I reads something to the effect that the reason Edison and Tesla never got the prize was that one could hardly be awarded without the other, but that the two men hated each other so much that it was feared they would disrupt the occasion by getting into a fist fight.
That a solution might have been relatively "simple," does not mean that the breakthrough was insignificant. As the press release noted:
They succeeded where everyone else had failed. Akasaki worked together with Amano at the University of Nagoya, while Nakamura was employed at Nichia Chemicals, a small company in Tokushima. Their inventions were revolutionary.
The more detailed explanation can be found here: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2014/advanced-physicsprize2014.pdf
Technology and understanding advance. Inventions can and do become obsolete. They can also become building blocks for future innovations. One cannot automatically assume that a given inventor would have preferred that progress cease. A quote attributed to Edison was, "Its obvious that we don't know one millionth of one percent about anything." That leaves much room for future discovery.
I still think the Science prizes have value, What happens is the time between the work andPoliticians have turned the Nobel Prize into a farce.
Congratulations Sheldon Cooper.
I still think the Science prizes have value, What happens is the time between the work and
the award is so long that people forget how great the contribution was.
I saw Dr. Norman Ramsey speak, after he received his Nobel prize, for
work done almost 40 years earlier.
Is there anything right-wingers don't have a problem with?
Its old news that the Nobel Committee has been corrupted by left wing ideologues.
There were other people working on the same technology Edison was, including the Light bulb.
Edison just beat them to the punch.
Tesla was a far more brilliant and innovative inventor. He also had a eidetic memory.
DC power transmission ( what Edison was pushing for ) over long distances is not practical or even feasible.
In a DC Circuit the electron have to make a complete and unidirectional path, from the source, through the load and then to ground.
If we had stuck with Edison's idea of DC power distribution we would have had to run massive conductors to Sub-stations that were no more than a few miles apart.
I want to like this, everything is true except the Edison bits. Edison was brilliant, but wasn't much of an inventor. Instead, he was one of the most brilliant IP pirates and self promoters of all times.There were other people working on the same technology Edison was, including the Light bulb.
Edison just beat them to the punch.
Tesla was a far more brilliant and innovative inventor. He also had a eidetic memory.
DC power transmission ( what Edison was pushing for ) over long distances is not practical or even feasible.
In a DC Circuit the electron have to make a complete and unidirectional path, from the source, through the load and then to ground.
If we had stuck with Edison's idea of DC power distribution we would have had to run massive conductors to Sub-stations that were no more than a few miles apart.
EVERY motor would have had to be commutated. That means regular disassembly of the Commutator section for brush replacements.
Tesla's discovered the properties of Induction. Using the alternating collapsing Electro magnetic field of a primary Coil to transfer ( induce ) AC current into a secondary Coil.
Also his invention of the induction Motor was absolutely revolutionary.
Thanks to his inventions large amounts of power could be transferred over thousands of miles through Conductors that were no more than a inch in diameter.
High voltage could then be transferred into Substations, through Large transformers and then out to homes and businesses where it could be stepped down again as a useful source of energy.
The Car manufacturer Telsa used his name to build a over engineered Golf Cart thats powered by DC.
They should have named the Tesla the Eddison.
I want to like this, everything is true except the Edison bits. Edison was brilliant, but wasn't much of an inventor. Instead, he was one of the most brilliant IP pirates and self promoters of all times.
Tesla was beyond brilliant. Really he's a staggering figure. He invented virtually everything electrically up until semiconductors. He invented AC current, transformers, distribution, the florescent light bulb, induction motors, wireless power transfer, the transistor, radio transmission, remote control, XRays, and made large contributions to robotics. If you've studied EE, that's pretty much the lions share of everything.
Contrast that with Edison. The lightbulb was invented by Heinrich Goebel in 1854. He tried to sell it to Edison, but Edison turned him down because he didn't see any practical use. Goebel died, and Edision bought the patent of his widow for pennies on the dollar. And Menlo Park wasn't just a shack where Edison experimented, but a full fledged research lab with hundreds of employees. Whenever anyone invented something, Edison would patent it under his own name.
There is one field where Edison did novel work: capital punishment. Edison wanted DC (which is impractical for transmission), Tesla-Westinghouse supported AC. Edison had his lab electrocute animals to show how dangerous the "killing" current was. Here's Edison electrocuting Topsy the elephant at a worlds fair. When the government came to Edison and asked for a humane method of carrying out the death penalty, Edison suggested AC current. He didn't suggest it because it was a good solution, but because he thought "Westinghousing" criminals was a good PR move.
Edit: also Tesla uses 3 phase AC induction motors on their cars.
http://www.teslamotors.com/roadster/technology/motor
Tesla uses a Inverter rated 3 phase " AC " motor thats Fed 3 phase frequency modulated DC Square Wave.
Its not true AC that powers that motor. There is no AC Generator in that car
Its DC fed from a Battery pack, into a large inverter which outputs pulse width modulated square wave with a feed back circuit ( most likely a Potentiometer on the Gas pedal ) that regulates the distance of the individual square waves which controls the RPM of that motor.
If you plug a Oscilloscope into your average socket in a home you'll see ( if you set it up correctly ) one phase of a true AC sinusoidal waveform peaking from positive 118 v to negative 118 v , 60 times a second.
For 3 phase AC you'll see three phases of Sinusoidal waveforms superimposed over each other at 120 degrees out of phase. ( minus powerfactor )
3 phase 230 is two legs of 120 v and one " hot leg " of 230.
3 phase 480 v is 3 legs of 277v
Hook up a Oscilloscope to the output of a Tesla and you'll see a manufactured " sinusoidal " square wave.
Positive DC to Negative DC. Because of the motors inherent inductive qualities if you switch the O-scope over to read amperage instead of voltage it will look like a typical sinusoidal waveform.
The motor is fooled by its own inductive properties.
Motors have to be rated to run off a Inverter or they dont last long.
Yep, but it's still an AC motor. The inverter is the AC generator, it's just powered by a DC source instead of an induction motor spun by a gasoline engine.
(Also you're right. Inverters tend to be "messier". Building waveforms by switching introduces an infinite number of odd harmonics. Low pass filtering will dampen them, especially the higher ones. However, unless you're switching at many many times the output frequency, you're still going to have residual noise on the signal. This is sort of like shaking the motor in an electrical sense and essentially operates the motor at higher instantaneous loads and currents than you'd see with clean power)
Harmonics from ( older ) VFDs/ inverters are only an issue if that VFD is installed in the field, like a industrial application where those harmonics can back feed and degrade your overall power factor.
Low power factors can cause component, motor and transformers to over heat and your utility bill to go up.
Newer VFDs-inverter have carrier frequency inductors built into them that filter out most of the Harmonics.
Had Tesla invented the inverter, OK then name the car after him.
But running DC from a bank of Capacittors, through a switching circuit and firing it off via HV IGBTs as a DC Square Wave isn't a AC Generator.
Its a BIG Signal Generator. A Signal Generator ( Ive built a couple of them when I used to Hobby build ) is a electronic component.
Not a Telsa invention and not even remotely a AC Generator.
Try to run that square wave through a isolation transformer like a actual AC sinusoidal waveform for the purpose of Induction and your'e going to release " the magic smoke."
Induction motors require an AC voltage source. Tesla invented the induction motor. Not that any of that has anything to do with why Elon named the company after Tesla.
As for the rest, I'm not sure what you're getting at.
Just trying to make clear that in terms of power generation that there is a distinct difference between a Signal Generator and a AC Generator.
Personally I think they named the Car after Tesla because its sounded cooler than calling it the " Edison ".
Thanks to 30 years of Electronics and Industrial controls experience I'm welll educated on the Technology that vehicle uses to get around.
Its powered by DC and the primary debate between Edison and Tesla centered power generation and distribution.
The wires going into the motor don't care if the voltage was produced from an inverter, a gasoline powered generator, a solar panel, etc.. It's an AC powered induction motor. Just like a DC motor doesn't care if it's powered by a battery or an AC to DC power supply.
I'm not trying to disagree with whatever training you received. But a square wave isn't DC. As Fourier proved, a time varying periodic signal can be decomposed into a number of harmonics. A square wave is essentially a combination of an infinite number of odd harmonics of the fundamental frequency. Here's an illustration of what happens when you start with a single sine wave and add specific odd harmonics.Actually, motors have to be rated for inverter use.
Run a 3 phase motor designed for continuous 60 hz operation on a inverter and it will overheat and trip the internal motor winding thermisrer.
23 years ago when as a R & D and Test technician for a large manufacturer I had to attend a school on Siemens Variable Frequency Drives.
We never addressed the operation in terms of A/C on a technical and Professional level because Inverters don't supply AC.
They supply a DC Square wave.
We needed to understand that distinction for troubleshooting and understanding the function of the drives.
So for a layman you or anyone else can call that output AC and Tesla can get away with saying their supplying AC to a AC Motor.
I'm not trying to disagree with whatever training you received. But a square wave isn't DC. As Fourier proved, a time varying periodic signal can be decomposed into a number of harmonics. A square wave is essentially a combination of an infinite number of odd harmonics of the fundamental frequency. Here's an illustration of what happens when you start with a single sine wave and add specific odd harmonics.
So a square wave is essentially a bunch of sine waves superimposed on each other, sort of like a bunch of different voices in a choir. So if you want to make a square wave look like "normal AC" you need to pass it though a low pass filter to get rid of the higher frequency components. This is sort of like getting rid of the altos, sopranos, and tenors, and keeping the bass.
Anyway, point being.. inverters create AC and induction motors require AC.. (FYI I'm not quite a layman).
Really?
For better blue LEDs?
Are you kidding me.
I mean, don't get me wrong, that's great and all, and better and more efficient powerful blue LEDs are always nice but the ones we have today are good enough. I mean, blue LEDs have been around for 20 years and they're good enough. I mean, shouldn't the Nobel prize go for like... big advances in a field instead of just improving something. There is no new massive groundbreaking technology involved in making these blue LEDs. They're just using a different coating. That's all.
Ah well, good for them anyway.
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