(I wanted to donate this idea to the Africa campaign, but my computer is having a fit, so I'll post it as usual, and perhaps it can be transfered as Ideas4all administration deems appropriate)


No bombs please, just clean water!

With all the talk of unscrupulous "scientists" using centrifuges to separate heavy elements so they can be rendered purer for nuclear bombs to kill people, it occurs to me that the same method could be used for a better purpose than this, as it is only the relative heaviness of one element or set of elements to others that the effect of spinning in a centrifuge operates on... 

...In the case of this Idea, I propose using the centrifuge to clean water of impurities by spinning out the heavier Carbon based compounds and separating them from the lighter H2O molucules.


H2O aint Heavy, it's my scrubber!

One look at the periodic table of elements will confirm that Hydrogen and Oxygen (of which water is made) appear at the very start of the table, and that most everything else you may find in it will therefore be heavier, and lend itself to spinning in this way.

Of course, it would take a while to sufficiently clean water of contaminants using this method, and perhaps even then not entirely, but as a 'first stage' clean to remove sediments from muddy water and other solid matter, it could mean that a lighter gauge filter can be used afterward at a less substantial expense, or before boiling the water ready for use.


This Aint No Salad!

The idea came from my salad spinner when I was making lunch to remove excess water from lettuce, and a simple hand cranked version of this is what could be used... an appropriately sized circular tub which can rotate on a central axis is filled with the dirty water (to the top) and spun... the sediments and detritus fly out to the walls of the tub over time, and then a depression or catchement gutter or groove lower than the base of the tub runs around the bottom outside edge of the inside to recieve the debris as the tub slows it's rotation and gravity makes it fall when it is not overmatched by the centrifugal effect.

It may not work sufficiently, but it's worth a go if only to eliminate one more possibility.

(Just  an after thought that occured to me only after posting... independent radial sections will have to be placed inside the tub in the manner of compartmentalised sections so that the water does not just stay static inside relative to the spinning tub... water being a fluid needs in some sense to be made to act like a solid so that the centrifugal effect can take place, and a a series of dividers radiating from the central axis inside to the perimeter of the tub will do this... as then the water in each compartment is an independent body rotating around the central axis... sorry for overlooking this crucial piece of info... my mistake!)



Ideia editada em 16/12/2011 11:59