Dorothy's power supply (paul's lack of a theory!)

Hi! I'm finally back! With more theories! sort of.

I don't have a particular theory on this one so I might as well post the information I got and maybe you can draw your own conclusions.




Dorothy’s Power supply

I have no idea how this works. I really don’t have any theories on this one. I can’t really find any point in the series where Dorothy takes in anything that can be used as fuel or a power source. I tried to come up with theories for this but I ended up having to resort to so much guesswork that I couldn’t draw any definite conclusions. There is simply not enough evidence to support any theories that I come up with. Instead, I’ll just make a list of facts that I have determined and maybe you can come up with your own explanation.

The following facts I have determined to be certain:
1. The power supply runs silently.
2. It operates without giving off much heat.
3. It has to be rather small because Dorothy is rather thin.
4. It can operate constantly for several days without recharge or refuel.
5. It operates without oxygen.
6. It can operate even when subjected to sudden movements.
7. It can survive being stuck to a powerful magnet.

These facts not completely certain but are probably true:
1. It requires little or no maintenance.
2. It probably stores energy by chemical or nuclear means.
3. It uses a fuel that is easy to get.
4. Since it generates very little sound, it probably has very few moving parts.
5. It produces little or no waste or exhaust. Any exhaust products are completely harmless. (That means no burning anything because it can’t give off carbon monoxide.)
6. It is highly efficient and can go very far on a small amount of fuel.
7. It cannot depend too much on rechargeable power cells because they simply can’t store enough energy in a small enough space. However, rechargeable power cells may still be used as backups or to assist the main power supply.

You can use the information listed here in order to draw your own conclusions.



I should be able to post my next theory soon (hopefully it will actually be a theory and not end up like this one).
I'll probably come back to this thread and post all the theories that definitly do not work.


So, what do you think?

well, for #3 on the "most certain" can be: OIL. or some form of OIL. In "Eyewitness" we see androids run on oil. we also see R.Dorothy getting a can of oil. Thus it is definite that R.Dorothy either uses OIL as a fuel or at least a lubricant.

Well, my last Smiths fanfic offered this theory:

quote:

Roger looked at Dorothy. "What exactly powers you?" he asked. Dorothy's voice took on a cold, mechanical tone as she recited, "My power system has dual sources; my energy reclamation field absorbs electromagnetic energy in my environment with an efficiency of seventy-five percent and stores it in an array of high-efficiency batteries. Power can be routed from the ERC or the batteries as needed. In addition, as a backup, I have a bio-converter system that can use organic matter as fuel, allowing me to eat to sustain myself, but with a higher efficiency and a wider selection of fuels than humans use."

Wow paul thats a good list of things and ides about Dorothy's power supply I ust love your ideas and theroies. You always make such good points.

Iam wondering about your first though that the supply runs silently because in some epsoides Dorothy does randomly make those clicks and whirls could it just be that maybe she has the ability to amplify that sound to a level that maybe humans are cabale to hear? Thats just my thoguh.

And wow everything elese I seriously agree with especially the fact that the mechanic work within her can not be magantized to badly. I mean ever magantized a watch its doomed, Dorothy she just gets stuck thats pretty cool. (Although I would always give her hand in getting down. ^_^")

Excellent theories again awesome work! ^_^"

-Beth

Dorothy's love for Roger is what keeps her running.

I highly doubt that the oil can be used for fuel. See fact number 5 under "facts not completely certain but are probably true".


Besides, If she really burned oil for fuel I would feel pretty sorry for Roger when Dorothy is in the car with him. Would you like to be in a closed space like a car with someone who gives off carbon monoxide? That definetly wouldn't be good for Roger's health. There is also the fact that oil needs oxygen to burn.



As promised, theories that simply do not work:


1. Energy Reclamation Field:
This is the system proposed in the fanfic "Eve of the Hurricane". It's where she projects an electromagnetic field to gather energy from her surroundings. I don't care how advanced their technology is, this simply does not work. The energy needed to project the field will always be greater then the energy taken in. The laws of physics simply don't allow this system to work. (the bio-converter from the same fanfic is ok though and might actually work.)

2. Rechargable batteries:
This is where she has a bunch of really high capacity rechargable batteries that she recharges whenever she gets the chance. This does not work either because rechargable cells of any kind can't safely store enough energy in a small enough space. Also, they are impractical for this application because they are high maintenence and need to be replaced when they burn out. They can, however, be used as a backup power supply.

3. Burning oil for fuel:
I already stated why this does not work. See the second paragraph of this post.

4. Prepackaged energy:
Ok, now this one is really stupid. This is where she is prepacked with all the energy she needs for her entire life, sorta like the Terminator. This really does not work! You cannot safely store that much energy in a small enough space.

Assuming that someone created radiation shielding thats light, thin, and efficient enough, it could be possible that she runs on a scaled down nuclear fission reactor.

A fission reactor would have to run on either uranium or plutonium, both which are really hard to find. There is also the waste products it produces that are highly radioactive.
If she does run on nuclear power it would probably be cold fusion which uses hydrogen extracted from water. Yes I know, cold fusion is very hard to accomplish. But it's one of those technologies that once you figure out how to do it, it becomes very easy and can easily be made into a device no bigger then a tennis ball. Kind of like the wheel, it took a long time to come up with but once it was designed, it became easy to make.

"A fission reactor would have to run on either uranium or plutonium, both which are really hard to find."

But not impossible for a well connected man like Mr. Wayneright.


"There is also the waste products it produces that are highly radioactive."

The people of pardigm have never struck me as particulary eco-friendly.
Radioactive waste isnt your biggest worry when its assumed that the world is already fried
and there are giant robots running amok.
And im assuming that the paradigm corporation isnt going to win any awards for being a
champion of enviromental causes.

Good point Blue Eagle, I haven't really thought of that. I guess if they are the only civilization for thousands of miles then waste control wouldn't be an issue.

However, it would be sort of a problem getting plutonium after Mr.Wayneright died. I think it's pretty much a given that she can't be prepacked with all the plutonium needed for her entire life.

There is also the radioactive waste issue. It's not so much an environmental issue, it's more of a health risk for Roger and Norman. It would be pretty bad if Dorothy turned out to be responsible for giving both them and several local citizens brain cancer.

"However, it would be sort of a problem getting plutonium after Mr.Wayneright died. I think it's pretty much a given that she can't be prepacked with all the plutonium needed for her entire life."

Roger isnt exactly a pauper himself.
Getting enough fuel for Big-O doesnt seem to present a problem to him.
The man IS a negotiator, after all. Just imagine what he could get with his skills.


"There is also the radioactive waste issue. It's not so much an environmental issue, it's more of a health risk for Roger and Norman. It would be pretty bad if Dorothy turned out to be responsible for giving both them and several local citizens brain cancer."


I said my theory assumed proper shielding. There ARE other andriods, and there is a good chance a few of them share the same power soiurce. Maybe what she runs on isnt special at all, and you can pick up pre-shielded nuclear android batterys at the local hardware store, alongside the double As. When theyre spent, just chuck the shielded battery in a special
bin at a designated recycling center or whatever and put a new one in.

My next theory will be a rather short one about how Dorothy does that "whirring sound". It explains "how" she does it, not "why"(I think we all know that she does it to remind everyone she isn't human, and to annoy Roger.). I also have a couple tech theories on Big-O already finished and I'll post them after I'm done with all the R.Dorothy theories, which will take a while.

There's a number of mechanical humanoids and ruins in my latest D&D campaign that have left me thinking along these same lines. Eventually, I decided that it would have to be mechanical only because everyone in the time period was anti-magic. It eventually boiled down to a powerful reaction between two chemicals (Both terestrial) and a metallic substance found inside a few meteorites. Since I can't remember its actual name, I'll just call it dragonite.

Basically, dragonite reacts violently with chemicals that have high levels of acidity or alkaline, both instances releasing massive amounts of energy in a small space. This would be good for Dorothy to use, since it's very efficient (lasting decades given a regulated flow of the chemicals), it requires very little maintenance, and it is very difficult to disturb.

Incidentally, dragonite would be used to power the space shuttles etc., but we have yet to create a method of replicating a large enough chunk of it, as most of it burns up in the atmosphere

[To clarify, dragonite (Or whatever it's called) is an actual substance, and not just a special alchemical metal in my campaign]

quote:

There's a number of mechanical humanoids and ruins in my latest D&D campaign that have left me thinking along these same lines. Eventually, I decided that it would have to be mechanical only because everyone in the time period was anti-magic. It eventually boiled down to a powerful reaction between two chemicals (Both terestrial) and a metallic substance found inside a few meteorites. Since I can't remember its actual name, I'll just call it dragonite.

It would be pretty hard to get the dragonite needed. There is also the fact that whenever a base reacts with an acid or an alkaline, it almost always produces a gas along with the energy. This gas would be a waste product which would have to be harmless. I don't know the real name for the dragonite he's refering to so I don't know what gas it produces.
It's still a good theory though and might actually work if both of these obstacles were to be overcome.

I've long been curious about the fact, in Missing Cat, that Giesang's biography was cribbed from Nikolai Tesla's. One possibility is that Tesla, as one of the pioneers in electricity, symbolizes the control of nature theme often seen in Big O.

One way to make an android small enough to fit in a Dorothy-sized body is to have the power generator outside her body, with the power transmitted wirelessly to it. This is what Tesla was working on in his Colorado Springs lab. Perhaps Paradigm City is set in a world where such beamed power can be tapped into by androids, construction robots, and even Megadei.

Dorothy would need some sort of temporary storage for those times when the signal is blocked; perhaps her core is filled with a high-capacity battery. If so, perhaps she spends so much time up on the roof at Smith Mansion because she is recharging.

Pygmalion

If that were true, and she were solar powered, where are her panels?

quote:

I've long been curious about the fact, in Missing Cat, that Giesang's biography was cribbed from Nikolai Tesla's. One possibility is that Tesla, as one of the pioneers in electricity, symbolizes the control of nature theme often seen in Big O.

I was kind of hoping someone would bring up the subject of Tesla's work. Tesla is one of those inventors we often forget about despite the fact we depend on his technology more then we depend on Edison's inventions. I once did a report on Tesla's contributions to wireless technology and I sort of got frustrated by the fact the nobody knew who Tesla was. For those of you who don't know about Tesla, he invented flourescent and neon lights, the AC motor, and the AC polyphase generator. Tesla also worked on methods of transmitting electrical power wirelessly throught the air. Sadly, he didn't have enough money to fund his research and died before his work could be completed.

Tesla's wireless power transmission device, if someone were to finish his work, would be ideal for powering various devices throughout Paradigm City. However, transmitting power through the air would not be efficient enough to use as a primary power source for anything larger then small scale devices such as phones, radios, watches (like Roger's watch), and car batteries. Transmitting enough energy power to anything larger, like and android or a megadeus, would cause interference that would be a hazard to radio communications throughout the city (and everyone with a pacemaker would die.). However, I can still see this being used in conjunction with rechargable cells to back up a primary power supply.

Exellent theory Pygmalion, I almost completely forgot about Tesla's work when I was trying to write a theory for this.

quote:

Originally posted by paul1290 quote: There's a number of mechanical humanoids and ruins in my latest D&D campaign that have left me thinking along these same lines. Eventually, I decided that it would have to be mechanical only because everyone in the time period was anti-magic. It eventually boiled down to a powerful reaction between two chemicals (Both terestrial) and a metallic substance found inside a few meteorites. Since I can't remember its actual name, I'll just call it dragonite. It would be pretty hard to get the dragonite needed. There is also the fact that whenever a base reacts with an acid or an alkaline, it almost always produces a gas along with the energy. This gas would be a waste product which would have to be harmless. I don't know the real name for the dragonite he's refering to so I don't know what gas it produces. It's still a good theory though and might actually work if both of these obstacles were to be overcome.

I'm not entirely certain if it has an actual name, I think it's something like the method they use when naming new stars, so I've got little chance of remembering it exactly

What I know for sure was that it was a very clean reaction, little gas being created and none of it was toxic or even had an odour. It certainly seems like the perfect power source, and Dorothy wouldn't require a particulalry large portion.

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if this is even open to the public domain because of its efficiency

If it is oil, then it must be a highly advance motor/generator aimed at efficiency. But, I truly believe oil is more of a lubricant.

I strongly believe her power system is some sort of cold fussion device, as suggested earlier. Then again, who knows? For all we know, she could have some advance thermodynamic device that extracts heat from her surroundings and effiently converts it to energy.

I think the two best candidates right now are the cold fusion device and the bio-converter. But neither of these have any significant evidence for or against them right now. Again, we'll probably need a season three to see which is correct.

1.Bio-Converter:
Pros: it sounds reasonable that Timothy would want to make Dorothy as human like as possible. (this system is actually possible with today's technology.)
Cons: lack of evidence from the show. (we haven't seen her eat anything.)

2.Cold Fusion:
Pros: highly efficient and would be almost perfect for this application. (if I were to design Dorothy, I would have picked this one.)
Cons: I have doubts that Wayneright had the technology to make a fusion reactor small enough to fit. (it has to be a sphere, so it would have to be the size of a tennis ball to fit in a Dorothy sized torso.)


Lyinginbedmon's "dragonite" theory might still work, but I might have to do some research and find out what the material's real name is.

quote:

she could have some advance thermodynamic device that extracts heat from her surroundings and effiently converts it to energy

This would run into the same problem as the ERC from "Eve of the Hurricane". The energy needed to gather the energy would always be greater then the energy taken in. The laws of physics simply don't allow it to work. (unless of course you find a way to collect energy passively without using up energy, which may be possible.)


If anyone else has any other theories please post them here.