Thursday, July 10, 2008
Piezoelectric Dance Floor
The BBC and others today report the opening of an allegedly eco-friendly night club in the Kings Cross area of London. This area used to be rather sleazy but is being gentrified, a process stimulated by the new high speed rail line to the channel tunnel. The night club features a piezoelectric dance floor which the owners say will harness the energy of the dancers to provide about half of the club’s electricity. Since the energy has to come from somewhere, I am wondering whether the dancers will tire more quickly than on a regular dance floor. If the idea catches on maybe it could be used in airports; those who eschew the moving walkways could help power those walkways for the less mobile, or more lazy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Dancers already cause a lot of deformation of dance floors - I've been a basement beneath a dance floor and actually been able to see it flex at a club in Toronto. If that existing energy can be harnessed, the difference to the dancers should be negligible, since that mechanical energy already exists, but is currently just adding to the universe's entropy.
Post a Comment