Crayola v Generic: Melting Crayons for Science
Sometimes you can satisfy your scientific curiosity with a couple of boxes of crayons, some heat, and a little time.
heat
This Simple Trick Makes You Feel Like You’re Being Burned
This simple device, using an illusion that dates back to 1896, tricks your brain into feeling like your skin is being burned.
5 DIY Ways to Beat the Summer Heat
It’s sweltering just about everywhere in the lower 48 this week, just in time for us to launch some rockets and break out the BBQ for July 4th. And in places where every home doesn’t have AC, it’s getting downright unbearable. So we figured we’d do our part to help folks find relief, and collect a few of the great projects we’ve written or seen around the Internet to inspire you to take personal cooling into your own hands.
Charge Your Smartphone–With Fire!
If fire wasn’t the first thing invented, it was probably the second. The human race has had a long relationship with fire, and now you can use it to charge your smartphone, GPS, or anything else that you can connect to this thermoelectric generator using a USB cable.
Tool Review: QU-BD Silicone Heater
QU-BD (pronounced “cubed”) is a recent startup that sells parts for 3D printers. They sent us a few of their silicone heaters to review. The heaters were designed for use in a heated build platform (which is required for warp-free ABS prints) and come in three different-sized square pads of 150 × 150mm, 200 × 200mm, and a giant 300 × 300mm. They are about 3mm thick and a 100k thermistor is built into each pad for measuring their temperatures. The build quality of the heaters is quite robust. The pads are made of a flexible fiberglass-reinforced silicone…
Using snow to see heat transfer
In these photos, you can see the heat transfer happening through a number of roofs in my neighborhood. In a wintery time like we have now, the snow acts as an indicator of your insulation. If you have a full roof of snow, then you’re well insulated. If you have spots of bare roof surrounded by snow, then inside the house is an area where it’s uninsulated, or poorly insulated. If your roof doesn’t hold the snow at all, then it’s time to look at your attic insulation. Sunny, South facing roofs will naturally clear faster on clear days, due to the input of solar energy.
Soda can solar panel
So you have a few extra cans left about the manse after the holiday party and are wondering what to do with them. How about building a solar panel? Free heat is good heat. As air enters the 2 holes on the sides near the bottom, the sun is heating up the soda cans all […]
