Related papers: History of Prime Movers and Future Implications
Civilization produces knowledge, which acts as the driving force of its development. A macro-model of civilization that accounts for the effect of knowledge production on population, energy consumption and environmental conditions is…
Labor productivity in developed countries is analyzed and modeled. Modeling is based on our previous finding that the rate of labor force participation is a unique function of GDP per capita. Therefore, labor productivity is fully…
Engines are open systems that can generate work cyclically, at the expense of an external disequilibrium. They are ubiquitous in nature and technology, but the course of mathematical physics over the last 300 years has tended to make their…
In this Habilitation Thesis, I synthesize 10 years of work on the role of the motor system in sensorimotor decision-making. First, a large part of the work we initially performed (2014-2020) questioned the functional role of the motor…
The Sun's outer atmosphere is heated to temperatures of millions of degrees, and solar plasma flows out into interplanetary space at supersonic speeds. This paper reviews our current understanding of these interrelated problems: coronal…
Stellar magnetic fields are produced by a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo mechanism working in their interior -- which relies on the interaction between plasma flows and magnetic fields. The Sun, being a well-observed star, offers an unique…
Solid propellants are energetic materials used to launch and propel rockets and missiles. Although their history dates to the use of black powder more than two millennia ago, greater performance demands and the need for "insensitive…
The energy storage and trigger mechanisms of solar flares are important for understanding of solar activity. We analyzed multi-wavelength observations of a M1.5 flare on 1 August 2014, in active region NOAA 12127 (SOL2014-08-01T18:13).…
Many perceive electric vehicles (EVs) to be eco-environmentally sustainable because they are free of emissions of toxic and greenhouse gases to the environment. However, few have questioned the sustainability of the electric power required…
Innovation is a key ingredient for the evolution of several systems, including social and biological ones. Focused investigations and lateral thinking may lead to innovation, as well as serendipity and other random discovery processes. Some…
A central question surrounding possible human exploration of Mars is whether crewed missions can be supported by available technologies using in situ resources. Here, we show that photovoltaics-based power systems would be adequate and…
The devices coil and transformer are subjects of interest in numerous schoolbooks, in introductory scientific textbooks of physics and engineering, and in laboratory courses at universities. Many descriptions, however, draw a somewhat…
In a previous paper \cite{MTAY1} we have shown that Newton'n third law cannot strictly hold in a distributed system of which the different parts are at a finite distance from each other. This is due to the finite speed of signal propagation…
Nothing has done more to empower the free market, enterprise, and meritocracy than the spread of electricity and power to everyone. The power system has been the precursor to the greatest period of innovation in our history and has meant…
Much of today's sustainability discourse emphasizes efficiency, clean technologies, and smart systems, but largely underestimates fundamental physical constraints relating to energy-matter interactions. These constraints stem from the fact…
The energy released in solar flares derives from a reconfiguration of magnetic fields to a lower energy state, and is manifested in several forms, including bulk kinetic energy of the coronal mass ejection, acceleration of electrons and…
We show that energy concepts can contribute to the understanding of human travel behaviour. First, the average travel times for different modes of transportation are inversely proportional to the energy consumption rates measured for the…
How much wind energy does the atmosphere generate, and how much of it can at best be used as renewable energy? This review aims to give first-order estimates and sensitivities to answer these questions that are consistent with those…
The most promising model for explaining the origin of solar magnetism is the flux transport dynamo model, in which the toroidal field is produced by differential rotation in the tachocline, the poloidal field is produced by the…
Atmospheric circulation on tidally-locked exoplanets is driven by the absorption and reradiation of heat from the host star. They are natural heat engines, converting heat into mechanical energy. A steady state is possible only if there is…