So for a while there was some missing footage in the video (my fault (well I blame Adobe but that's a different story!)) but thanks to the technical team at TH-cam I was able to slip the footage in there! Here's the time code if you want to see it: th-cam.com/video/O6waiEeXDGo/w-d-xo.html The sponsor is Blinkist: the first 100 people to go to blinkist.com/stevemould will get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. You'll also get 25% off if you want full membership.
PCR blocks run on the peltier effect. Saving poor techincal staff for about 30 years. The original process was using three water baths and youd move the reaction tubes between each. It also allows for incredibly precise temperature changes, 0.1 degrees. This allows us to read things like the difference in melting temperatures in DNA sequences, such as Alleles.
Why aren't we using this to convert the heat from reactors and power plants directly into electricity instead of converting the heat to mechanical energy and then to electrical? Is it too inefficient, costly, or difficult?
I'm an electronics engineer by trade for 15 years and i have never heard an explanation of this topic that is so clear and easy to understand. Very well done Steve!
@Dimdim 10:55 he calls electron spin as some sort of balls bouncing and gravity as some potential energy. He speaks as gravity is some kind of potential energy that make the balls bounce from the floor and when they reach on the table they lose kinetic energy but the problem is that in this example gravity is not the cause for balls to bounce on the floors or tables.
This os exactly why i explain complicated things in a british accent it never seems as patronizing her condescending when you use a British accent so I employed quite often
"Charming" and "relaxed" are two traits that a lot of science teachers need to develop - especially math teachers, those guys are often grave and serious as fuck.
I love how there are so many different "reversible" electric effects. Electricity moving magnetic field, electricity sound, electricity light, etc. Anything that can be a source of electricity can also be driven by electricity (are there any exceptions?). I suppose more generally, it's one form of energy another form, not just conversions involving electricity.
An important exception is very close to the topic of this video: Electricity -> heat. While the Seebeck effect can turn a Difference of heat into electricity, it can't undo a resistive heater and turn heat itself back into power, it can just move heat from one place to another (while adding heat itself from its own resistive heating) In fact the second law of thermodynamics is basically 'Generating heat is one-way.'
@@davidgro2000 If I understand correctly, you're saying that the Seebeck effect, and applications such as thermoelectric generators, can't remove heat from a system and convert it to electricity, only use differences in temperature to generate electricity? I can somewhat make sense of this, but it still confuses me at one point: if the difference of temperature is used to generate electricity, and we're not removing any heat from the system by doing so, what energy are we actually removing from the system and converting in a thermoelectric generator? My first thought is kinetic energy or the electrical potential that interplays with it similar to the ball analogy, but wouldn't removing kinetic energy from atoms/electrons result in removing heat?
@@Amynon1660 I think the way that works is that a heat difference is a "thermal potential" like the way a height difference is a "gravitational potential" Everything tends toward having a ground/sea-level altitude be flat unless acted on by other forces, and everything tends to equilibrium temperature the same way. - and energy can certainly be extracted from a difference of heights (Ever see how the weights in a grandfather clock work?) so this is similar by analogy. Also by analogy, removing heat from a thermal system would be like removing mass from a gravitational system: It would still have to exist, just somewhere outside the system, which would also make that depend on how you define the system (easy enough for a fridge or a house AC system)
Fun Fact: I was once called to a laboratory to investigate why a 30mA RCD was tripping. One of the Lab men pointed out that the tripping always coincided with the Temperature Gradient Kiln reaching 1000 ^C or so. Sure enough a bank of thermocouples had their negative terminal grounded which resulted in over 30 mA flowing to earth and 'confusing' the RCD.
That's a fun one! Why would they ground the thermocouple though, were they assuming 0V on the negative end and measuring positive to ground? (it surprises me because I feel like you were dealing with big/important/precise stuff?)
@@cheaterman49 Yes mate, correct, a temp gradient kiln had 9 zones with around 10^C difference/zone, this was to test the best firing temp for glaze or colour on pottery ware.
@@Rani-mt7dj In the UK a Residual Current Device looks for an imbalance in the Live and Neutral conductors at the mains supply board thus, with the Neutral grounded as standard, more than 30mA injected to ground by the combined thermocouples tripped the RCD.
I dont know much on the topic, but I will say that I do know of grounded thermocouples. I've had to change them out because they're not compatible on the devices I'm installing for work. Not sure if they function all that differently or not... I guess this video may have sparked a google research rabbithole for me.
As a plumber for years, that was the best explication of a thermocoupler and thermopile I've ever seen, explaining why it works, and how it effects the gas control valve
Ah, glad to know it isn't just my Chromecast crapping out again. No worries, these things happen. Thanks for putting together such a great explanation regardless! Your work is very appreciated!
@@strain121 The electrical resistance depends on 2 things: The Dimensions of the conductor and the Coefficient of resistivity of the conductor, which depends purely on temperature, not if it's molten or not.
That whole idea of catching electricity in a loop is one I remember wondering about a lot when I was younger. Also glad Electroboom got a shoutout! It's nice having this channel explain the details behind how things work, then his to show practical applications (and ways to get hurt while using them)
The thing about gas boilers absolutely blew my mind. I've ALWAYS wondered why you had to press the button for almost entire minutes for the thing to actually go. Thank you sir
Thanks Steve. I’ve used the Peltier and Seebeck effects in engineering for years without understanding the energy distribution at the atomic levels. Now I have a basic understanding of the physics. Much appreciated!
Quite often I click on your videos thinking: "what a boring topic." But every time you seem to make it so interesting and I get lots of insights into my daily experiences because of your videos. Thank you so much! I'm an engineer and I love to understand the small principles behind certain mechanisms: quartz watch, boiler, ...
Been a maintenance person for years and never knew exactly how they worked either. Always thought you had to hold the pilot switch in to get the air out of the system which now that I think about it makes no sense. Thx for the info
Actually there's a way to make the current go round and round forever: superconductors! (it won't go round forever by the way; only until you keep the material cool at temperatures near the absolute zero)
0:05 I remember as a kid I visited my friend who had some fancy set to make your circuit and such a nice wire. So I found a multi-plug thing on a cord that I suspect was unplugged (spoiler alert, the unplugged cable was from different one I did not see) and made the nicely U-shaped wire that would fit into and I wondered if it is possible to put it inside... And it was, the light started to glow, the lights were dark....in the whole building, not just my friend's apartment, so luckily for me no one knew I was responsible. I swear the wire was much shorter after my experiment. Oh yeah and I know I was lucky nothing happened to me.
Thermocouples fall into that magical category of electrical devices, along with strain gauges, piezo transducers and crystal oscillators - they sound like they should be really complex devices, but are ultimately just pieces of metal/whatever stuck together or shaped in specific patterns. No integrated circuits or code.
I think that they're also great for tv technobabble because they sound esoteric enough that people who don't care won't care, while also being simple enough that a decent writer will be able to slot them together in ways that sort of make sense to people who do.
For 2 years now I'm working as a lab technician and last year we obtained a ''Graphic recorder'' which uses thermocouples. It's nice to finally understand the mechanism of the entire process through your explanations, since we use the same twisted thermocouple method to track temperature changes and record them into a graph when doing casting tests with our resins. Thanks a lot!
The thermoelectric effect! I watched ElectroBOOM’s video where he used a component that demonstrated the thermoelectric effect, but I never understood how it worked. Now we have you explaining it for us!!
The thumbnail kind of suggested to me (in my thoughts for a moment) that this video was about perpetual motion. But boy I'm glad I clicked, learnt a lot. Thanks for the details and the terminologies.. awesome work.
I am so thankful to all these people making learning easier for peeps like us, who depend only on the internet for a better understanding. I literally get depressed with every passing day seeing the condition of teaching in our institutions. Its literally so bad, it can drive you crazy. May you all get all the success you deserve. Kudos to your efforts.
I’ve known these principles vaguely over the years. Your explanation was amazing. In addition , you never appear to be reading a script in any of your videos which leads me to believe that you really know your subject matter and didn’t just learn about it just to make a video.
I've a project I want to do one day with the Peltier effect : Use a Peltier module between a CPU and the radiator to increase the cooling efficiency + thermal sensor and humidity sensor to calculate the dew point and avoid condensation on the motherboard. Because an offline Peltier module is a thermal conductor, when it's off, it should be sufficient to connect the CPU to the radiator and just wait for the temperature to rise a bit before switching it on again when far enough of the dew point. I had these idea after seeing people using it on a CPU with hydrophobic spray on the motherboard and the ice getting all over the place. But for now I don't have a radiator+socket that let me put something between them (probably one with screw may work or I need to find someone that can increase the size of the attachments for the radiator)
@@bosstowndynamics5488 it's for that reason I plan to test that on a 2003 motherboard with an unlocked CPU of that time so I can test the efficiency and temperature dissipation at different rate and power and see if it's something I can do on a newer setup. Don't forget that the Peltier will not be always ON and that a controller will stop it before the dew point. I can also monitor the radiator temperature and stop the Peltier module if the temperature is going to high
@@Tutul_ You ask him if he is trolling when he tells you a way to actually pull that off... after you asked about doing it a way that is nearly impossible? Did you do any basic calculations? How much heat do you want to remove from the CPU? At what temperature is the CPU at that point? What is the ambient temperature? How efficient is it / how much energy does the peltier need when it has to move this heat with these two temperatures on its sides? Now you know how much heat has to be moved away from the peltier. How are you going to get that heat away? As a next step, after doing that and thinking about it: Notice that you would have to cool the peltiers hot side to ambient temperature, so the cooler would have to be absurdly good to cool it that far down (~impossible). So now you have a new temperature much higher than ambient on the hot side of the peltier. What is the efficiency now to move the CPU-heat at these 2 temperatures? How much heat is it on the hot side now? etc.
@@leocurious9919 what reason exactly would require the hot side have to be at ambient temp? You have missed some crucial parts of this idea. I came to the comments for this exact idea, and it is definitely possible.
Hey Steve, thanks for linking the Alpha Phoenix channel - didn't know about it and am very fascinated. Also, once again a very informative video of yours!
Brilliant! I have so much respect for people who can explain something. I really think that if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it.
As a kid, back when LEGO had metal tracks for their trains, I stacked the little power-connectors on top of each other to "charge them" in the hopes I could run the train without the power cord.
"where to put into less anthropomorphical words..." Steve is one of my favorite science teachers for a variety of reasons but this especially. Something about my brain always gets incredibly hung up when people use anthropomorphical attributions and it distracts me deeply... But Steve always calls out that usage in such a way that it totally disarms me and and I don't get stuck. It's maybe my brain is broken in just that way, but it's always appreciated
That thing that Steve tries right at the start .. where he puts current in a loop and joins the ends together .. Well, I’ve been doing that successfully for years! That’s how superconductive magnets work, for example in MRI systems in hospitals. You “break” the link by warming it up a little and then put a LOT of current (typically several hundred amps) into the superconductive coil, and then re-join the ends by allowing the link to become superconductive again. And presto! As long as the coil stays at liquid helium temperatures, the current will flow forever. And the magnetic field will stay there forever!. Strange but true.
@@David-lr2vi Exactly! Most people who buy party balloons don’t realise that the helium in their balloon will actually drift off into space after the balloon bursts and be lost forever from planet earth. At some time in the future, not only no more MRI, but also no more Cern! A sad thought.
Happy to see the AlphaPhoenix shout out! Love that guys stuff and I've always been astonished now little attention he gets, so here's hoping you give him a little boost in viewers :)
Isn't "trapping electrons in a loop" how the powerful magnets in an MRI machine work? It's a loop of conductor bathed in liquid nitrogen so that they're cold enough to "super conduct" when the system is energised a massive amount of current is fed through momentarily then the current can be turned off and as long as you can keep it cool then that current continues to circulate.
I believe that's the case but then you're also taught in electronics that all points along an ideal zero-resistance wire are at the same voltage, so how can you get a current flowing in a zero-resistance conductor if the whole thing is at the same voltage? You need a difference in voltage in order for current to flow.
@@leomadero562 It flows very close to the speed of light, the problem is it flows in all directions so if you don't have an external voltage pushing it in one direction then it tends to quickly spread out across a whole conductor.
Curiosity got the better of me so I looked it up. Basically the MRI magnet is a huge inductor (like a transformer) so you can short circuit the windings and the current will continue to flow for a few months because like any inductor, it is constantly interacting with the magnetic field and it's this that allows the current to continue to flow after power is removed. A simplification is that the current flow pushes the magnetic field (then once it has spread out through the whole conductor it stops flowing as the whole wire is now at the same voltage), but then with no current flowing there's nothing pushing on the magnetic field any more so it collapses back to where it started which induces a voltage in the wire making the current flow again, then because the current is flowing it pushes on the magnetic field again, and it's this back and forth between flowing current and a magnetic field that allows the current to persist in the MRI magnet for months instead of immediately stopping when the power is removed.
I remember last year in school we had a bit about thermocouples and their names/uses and ranges of measurement. The book talked very lightly about the Seebeck effect. Thanks a lot
I must say thankyou. You have potentially explained why the gas heater in my hallway randomly goes out. I was not aware those heaters have a thermal pile, or even what such a thing was, until now. Thankyou again.
every close up image of every outer planet and moon and comet you have ever seen was captured and sent back to Earth because of this, the Seebeck effect, and some hot lumps of plutonium to make it go. thank you plutonium ❤️☢️⚡
hey was about to research this, youtube is scary sometimes, pretty cool! unfortunately the efficiency of this is very low but its a no moving parts so thats good
V = IR dawg, if there's a current, there's a voltage. Don't be pedantic when it literally wouldn't change anything about the quality of the explanation.
I was reading a book to my kid about spacecraft and it mentioned that the generators on Voyager I and II use heat from the decay of plutonium to heat wire made of different metals to produce electricity. I always wondered how a radioactive source could make a small sustained electrical source and you video describes it perfectly.
Thanks so much for making a video on this! It is a really fascinating principle. I wanted to say that the master volume on your video was extremely low this time. Even with my volume turned all the way up it's hard to hear without headphones. I am familiar with the peltier effect from My friend who works at the railroad says they use them to power the equipment in the event of a power out. That's why you see propane tanks alongside of train tracks. My parents also have some ice chest coolers that are electric, plug them into the 12 volt outlet on the car and it creates about a 25f difference in temperature to the ambient
Me: Hears Seebeck effect My metalhead brain: Sacrifice unto Sebek by Nile Conclusion: oh s that song was about generating electricity... Makes sense The Seebeck effect is so metal!!
@@Karreth if you are referring to 4:35 for the +- thing, it actually makes sense in this case, because we are talking about a current inducing a voltage not the other way around. the electrons aren't moving due to an abundance of electrons as we are used to, but due to heating. the original source of the electrons is in this case positively charged as weird as that might seem.
It's amazing how all these material properties that transfer energy from/to electrical energy are reversible. The Piezoelectric effect is reversible, you can generate electricity by turning a motor, and there's this effect that you just discussed. Physics truly is amazing.
Wow man, i knew how peltier works for like a decade at least, but i still learned so much about thermocouples and stuff that its a whole new dimension of understanding. Thanks for the experience
I love your explanations! You put them in a very real world way and their importance for how they make many technologies we take for granted work. You’re videos are amazing and I can’t begin to express my appreciation! Keep doing what you do, and I look forward to all of your videos!
This topic made things make so much more sense to me about why they react/work the way they do. I mean, everyone knows that you had to wait a couple of seconds when starting a gasburner (boiler, heater or stove) but i didn't know exactly why it helped. I do now! Thanks Steve! Super topic! This is a real diamond that i didn't know i wanted to know, but i know now, this is a real good thing to know how!
So for a while there was some missing footage in the video (my fault (well I blame Adobe but that's a different story!)) but thanks to the technical team at TH-cam I was able to slip the footage in there! Here's the time code if you want to see it: th-cam.com/video/O6waiEeXDGo/w-d-xo.html
The sponsor is Blinkist: the first 100 people to go to blinkist.com/stevemould will get unlimited access for 1 week to try it out. You'll also get 25% off if you want full membership.
PCR blocks run on the peltier effect. Saving poor techincal staff for about 30 years. The original process was using three water baths and youd move the reaction tubes between each. It also allows for incredibly precise temperature changes, 0.1 degrees. This allows us to read things like the difference in melting temperatures in DNA sequences, such as Alleles.
Nit picky but the electrons move from neg to pos.
Please make a video on voltage
Why aren't we using this to convert the heat from reactors and power plants directly into electricity instead of converting the heat to mechanical energy and then to electrical? Is it too inefficient, costly, or difficult?
Where are the bouncy balls???
I'm an electronics engineer by trade for 15 years and i have never heard an explanation of this topic that is so clear and easy to understand. Very well done Steve!
Explain to me what is gravity theory doing in electronics?
@Dimdim
10:55 he calls electron spin as some sort of balls bouncing and gravity as some potential energy. He speaks as gravity is some kind of potential energy that make the balls bounce from the floor and when they reach on the table they lose kinetic energy but the problem is that in this example gravity is not the cause for balls to bounce on the floors or tables.
Are you still interested to get an answer? I can try to explain
@@abj9121 i think you're confused. gravity has very little to do with the thermoelectric effect
@@alpacastan7788
And where did i said gravity has anythin with thermoelecteic effect or that its even some real existing shite?
I admire this man. He does so well explaining in a charming and relaxing way. 🙂
He really is one of the best and the topics are always so interesting!
This os exactly why i explain complicated things in a british accent it never seems as patronizing her condescending when you use a British accent so I employed quite often
For real, I actually learned
"Charming" and "relaxed" are two traits that a lot of science teachers need to develop - especially math teachers, those guys are often grave and serious as fuck.
Doesn't hurt that he's rather charming in a kind of mad scientist sort of way. Also he's got a killer smile
The bouncy balls are of course in 1:1 scale, so you will need an exceptionally high resolution monitor to see the effect.
haha, sounds like a perfect excuse for putting in the wrong shot :D
The bouncy balls don’t emit light. They’re invisible.
I replayed that 3-4x to make sure I’m not losing my marbles
I love how there are so many different "reversible" electric effects. Electricity moving magnetic field, electricity sound, electricity light, etc. Anything that can be a source of electricity can also be driven by electricity (are there any exceptions?).
I suppose more generally, it's one form of energy another form, not just conversions involving electricity.
An important exception is very close to the topic of this video: Electricity -> heat. While the Seebeck effect can turn a Difference of heat into electricity, it can't undo a resistive heater and turn heat itself back into power, it can just move heat from one place to another (while adding heat itself from its own resistive heating) In fact the second law of thermodynamics is basically 'Generating heat is one-way.'
@@davidgro2000 If I understand correctly, you're saying that the Seebeck effect, and applications such as thermoelectric generators, can't remove heat from a system and convert it to electricity, only use differences in temperature to generate electricity? I can somewhat make sense of this, but it still confuses me at one point: if the difference of temperature is used to generate electricity, and we're not removing any heat from the system by doing so, what energy are we actually removing from the system and converting in a thermoelectric generator? My first thought is kinetic energy or the electrical potential that interplays with it similar to the ball analogy, but wouldn't removing kinetic energy from atoms/electrons result in removing heat?
@@Amynon1660 I think the way that works is that a heat difference is a "thermal potential" like the way a height difference is a "gravitational potential" Everything tends toward having a ground/sea-level altitude be flat unless acted on by other forces, and everything tends to equilibrium temperature the same way. - and energy can certainly be extracted from a difference of heights (Ever see how the weights in a grandfather clock work?) so this is similar by analogy. Also by analogy, removing heat from a thermal system would be like removing mass from a gravitational system: It would still have to exist, just somewhere outside the system, which would also make that depend on how you define the system (easy enough for a fridge or a house AC system)
@@davidgro2000I was going to mention delta T
Fun Fact: I was once called to a laboratory to investigate why a 30mA RCD was tripping. One of the Lab men pointed out that the tripping always coincided with the Temperature Gradient Kiln reaching 1000 ^C or so. Sure enough a bank of thermocouples had their negative terminal grounded which resulted in over 30 mA flowing to earth and 'confusing' the RCD.
That's a fun one! Why would they ground the thermocouple though, were they assuming 0V on the negative end and measuring positive to ground? (it surprises me because I feel like you were dealing with big/important/precise stuff?)
@@cheaterman49 Yes mate, correct, a temp gradient kiln had 9 zones with around 10^C difference/zone, this was to test the best firing temp for glaze or colour on pottery ware.
I don't understand
@@Rani-mt7dj In the UK a Residual Current Device looks for an imbalance in the Live and Neutral conductors at the mains supply board thus, with the Neutral grounded as standard, more than 30mA injected to ground by the combined thermocouples tripped the RCD.
I dont know much on the topic, but I will say that I do know of grounded thermocouples. I've had to change them out because they're not compatible on the devices I'm installing for work. Not sure if they function all that differently or not... I guess this video may have sparked a google research rabbithole for me.
As a plumber for years, that was the best explication of a thermocoupler and thermopile I've ever seen, explaining why it works, and how it effects the gas control valve
Looks like you used the wrong take at 10:44. I don't see any balls in the video.
It does seem to be a photo
Damn, that's annoying. I was really pleased with that shot too. This one was a rush to get out on time so I missed it :(
@@SteveMould i thought my brain was malfunctioning
Ah, glad to know it isn't just my Chromecast crapping out again. No worries, these things happen. Thanks for putting together such a great explanation regardless! Your work is very appreciated!
@@SteveMould would make sense to upload just that part unlisted just to show it off
5:37 "the voltage you can get from this is much greater as you can see here" _multimeter set to Current_
True, but if R is the same we then know V is higher.
@Spruce
No, we know that either V is higher -or- that R is lower - but not which one.
@@drlegendre solid's R doesn't change by heat. Unless it's molten.
@@strain121 It changes with T, though. Nonetheless, for alloys the increase of R with T is negligible for small ranges of T.
@@strain121 The electrical resistance depends on 2 things: The Dimensions of the conductor and the Coefficient of resistivity of the conductor, which depends purely on temperature, not if it's molten or not.
From what I understood (cuz I'm german) I think this is the best explanation for those two effects I've heard so far great video
I spent so much time wondering how the regulation of my gas supply worked without an electronic device! Thank you, it's much clearer now :)
That whole idea of catching electricity in a loop is one I remember wondering about a lot when I was younger. Also glad Electroboom got a shoutout! It's nice having this channel explain the details behind how things work, then his to show practical applications (and ways to get hurt while using them)
The thing about gas boilers absolutely blew my mind. I've ALWAYS wondered why you had to press the button for almost entire minutes for the thing to actually go. Thank you sir
Crazy. I was literally just watching a 5-part series yesterday comparing the performance of different Peltier coolers.
Do you remember what the series was called? I'm interested in building a project with them.
Thanks Steve. I’ve used the Peltier and Seebeck effects in engineering for years without understanding the energy distribution at the atomic levels. Now I have a basic understanding of the physics. Much appreciated!
The “Sea of Electrons” analogy is the E&M version of “Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” in cellular biology
XD
@Cj Mitochondria is the organelle in eukaryotic cells responsible for generating chemical energy (ATP).
@@MCSteve_ and so much more
lmao yes
@A Fox Called Scrappy Tail they didn't get all that brain by sharing
Quite often I click on your videos thinking: "what a boring topic." But every time you seem to make it so interesting and I get lots of insights into my daily experiences because of your videos. Thank you so much! I'm an engineer and I love to understand the small principles behind certain mechanisms: quartz watch, boiler, ...
Alternative ways of creating current and/or voltage in a loop is one of my favorite topics, so thank you very much for this demonstration Steve!
You earned a like just for decoding the mystical boiler pilot for me.
@@MuddasirShah what?
Been a maintenance person for years and never knew exactly how they worked either. Always thought you had to hold the pilot switch in to get the air out of the system which now that I think about it makes no sense. Thx for the info
Actually there's a way to make the current go round and round forever: superconductors! (it won't go round forever by the way; only until you keep the material cool at temperatures near the absolute zero)
I actually wanted to say exactly the same :D
Wanted to say the same. Used in NMR and MRI (in hostpitals) equipment to create a strong magnetic field.
@@mailokirmes4350 I wanted to reply the same to this comment..
To continue this comment train, I also wanted to say the same. Superconducting magnets are awesome!
For more info :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnet
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_current
This was great, I've always wondered how temperature and electricity were connected, thank you.
This was extremely informative thank you! I played with peltiers as a kid, but now I finally understand how they work internally. Thanks!
Learned about this in my Industrial Automation course! Thanks Craig Wilson! 😁👍🏻
0:05 I remember as a kid I visited my friend who had some fancy set to make your circuit and such a nice wire. So I found a multi-plug thing on a cord that I suspect was unplugged (spoiler alert, the unplugged cable was from different one I did not see) and made the nicely U-shaped wire that would fit into and I wondered if it is possible to put it inside... And it was, the light started to glow, the lights were dark....in the whole building, not just my friend's apartment, so luckily for me no one knew I was responsible. I swear the wire was much shorter after my experiment. Oh yeah and I know I was lucky nothing happened to me.
I love how you learn and teach about everything! I have a similar philosophy about life. Cheers from Florida.
-Florida Man
Thermocouples fall into that magical category of electrical devices, along with strain gauges, piezo transducers and crystal oscillators - they sound like they should be really complex devices, but are ultimately just pieces of metal/whatever stuck together or shaped in specific patterns. No integrated circuits or code.
I think that they're also great for tv technobabble because they sound esoteric enough that people who don't care won't care, while also being simple enough that a decent writer will be able to slot them together in ways that sort of make sense to people who do.
For 2 years now I'm working as a lab technician and last year we obtained a ''Graphic recorder'' which uses thermocouples. It's nice to finally understand the mechanism of the entire process through your explanations, since we use the same twisted thermocouple method to track temperature changes and record them into a graph when doing casting tests with our resins. Thanks a lot!
The thermoelectric effect! I watched ElectroBOOM’s video where he used a component that demonstrated the thermoelectric effect, but I never understood how it worked. Now we have you explaining it for us!!
The thumbnail kind of suggested to me (in my thoughts for a moment) that this video was about perpetual motion. But boy I'm glad I clicked, learnt a lot. Thanks for the details and the terminologies.. awesome work.
Really interesting video, and great to hear an ElectroBOOM shoutout!
I am so thankful to all these people making learning easier for peeps like us, who depend only on the internet for a better understanding. I literally get depressed with every passing day seeing the condition of teaching in our institutions. Its literally so bad, it can drive you crazy. May you all get all the success you deserve. Kudos to your efforts.
I love your videos. Finding out the science around objects so readily available in our everyday life is fascinating!
I’ve known these principles vaguely over the years. Your explanation was amazing. In addition , you never appear to be reading a script in any of your videos which leads me to believe that you really know your subject matter and didn’t just learn about it just to make a video.
Wow, thank you for finally explaining how a peltier device works, I've always been confused by that!
I've a project I want to do one day with the Peltier effect : Use a Peltier module between a CPU and the radiator to increase the cooling efficiency + thermal sensor and humidity sensor to calculate the dew point and avoid condensation on the motherboard. Because an offline Peltier module is a thermal conductor, when it's off, it should be sufficient to connect the CPU to the radiator and just wait for the temperature to rise a bit before switching it on again when far enough of the dew point. I had these idea after seeing people using it on a CPU with hydrophobic spray on the motherboard and the ice getting all over the place. But for now I don't have a radiator+socket that let me put something between them (probably one with screw may work or I need to find someone that can increase the size of the attachments for the radiator)
@@bosstowndynamics5488 it's for that reason I plan to test that on a 2003 motherboard with an unlocked CPU of that time so I can test the efficiency and temperature dissipation at different rate and power and see if it's something I can do on a newer setup. Don't forget that the Peltier will not be always ON and that a controller will stop it before the dew point. I can also monitor the radiator temperature and stop the Peltier module if the temperature is going to high
@@Tutul_ how about using a real cooling system from a fridge?!
@@PeterAbt it's big, contain a toxic substance, need a compressor that do a lot of noise. I'm not sure if you were serious or just trolling
@@Tutul_ You ask him if he is trolling when he tells you a way to actually pull that off... after you asked about doing it a way that is nearly impossible?
Did you do any basic calculations? How much heat do you want to remove from the CPU?
At what temperature is the CPU at that point?
What is the ambient temperature?
How efficient is it / how much energy does the peltier need when it has to move this heat with these two temperatures on its sides?
Now you know how much heat has to be moved away from the peltier. How are you going to get that heat away?
As a next step, after doing that and thinking about it:
Notice that you would have to cool the peltiers hot side to ambient temperature, so the cooler would have to be absurdly good to cool it that far down (~impossible). So now you have a new temperature much higher than ambient on the hot side of the peltier. What is the efficiency now to move the CPU-heat at these 2 temperatures? How much heat is it on the hot side now? etc.
@@leocurious9919 what reason exactly would require the hot side have to be at ambient temp? You have missed some crucial parts of this idea. I came to the comments for this exact idea, and it is definitely possible.
Closer orbitals are just electromagnetism's “down”-literally.
I always learn something new or more in-depth every time I watch this channel.
Hey Steve, thanks for linking the Alpha Phoenix channel - didn't know about it and am very fascinated.
Also, once again a very informative video of yours!
Even as a mechanical engineer, I’ve never understood why I hate lighting pilot lights. Now I do. I love this channel!!!
The Seebeck effect, combined with some radioactive heat source, has powered everything from spacecraft to lighthouses in Russia.
They have RTG lighthouses in Russia?
I'll bet Iceland has some version of that as well, except geothermal!
Need to re-watch this, not because I didn't understand it, but because it was such an awesome explanation of this phenomenon!!
Very clear and graphical description of these quantum effects. Thank, you!
Brilliant! I have so much respect for people who can explain something. I really think that if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it.
Also you can make current run arround by linearly increasing the magnetic field through the loop
Every single video you make is absolute quality content. You're very good at explaining things in an easy to understand way.
As a kid, back when LEGO had metal tracks for their trains, I stacked the little power-connectors on top of each other to "charge them" in the hopes I could run the train without the power cord.
Of course you *can* catch magnetism in a loop... bet steve could make some cool demos showing that.
Great video Steve, the bit about boilers got me thinking of another one of their interesting features...flame rectification! Maybe a future video?
The first time I watched this video, I didn't actually understand it quite well. Now I do. It's amazing!
The ol' invisible bouncy balls... ? 10:37
Why can't you guys see he balls. It's super tiny. Icncreadentesolutionto4kandwath
@@blackburn3r what happened to space key at the end?lol.
Duh! They're atomic scale! ;·)
@@grndkntrl using special enhancement technologies they are visible now!
Hey! Great video Steve! Really appreciate it!! Also, at 8:30 I think you mean electrons, not atoms.
I finally got to understand Thermoelectrics, thank you.
"where to put into less anthropomorphical words..."
Steve is one of my favorite science teachers for a variety of reasons but this especially. Something about my brain always gets incredibly hung up when people use anthropomorphical attributions and it distracts me deeply... But Steve always calls out that usage in such a way that it totally disarms me and and I don't get stuck. It's maybe my brain is broken in just that way, but it's always appreciated
That thing that Steve tries right at the start .. where he puts current in a loop and joins the ends together .. Well, I’ve been doing that successfully for years! That’s how superconductive magnets work, for example in MRI systems in hospitals. You “break” the link by warming it up a little and then put a LOT of current (typically several hundred amps) into the superconductive coil, and then re-join the ends by allowing the link to become superconductive again. And presto! As long as the coil stays at liquid helium temperatures, the current will flow forever. And the magnetic field will stay there forever!. Strange but true.
And we waste helium in party balloons when the world has sfa helium! When the helium runs out no more MRI machines!
@@David-lr2vi Exactly! Most people who buy party balloons don’t realise that the helium in their balloon will actually drift off into space after the balloon bursts and be lost forever from planet earth. At some time in the future, not only no more MRI, but also no more Cern! A sad thought.
Happy to see the AlphaPhoenix shout out! Love that guys stuff and I've always been astonished now little attention he gets, so here's hoping you give him a little boost in viewers :)
Isn't "trapping electrons in a loop" how the powerful magnets in an MRI machine work? It's a loop of conductor bathed in liquid nitrogen so that they're cold enough to "super conduct" when the system is energised a massive amount of current is fed through momentarily then the current can be turned off and as long as you can keep it cool then that current continues to circulate.
I believe that's the case but then you're also taught in electronics that all points along an ideal zero-resistance wire are at the same voltage, so how can you get a current flowing in a zero-resistance conductor if the whole thing is at the same voltage? You need a difference in voltage in order for current to flow.
Well electricity cant flow at the speed of light can it? Can it? Idk dont got a degree in electricity
@@leomadero562 It flows very close to the speed of light, the problem is it flows in all directions so if you don't have an external voltage pushing it in one direction then it tends to quickly spread out across a whole conductor.
Curiosity got the better of me so I looked it up. Basically the MRI magnet is a huge inductor (like a transformer) so you can short circuit the windings and the current will continue to flow for a few months because like any inductor, it is constantly interacting with the magnetic field and it's this that allows the current to continue to flow after power is removed.
A simplification is that the current flow pushes the magnetic field (then once it has spread out through the whole conductor it stops flowing as the whole wire is now at the same voltage), but then with no current flowing there's nothing pushing on the magnetic field any more so it collapses back to where it started which induces a voltage in the wire making the current flow again, then because the current is flowing it pushes on the magnetic field again, and it's this back and forth between flowing current and a magnetic field that allows the current to persist in the MRI magnet for months instead of immediately stopping when the power is removed.
I remember last year in school we had a bit about thermocouples and their names/uses and ranges of measurement. The book talked very lightly about the Seebeck effect. Thanks a lot
"The Atomic Scale Jiggle" sounds like a good name for a very silly-looking dance.
Is that when you have an old person do the very small dance moves to upbeat music? Like the rubbing fists together one?
@Mycel Yes, but you wanted an atomic scale one. So you need a "boomer" doing it for peak atomic
It's the only dance you do while not dancing. 😁
Or a Queen cover band
That dance would be the equivalent of the "animation" of the balls falling onto the floor/table: Not much to see in it.
I must say thankyou. You have potentially explained why the gas heater in my hallway randomly goes out. I was not aware those heaters have a thermal pile, or even what such a thing was, until now. Thankyou again.
every close up image of every outer planet and moon and comet you have ever seen was captured and sent back to Earth because of this, the Seebeck effect, and some hot lumps of plutonium to make it go. thank you plutonium ❤️☢️⚡
It's amazing what science can do isn't it.
Amazing analogy Steve! I love your anthropomorphism of objects in your definitions to make these complex concepts clear!
hey was about to research this, youtube is scary sometimes, pretty cool!
unfortunately the efficiency of this is very low but its a no moving parts so thats good
Finally someone cleared all of my confusion.. Thanks Steve😊
The neighbours kids annoyed me by loudly bouncing in the yeard. Well lets just say 11:49
I didn't understand that both wires do the same thing, thanks for the usual high quality content!
"The electrons on the wires go round and round, round and round, round and round. The electrons on the wires go round and round, all over toooown"
You have a good patience and perciverance. You are great... if you have made this video yourself....
5:40 "the voltage you can get from it is much greater, as you can see here"
...
proceeds to show us amperage^^
V = IR dawg, if there's a current, there's a voltage.
Don't be pedantic when it literally wouldn't change anything about the quality of the explanation.
@@tissuepaper9962, what if it's a thermistor with a negative coefficient?
@@JNCressey But it isn't? If it were, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
I was reading a book to my kid about spacecraft and it mentioned that the generators on Voyager I and II use heat from the decay of plutonium to heat wire made of different metals to produce electricity. I always wondered how a radioactive source could make a small sustained electrical source and you video describes it perfectly.
Steve: "Free moving electrons"
Me watching this at 2 AM: "...only 3??"
Only three electrons can move freely in fhe entire universe, how we get electricity is a mystery which science cannot explain
... walk into a bar
You sir are seriously talented in explanation. I learnt ALOT.
Go and check alpha phoenix, you will not dissapoint.
You stare directly into my soul, I can feel my sound getting sucked out.
When you go to show the "actual" bouncing balls, there's a shot of a table that has no balls in it :/ 10:38
No balls is better than blue balls.
Prehistoricman tell that to the jenners
Came here for this
There are, they are just incredibly small
Not anymore
Alpha Phoenix sent me here! Looking forward to more shout outs from the both of you. Loved the explanation!
The emperor's new bouncy balls :)
Best explanation of the Seebeck effect I've seen. Most discussions of thermocouples emphasize the junctions, which are beside the point. Nice.
Thanks so much for making a video on this! It is a really fascinating principle. I wanted to say that the master volume on your video was extremely low this time. Even with my volume turned all the way up it's hard to hear without headphones.
I am familiar with the peltier effect from My friend who works at the railroad says they use them to power the equipment in the event of a power out. That's why you see propane tanks alongside of train tracks.
My parents also have some ice chest coolers that are electric, plug them into the 12 volt outlet on the car and it creates about a 25f difference in temperature to the ambient
Me: Hears Seebeck effect
My metalhead brain: Sacrifice unto Sebek by Nile
Conclusion: oh s that song was about generating electricity... Makes sense
The Seebeck effect is so metal!!
Amazing demonstration with the copper wire and iron cable. I'm impressed
5:38 "the voltage you can get from it is much greater as you can see here" ... shows current on multimeter :p
Current is a function of voltage.
@@vonSachsenbach and resistance... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you're going to show a higher voltage, stick the DMM on voltage.
Between that, the electrons going from + to - and the wrong shot used for the bouncing balls, you can really tell this one was rushed, yeah.
@@Karreth if you are referring to 4:35 for the +- thing, it actually makes sense in this case, because we are talking about a current inducing a voltage not the other way around. the electrons aren't moving due to an abundance of electrons as we are used to, but due to heating. the original source of the electrons is in this case positively charged as weird as that might seem.
It's amazing how all these material properties that transfer energy from/to electrical energy are reversible. The Piezoelectric effect is reversible, you can generate electricity by turning a motor, and there's this effect that you just discussed.
Physics truly is amazing.
10:39 Are we supposed to see something there?
It's confirmed... People don't have imagination anymore.
You forgot to mention Tech Ingredients who have made arguably the best series of videos on the peltier effect on youtube.
Steve you're such a troll. Got me to rewatch a still frame twice.
rewatch it now! - you will be amazed! ;) 10:37
WHAT IS EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT i DON'T UNDERSTAND
Best explanation of the Seebeck effect I've ever heard. Such a great channel.
Whats you name
sneve mold
My name jeff
joe
seve suckyou
yes I'm going to **** this guy because he doesn't know the channel making a video
Your the only person that was able to explain the peltier effect in a way that makes sense to me.
Steve is so gosh-darn charming with just that perfect tinge of kooky to make him utterly endearing, I want this man to have his own daily show
I just found this channel 🐿️ and I cannot get over how good it is 🤯
Me too 🐫 I mean, it is really good 🤯
Love the video. Excellent description! You are truly a modern day Feynman!
I love the way I walk away from your videos having an intuitive understanding of the topic!
Just saw your video in my suggestion and i immediately subscribed 🤤 .
Wow man, i knew how peltier works for like a decade at least, but i still learned so much about thermocouples and stuff that its a whole new dimension of understanding. Thanks for the experience
I even opend it up in reference to the peltier element, what a legend
I love your explanations! You put them in a very real world way and their importance for how they make many technologies we take for granted work. You’re videos are amazing and I can’t begin to express my appreciation! Keep doing what you do, and I look forward to all of your videos!
Great video! I finally understand how peltier works. Atoms are freaking amazing!
that's a surprisingly accurate explanation considering how handwavy it is
This topic made things make so much more sense to me about why they react/work the way they do. I mean, everyone knows that you had to wait a couple of seconds when starting a gasburner (boiler, heater or stove) but i didn't know exactly why it helped. I do now! Thanks Steve! Super topic! This is a real diamond that i didn't know i wanted to know, but i know now, this is a real good thing to know how!
This has confused me for years. Now I get it. Thanks