Question

I am asked for an Engineering project to find an innovative creation, then part of the project is to find a Physics Law and a Mathematical Equation that pertains to the innovation. My group and I have decided on the Fontus Device, which is a self-refilling water bottle, that collects H20 from humidity and then filters the water into the bottle.

Answer 1

http://fontus.at/

However, I am having some trouble finding a Physics Law & Math Equation that pertains to this. Can someone help me out? :/

Answer 2

Here is a list of laws, that my professor has provided for us that we may possibly use.

List of Physical Laws:
1. Adaptive Control
2. Artificial Neuron
3. Asymptotic Notation
4. Bellman-Ford Algorithm
5. Bernoulli’s principle
6. Binary Search
7. Biot-Savart Law
8. Breadth First Search
9. Building Automation
10. Capacitor
11. Capillary Rise
12. Cells or Batteries in Series and parallel
13. Centripetal acceleration in a string
14. Combinations
15. Control Theory
16. Coulomb’s Law
17. Depth First Search
18. Different Combination of Inductors
19. Different combinations of Capacitors
20. Dijkstra’s Algorithm
21. De Morgan Laws
22. Electromagnetic induction
23. Faradays law of Induction
24. Filter Circuit
25. Graph (Mathematics)
26. Handshaking Lemma
27. Hooke’s law
28. Inductor
29. Information Entropy
30. IP Address
31. Kirchhoff’s Current Law
32. Kirchhoff’s Voltage Law
33. Law of Conservation of Energy
34. Law of conservation of Momentum
35. Lenz Law
36. Linear congruential generator
37. Lorentz Force
38. Merge Sort
39. Newton’s Second law of motion
40. Norton’s Theorem
41. Ohms Law.
42. Onion Routing
43. OSI Model
44. Parallel Plate Capacitor with or without dielectrics
45. Permutations
46. Precision of information retrieval system
47. Public Key Cryptography
48. p-n junction/diode
49. Recall of information retrieval system
50. Resistance in Parallel
51. Resistance in Series
52. RLC Series Circuit
53. Seven Bridges of Königsberg
54. Spanning Tree
55. Static or Kinetic friction
56. Static Beam Equation
57. Stoke’s law (Frictional force or drag on spherical body) 58. Symmetric Cryptography
59. TCP Model
60. Temperature Dependence of resistivity
61. Thermistor
62. Thévenin's theorem
63. Transfer Control Protocol
64. Tree (Graph Theory)
65. Wheatstone Bridge

Answer 3

I think maybe the "Inductor", seeing as how the device also uses Solar Energy.
And also maybe the "Thermistor", because the bottle performs better depending on the amount of humidity/temperature.

Answer 4

Berlimey !
the post says find "A" physical law and maths equation ? I don't know of a single law, but then I don't have a library of fluid engineering or wherever I'd be looking for such a law to hand. It MAY be that a "law" and/or a "maths equation" have to be developed in line with the thrust of the project. It may also be that there are research papers floating around, but again I don't know. The link you supply suggests that there IS active research in this area, which suggest research papers. That suggests a literature search to find them.

the "fontus" bit seems to relate to "fountains". Basically, by the SOUND of it, and from the very brief look at the link, you're looking for a portable air dehumidifier which either consumes v. little power enough so that it can be battery powered, or is solar powered.
I seem to remember that most "condensers" work in a cycle, and need some sort of pump to move things around. (I'm actually thinking vaguely here of liquefying gases such as He and Nitrogen).
It seems reasonable, to me at least, that to condense water from the atmosphere you have to get it below the DEW POINT - something that gives me wet feet first thing in the morning if I walk on grass when the temp overnight has gone below the dew point. There could also be a spot of HYGROMETRY in here. The less humid the atmosphere, presumably, the "harder work" it would be for the condenser, and thus the more power that would be consumed and power may be at a premium in a portable device which, if solar powered, could only be run in sunlight ... ?
Another thing I'd be mindful of is the LATENT HEAT of condensation of water all of which has to be taken out of the air if the water is to condense, I guess.
The above may seem like a load of waffle, I don't know. That's for you to decide I guess.
I'd be interested to hear/discuss how things develop.
http://perendis.webs.com

Answer 5

This is from vague memories past.
I did some work once on PNEUMATIC controllers, and saw the effects of ramming tens of psi through a nozzle/restrictor. What I seem to remember was FROST and this MAY have been associated with a THERMODYNAMIC THROTTLING process. A restrictor with high pressure one side and low pressure t'other.
Assuming the frost was frozen water, then that was a condenser, I guess.
But, the memory was of a high pressure air line possibly up to 100psi.
It may be that one line of thinking is adapting this idea, and/or looking into the thermdynamics of cooling - once below the dew point you've got the condensation for the water.
Problem is/could be how to get there.

Answer 6

@osprey Hm. I kind of see where you are going at. But I am still a little confused

@zepdrix @IrishBoy123 @agent0smith @Astrophysics @518nad Do you guys know anything that could help?

Answer 7

i think @osprey has given you a seriously good steer on this

if it were me, i'd find a bit of the so-called "innovation" that allows you to get all "applied-mathsy" and doesn't involve experiment or actual practical application.

so maybe the solar battery thing, there's bound to be loads of equations surrounding that, and clearly something about global daylight because the product isn't just being designed for the Sahara. An Eskimo version?!?!

i think you mentioned that in your "inductor"/"thermistor" post. i'd do it to avoid getting my hands dirty and because the theory and modelling is way more interesting.

BTW, James Dyson is all scientific "fur coat and no knickers". He is from the same school as Steve Jobs - in the consumer economy, the choice of colour is as persuasive as the recycling of the vortex idea. So the product is bollocks, tertiary, etc,....., basically it's leisure. So there is going to be no real science in there. No offense intended to those great great entrepreneurs BTW :-) but they are business and not technology

i half- paid attention to the product website and the battery/power thing just jumped out. the condensation (osprey's dewpoint thing) bit looks way too complicated for me, at least!!!

but the battery is also IMHO the secret of the iPad and the Dyson cordless. Wireless power-up is next. You know, motorway lanes that charge the battery car .... as it moves

@osprey is a master of blue-sky thinking, i'm just copying :-))

Answer 8

PS i mention Dyson because they got some kinds Dyson award, but maybe I hit the wrong site :-|

Answer 9

Berlimey @IrishBoy123, very interesting post on Dyson et al, very very interesting. I won't dare ask what "blue sky thinking" is though.

Answer 10

need your help elsewhere, you online?

Answer 11

blue-sky = big- picture

Answer 12

"Gases" can be liquefied using the Joule-Kelvin Effect.
It seems that you can cool air to liquefaction providing you start at a at a temp below 603 Kelvins using a throttle valve and high pressure. That suggests to me that you can condense water from air by throttling the air and using it as a coolant.

603 Kelvins is called the "inversion temperature" for in this case air.

A mock up of a trial device could be rigged up in a reasonable workshop using possibly strong materials, very small holes, and ways of generating pressures - eg blowing up balloons (I don't know the pressure reqd to inflate a toy balloon). A pressure gauge would help, and, with cooperation, something could be rigged up relatively quickly.

The idea of the trial would be to see how few bits are needed to produce any cooling at the small hole(s) which is(are) the throttle valve(s). IF you get cooling, then you can play around with the dew point for water vapour etc etc etc.

If the trial works, then the business end of it seems to be the maths of liquefaction and the Joule-Kelvin effect which features the thermodynamic quantitiy of enthalpy.

Then glue on the next part of the mock up with a view to making it join up with the mental picture of the final product.
My source for the throttle is
"Heat and thermodynamic", Mark W Zemansky, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill.

Answer 13

OM-GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!! to hard.

Answer 14

@ANIMALOVER02 With a smile to you ... Too cold, more like.

Answer 15

Wow, after looking more into it, I have come to realize that the Fontus Device was a scam... Ugh, Now I am going to have to look for a new innovation to do my project on.

Any Ideas guys?

Answer 16

@518nad @Nnesha Do you guys know anything?

I need to find some sort of new innovation that has been created that uses physics law and mathematical formulas that i can elaborate upon in my research paper.

Answer 17

@IrishBoy123 your demolition job on dyson et al and fur coats seems to have hit home ! problem is that @iTz_Sid has still got a problem, even though he's "eliminated something from his enquiries". Tortuous business this, eh Holmes ?

@iTz_Sid There is, I believe, some very active research going on in the fields of GRAPHENE, and the use of NANOPARTICLES - ferromagnetic ones - to "fry" (my interpretation and may not be accurate) cancer tumours in situ. I have an associate who used to witter on about these things whilst he looked for "investments" for, I guess, his MBA "investment portfolio" to go into "nice cufflinks speak".

Answer 18

This is meant to be "light hearted" ... if sci tech can ever be so described ...
In the UK, Her Majesty's Government's Prime Minister (with me so far ?) has "decided" to build a new aircraft runway at London Heathrow airport. Much, of course, to the howls of anyone on the aircrafts' flight paths.
London is a pretty congested city - it crams as much hardware as it can into as small a space as it can find to MAKE MONEY.
So the "idea" is to further tangle up London by building this runway. Because of space limitations (poss similar to those in New York), the planes are going to have to be trafficked over a probably very heavily congested motorwary. Nicknamed the "longest car park in UK", the M25 was actually possibly congested before it was actually built. Money again.
So, to squeeze quite few aircraft into this ALREADY tight fit, there's "talk" (there's an awful lot of talk actually) of building a RAMP, so that, I guess, the planes can get to a higher altitude more quickly, and, what make less noise ? Or even take off at all, in this limited space.
So, apart from the funny side of this (I'm almost giggling as I write this), there's a "pie in the sky" side to it too.
Model it as a project.
(Yes, I know ... no !)