, for one, believe in the man’s claim. In the past, despite the existence of numerous claims of a water-powered vehicle, not a single one was proven successful. This claim, however, was not only proven, but has been consistently made by the same man for over a month now. I suppose that until the invention is investigated, presumably within the next few weeks, we truly cannot know for certain.
The media continually bashes ideas which contradict the norm. When an idea or experiment that defies what we know arises, the media doesn’t typically stop to question the legitimacy of the claim. They automatically assume that it will fail, but imply that they will keep a somewhat open mind to the possibility. This case is no different: the media essentially believed that this was a falsified claim. The man in this story has been working for well over a month to show the world that his invention is a scientific feat. It was not until his experiment was shown in action publicly (multiple times) that the media even decided to glance in this man’s direction. This boundless skepticism of the media shows just how biased and stubborn it can actually be.
One must ask themselves why a man from a poor country would make a false claim about this. It doesn’t seem like the man is down on his luck: he’s maintained a job with local police forces, and has obtained a degree in mechanical engineering. True, the man is an unlikely source for such a substantial discovery to be made. In reality though, the majority of large discoveries have originated in the most unlikely of places. Back in the day, it was an accepted fact that the world was flat. About 50 years ago, it was an accepted fact that mankind would never make it to mars, let alone the moon. It’s obvious that accepted facts are only accepted because we accept them as they are. By refusing to question an idea, it becomes accepted. By questioning the accepted, not even the sky can limit us as a race. Always remember: the only impossible ideas are the ones which are abandoned.
The general accepted schematic for a Hydro-Electric Car's Engine

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