Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Miniaturization of Motors Catch up with the 21st Centur

As this BBC article explains, the miniaturization of mechanical motors has not evolved at nearly the same pace as their electrical counterparts. Combustion is pretty much out of the question and as the the article states, the resistance of electrical motors when scaled down that small is almost more than can be overcome. So, take a tiny piezoelectric element, send a charge through it, incorporate a little bit of nature's design for microscopic propulsion and there you have a good recipe for modernizing one of humanities most influential creations.

1 comment:

  1. Welcome Chad to science update! Have you heard about nanomotors, where the individual molecules are the rotors and are powered via jumping energy states much like a laser?

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