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No, this is not the Hundred Dollar Laptop.
Beryl

Jeff Courtman wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related 
> institutions.
> ***************************************************************************** 
>
>
> The problem with this side of the tread (re: human powered 
> electronics) is forgetting how much human power it takes to maintain, 
> say, a hundred watt bulb.  I googled it yesterday to see if I could 
> find a simple way to equate human power (eg. calorie's burned) to 
> electrical units (watts or watts/hour).
>
>
> I didn't find what I was looking for, but my favorite was a clip from 
> youtube showing a nicely designed system so you can power your 
> laptop.  The narrator says, "So Erin can surf the web or send emails 
> while pedaling."  Right.  I'm a pretty good typist while pedaling......
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLaaunce4JQ&feature=related
>
>
> The other was an Ellen Degeneres show where she had 7 or 8 spin 
> cyclists over in the corner pedaling away....to power 1 monitor and a 
> 'light' although they didn't show the light.  Wow....one whole 
> monitor.....and it only took 8 people in great shape to keep it 
> going.....
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czvL7V3HgwQ
>
>
> There would seem to be two conceptual issues with most human powered 
> exhibits (that attempt anything beyond modeling how electricity can be 
> generated).  First, there is often a disconnect - we want visitors to 
> leave thinking, "Wow, it's hard work, and a lot of it, to keep a light 
> bulb lit."  When what they seem to leave with is, "Cool, I made a 
> light bulb light up."  The other disconnect is one of scale:  We ask 
> them to power a single (or several devices) and then somehow expect 
> them to abstract that into macro environment, eg, a whole house, not 
> to mention a neighborhood, a city, a state, etc.....
>
> Wish I had the answer to how to make these kinds of exhibits more 
> germane, but.....
>
> jeff c
>
> (and yes, there are way,way,way too many suv's here in the Dallas Ft. 
> Worth area)
>
> Just my two cents worth.....
>
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-- 
Beryl Rosenthal, Ph.D.
Director
Tsongas Industrial History Center
Boott Cotton Mills
115 John Street
Lowell, MA 01854
(978) 970-5081 (t)
(978) 970-5085 (f)
[log in to unmask]
www.uml.edu/tsongas

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For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.

Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.

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