Wouldn't It Be Nice

Wouldn't It be nice to go to a hotel room and bring an inflatable sofa with you and a Roku express stick. You go for a short break, then later in the day you inflate the sofa and watch a movie on netflix or something like that. 

I was looking at all the inflatable sofas that are available online. I won't buy any. I just look. I brought my Roku express stick with me to a hotel once and it worked. There was a spare hdmi socket and usb socket on the side of the TV in the hotel room. The TV in the hotel had live TV channels but with my Roku stick I was able to use my Netflix account on their TV and watch a movie. I could bring my Nintendo switch with me as well and play computer games on the hotel TV. 

The advantage of having inflatable sofas is you can deflate them and store them in a small space. They would take the same space as a few pairs of trousers. 

Easter Thoughts

It's good Friday tomorrow. Good Friday is a commemoration of the death of Jesus, he laid down his own life to make a way for people to have everlasting life. In this world, most people can't even lay down a simple greeting but Jesus lay down his life so he could stand in our place. He was resurrected on a Sunday. 

I had those thoughts in my head mixed together with other thoughts. I was thinking about the easiest way to work out percentages. If they take 15% away from the price, I think to myself that 100 -15 is 85. If they move the decimal place to the front of the result you get 0.85. You can then use that number as a constant on your calculater. 15% off £2 = 2 × 0.85 = £1.70. If I want to add the percent I just move the decimal place forward two places and add 1. 

£2 + 15% = 2 × 1.15 = £2.30. That is the easiest way to work out percentages in my view. That is how I use my calculator most often. 

Another thought I had was to go on Google Maps and poke the train stations with my finger to see a list of the all the destinations of the trains. I wanted to see if any of the nearby train stations have trains that are heading somewhere interesting. On Google maps, when you click on train stations and bus stations, you get a real-time transport table showing when the vehicle is coming and where they're going to. I also used Google maps to see if there was a short cut, a short way to get about. None of the train stations where I live take you directly to the coast as far as I know. You would need to make more than one stops at hub stations to do that. 

Tilted floating vehicle

One thing I am greatful for is freedom to create, If I was living in poverty then I wouldn't even be able to create this blog because I wouldn't have a phone and internet connection. 

One idea that pops up in my head often is the thought that perhaps there is an easier way to create a magnetic levitation transport vehicle like a small tram. I think that if an array of permanent magnets were nested in a frame at a 45° angle and sheets of graphite were placed on a rig above the magnets also at 45° angle then they would be pushed upwards. I drew what was inside my mind. 

The two triangular shaped structures on the sides are rows of magnets that are 'North polarised' the triangular shaped rig floating at end is graphite plates that are tilted at 45° angle. The graphite mirrors the magnetic fields that pass into it and cause it to be pushed away. There are two forces acting on the rig in the middle, gravity pulling it down and the magnetic fields pushing it away at 45° angle. The two forces cancel eachother out at the edge of the magnetic fields, so it just floats in the middle and never quite touches the surface. 

The idea is so simple that I feel like I could almost build a model myself. The idea is that some of the friction and grinding is eliminated so the parts don't wear down over time. The rig never touches the surfaces that it floats over so there is no metal grinding on metal like the wheels of a train. A linear motor in the tracks is enough to propel it forwards and it has no friction to overcome in wheel bearings because it has no wheels. The vehicle would make no sound and the ride would be very smooth because there is no physical contact between the surfaces. I just need space and tools to build a small rig and test it out myself, if it doesn't work then I would learn something from the failure that is the beauty of science, even failure can be constructive because you learn what doesn't work.