Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [energy]

The ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems.

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Did researchers create a graphene device that drew "free" power from the ionic thermal motion?

A 2012 pre-print, Self-Charged Graphene Battery Harvests Electricity from Thermal Energy of the Environment claims that a graphene device was used to generate a voltage of 0.35V by capturing some of the energy of ionic thermal motion in a solution…
RLR
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Can electricity be obtained from neutrino radiation, like a solar cell?

Power Technology magazine published a 2019 article *Neutrino energy: harnessing the power of cosmic radiation. It describes a new energy technology - making solar panels, but for neutrinos instead of light. In principle, harvesting neutrinos as an…
David Elm
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Does one kg of rock contain more energy in the form of U-238 than one kg of petroleum?

Let's consider rock and petroleum. Which contains more energy per kilogram? Due to Einstein, we know mass is energy, and the energy contents of both are equivalent. However, let's forget this and consider only practically extractable energy in this…
juhist
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Does sealing electrical outlets reduce heating costs?

I stumbled upon this blog post which claims that installing foam gaskets and plugging your electrical outlets with plugs will reduce your heating costs by reducing air leakage. Is this true?
Pikamander2
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Does tapping on "acupoints" during an emotional problem change chemistry in the brain?

This claim is by David Feinstein, pH.D. in Acupoint stimulation in treating psychological disorders: Evidence of efficacy [.pdf] Essentially it is a claim that stimulating acupuncture points during the mental exploration of an emotional problem…
Raystafarian
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Is Gasification of Garbage a Viable Energy Solution?

I read this NYT article about using blast furnaces to turn garbage into burnable gas, yielding a net energy output. The article suggests that the company, Sierra Energy, is very close to building a commercial system. The article also states that the…
speedplane
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Are home owners required by law to connect gas in Victoria, Australia?

The One Step Off The Grid website claims that home owners in Victoria are required to connect to the gas network. It does not give an easy way to verify this claim. Did you know Victoria’s building code forces people to connect a new house to the…
user1605665
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Can a car run on water? As per this experiment

The Agha Waqar's car that ran on water was a great news for a long time. Where a Pakistan based inventor invented a car that got all the power from water. He was using a water kit to get the energy. Here is a WikiPedia page for that too:…
Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan
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Has Brilliant Light Power developed a new source of energy from water molecules?

Brilliant Light Power is a company that claims, on their web-site, to have: developed a new commercially competitive, non-polluting, plasma-based primary source of massive power from the conversion of hydrogen atoms of water molecules to dark…
Marina Ala
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Do windmills take more energy to build than they could produce?

Saw this posted on a friend's feed on Facebook recently. Are the numbers correct, and is the final statement ("A windmill could spin until it falls apart and never generate as much energy as was invested in building it") correct?
NeutronStar
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Is there any proof that blackle.com conserves energy?

There are claims that blackle.com conserves energy given that it is darker themed and produces less light. There is a counter under the search box that constantly increases. But in today's era of computers, laptops, tablets etc does it really…
John Demetriou
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Is there compelling proof against an alternative to the law of conservation of energy?

The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but changed into different forms, which I've never found entirely compelling. It's impossible to measure the energy that exists, since we are unsure of whether our…
Chris Halcrow
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