I have access to this decorative windmill. It’s been in place for decades, spins freely in the wind, and has made millions of revolutions in its lifetime. Its RPM’s are impressive even in relatively low wind.

What are your thoughts on how I should harness this energy?

  • TheTechnician27@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    N… No? The wind applies a torque to the wind turbine that gets converted into angular momentum. The angular momentum drives a generator that produces electricity. That’s literally the entire point of a wind turbine.

    The obvious point I was making was that the electricity produced doesn’t rely just on ω but also the moment of inertia I.

    I feel like I’m being gaslit right now. Like: “Linear momentum isn’t the useful metric in assessing how deadly a collision with this car would be. I feel like that’s expected because we have few details about the car itself.” ???


    Edit: And if you mean torque (because P = torque * angular frequency), then torque is just the time derivative of L. My point being that even if frequency is high, L here is piddly.