Snake oil

[G7PSK]

This was in the local paper this morning...

Yes, it's a coil. That goes around a pipe.

I've seen something similar many years ago in an magazine.  It used magnets wrapped around the water pipe.
Supposedly the magnetic field will somehow keep the minerals dissolved in water, preventing scaling. 
I've also seen an ad for a similar gadget that you placed around the fuel line of your car to improve fuel economy.  Again, the magnetic field was supposed to align the gasoline molecules, improving combustion... 
Didn't buy them. So I can't confirm that they don't work...

If every car was fitted with all the devices that claimed to increase fuel economy by 10% or more, global warming would end and the roads would be awash with all the petrol being pumped out of the cars exhaust pipes as the would have passed from burning the stuff to creating it.

[nihilism]

One for the Aussies. Anyone remember the Peter Brock Energy Polariser?

http://news.drive.com.au/drive/motor-news/polariser-hdt-drawn-together-again-20111014-1lnx0.html

[Stonent]

So I saw this banner ad (not on this site)



And thought, what crap.  I clicked it just to see what it was, and it was just about graphene. Still I don't see what makes it fit all the claims of the ad. Does graphene magically accelerate electrons?

Plus (as I expected) when I closed the tab, it redirected me to another site with a plea from some person about the "investment of a lifetime" and followed by a pop up making sure I was "sure" I wanted to walk away.

[don.r]

So I saw this banner ad (not on this site)



And thought, what crap.  I clicked it just to see what it was, and it was just about graphene. Still I don't see what makes it fit all the claims of the ad. Does graphene magically accelerate electrons?

Plus (as I expected) when I closed the tab, it redirected me to another site with a plea from some person about the "investment of a lifetime" and followed by a pop up making sure I was "sure" I wanted to walk away.

Graphene has very low resistivity and high electron mobility. Its a better conductor at room temp than silver.

[Pillager]

Just found something very useful...

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freee-free-energy-for-everybody

...and along with all the other free energy stuff out there, all our energy problems seem to be solved   

[uwezi]

Graphene has very low resistivity and high electron mobility. Its a better conductor at room temp than silver.

...if you compare a layer of silver as thin as a single sheet of graphene with just that, a single sheet of graphene...

[electronics man]

Do you think this soap does what it claims to https://www.lush.co.uk/product/362/Snake-Oil-Scalp-Treatment-Bar

[G7PSK]

It contains Juniper tar, Tar, cresols and phenols have long been used by the medical profession for treating skin and scalp problems. They put me on tar related product to treat psoriasis but as I am allergic to both cresols and phenols  all they did was to exacerbate the problem and some of the quacks won't or don't believe in allergies  and try to insist on the use of them, then lecture you on the dangers of sunlight or UVB treatment while ignoring the carcinogenic and toxic properties of cresol and phenol.

[microbug]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26963255

That 'nano-technology' looks an awful lot like super-capacitors.

[daveshah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26963255

That 'nano-technology' looks an awful lot like super-capacitors.

A decent phone battery is about 9Wh. Therefore to charge it in 30 seconds you would need a 1kW power supply - not going to be very portable.

[wilheldp]

I don't see how that cell phone battery is that amazing.  They installed something that nearly tripled the thickness of the phone, charge it with a dual banana-jack cable (which indicates to me that they were using a lab power supply), and after charging, they get 2-3 hours of use out of it.  It sounds like they just put a bunch of supercapacitors in an enclosure, and mated them to the battery contacts on the phone.  I don't think supercaps with enough capacity to match current cell phone battery life will ever be small enough to fit in the same battery compartment as a current LiIon battery pack.  Plus, the charger that dumps 5+ amps into the supercaps would be expensive and unwieldy compared to modern 5 VDC, 2 A chargers.

[G7PSK]

So I saw this banner ad (not on this site)



And thought, what crap.  I clicked it just to see what it was, and it was just about graphene. Still I don't see what makes it fit all the claims of the ad. Does graphene magically accelerate electrons?

Plus (as I expected) when I closed the tab, it redirected me to another site with a plea from some person about the "investment of a lifetime" and followed by a pop up making sure I was "sure" I wanted to walk away.

Graphene has very low resistivity and high electron mobility. Its a better conductor at room temp than silver.

But is graphene doomed before it starts, Stanene is on it way.  http://phys.org/news/2013-11-d-tin-super-material.html

[Zepnat]

"Wireless anti-static wrist bands.

Static dissipative strap without grounding cord, convenient to operate

Avoid the trouble of ground cord and reduce the damage of electric components accidently
Great wrist strap for electrician or IC / PLCC worker"

I thought the whole point of static dissipative wrist bands were to gently drain any charge away to earth through a wire
Wireless ?  They seem quite popular!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Anti-Static-Wrist-Band-Wristband-Strap-Discharge-Cables-Wireless-Cordless-Slim-/120814630101?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c211cf4d5

[wilheldp]

Shipping from China seriously must be free.  If I were to buy a 10 MOhm resistor, put it in a plastic case and attach an elastic wrist band to it, it would be at least 50 cents in materials...even in large quantities.  How they sell something like that for 99 cents with free shipping is absolutely incredible.

[David_AVD]

With regards to the cheap shipping from China to Australia, I heard that China (gov't) subsidises the outgoing mail and Australia Post effectively has to pick up the tab for the Australian delivery leg.

If that's true, with the increasing trend of China-Australia retail sales it's no wonder Australia Post is loosing money.

[Zepnat]

So what do you think of the wireless earth strap. It could never work could it?

RE: cheap shipping from china.

I must admit I was amazed at the stupidly low price of this and ive bought a Lot of stuff from china over the years.

They work really well.


$1.21    TP4056  Li-ion Battery Charging Module  worldwide free shipping


https://www.fasttech.com/p/1453504

[don.r]

"Wireless anti-static wrist bands.

Static dissipative strap without grounding cord, convenient to operate

Avoid the trouble of ground cord and reduce the damage of electric components accidently
Great wrist strap for electrician or IC / PLCC worker"

I thought the whole point of static dissipative wrist bands were to gently drain any charge away to earth through a wire
Wireless ?  They seem quite popular!!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Anti-Static-Wrist-Band-Wristband-Strap-Discharge-Cables-Wireless-Cordless-Slim-/120814630101?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c211cf4d5

I did a "teardown" on this forum of one for laughs. There is a single 1M ohm resistor inside. They are, indeed, useless. I converted mine to a strapped unit as the band is conductive.

[jh15]

kind of like a factory girl walking around the factory floor, holding a static sensitive board on top of its esd bag thinking it is blessed to be protected..

[dc101]

EE quackery is alive and well!

http://quantamagnetics.com/   
"The Q3 Charge Accelerator & Toriod Generator. An experimental generator designed as an alternative energy system element expansion, best used with low power solar input for charging of lead acid battery bank. The advanced Toroidal Generator addition provides extra  power output and allows for high voltage experiments."

This guy is still at it!  Now he has a fancy website, http://quantamagnetics.com/   I guess by selling these as "experimental generators" he can claim it's not a scam.  Is it me or did he basically hook a home-made generator up to a home-made motor?

-Tim

[codeboy2k]

This guy is still at it!  Now he has a fancy website, http://quantamagnetics.com/   I guess by selling these as "experimental generators" he can claim it's not a scam.  Is it me or did he basically hook a home-made generator up to a home-made motor?

-Tim

Yep. But if watch the video you realize it's not just any ol' generator, but a bi-filar wound generator  
and it avoids those silly laws created for no good reason whatsoever by that Lenz guy.

Physics got you down?  no problem... we don't need no stinkin' laws...

[daqq]

This guy is still at it!  Now he has a fancy website, http://quantamagnetics.com/   I guess by selling these as "experimental generators" he can claim it's not a scam.  Is it me or did he basically hook a home-made generator up to a home-made motor?

RETURNS NOT ACCEPTED. Due to the custom nature of these products, we do not accept returns.

Pretty much sums up the whole free energy scene... also "Results may vary."

[mamalala]

This guy is still at it!

If you want to see something where people are _really_ persistant, then google for "SEG searl effect generator". That scam goes on for many decades now. That wonderous machine is supposed to not only produce free energy, but is also ablle to defy gravity as well as curing cancer! And Searl got all that in a dream!

Makes a fantastic research project into human stupidity to keep you busy for some days.

Greetings,

Chris

[Excavatoree]

One of my favorite scams is a presentation made in a rented hotel room.  The guy demonstrated a motor and a generator.  Using some trickery, he "shows" that the motor generates more mechanical output power than it takes in as electrical power.  Likewise, he "shows" that the generator generates more electrical output power than it requires as input power. 

However, the two devices aren't connected together and running perpetually, because "we got in late last night, and <whoever, I forget the name> didn't have time to connect the two together.  Clearly, you can see that if we did connect them, it would run forever and generate free power, but man, poor 'ole <whoever> was tired.  You can't blame him for needing rest, now, can you?"

 I wonder how many times he made the same speech, and if anyone ever bought it?

[Richard Crowley]

Oh, that's OK.  Let poor 'ole <whoever> have his rest.
Lets us hook it up right now!  Boy am I excited to see this!   

[G7PSK]

That reminds me of the hotel demonstration scam from the 50's where tap water from the hotel bathroom was turned into petrol by the addition of the magic compound. The trick was that petrol was first pumped back up the hotels plumbing before the press presentation then of course when the water was run from the bath petrol came out at first. It caught a lot of people though before the guy got caught.