Re: powering an apple by a car battery?

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

CUTblakeney@home.com (Jeff Blakeney) wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>>This is a little off subject, but as I understand it, the alternator
>>in a car that charges the battery is actually an AC generator.
>>Although I am sure it is not the type of AC a computer power
>>supply designed to plug into a wall outlet expects, it is kind
>>of funny that one has to start off with AC, convert to DC, then
>>invert to AC again.
>
>A car's alternator does indeed generate AC (alternating current) as
>its name implies.  However, it is definitely not generating anywhere
>near 110V AC.  Also, there is a rectifier built right onto or into the
>alternator to convert the AC to DC before it even leaves the
>alternator.
>
>Oh, and using an invertor to create 110V AC from 12V DC also allows
>you to use a device even when the car isn't running.  If you were to
>somehow get 110V AC from the alternator, you'd have to have the car
>running anytime you wanted to get power that way.

I knew it wasn't 110V AC, but I thought it was an interesting
bit of trivia.  ;-)

Here's another.  I'm not sure how many people know this,
but commercial passenger airplanes have an AC power
system.  Of course this AC power operates at much higher
than 60Hz or 50Hz.  Think the RPMs of a jet engine.
Last time I was in an airplane, I saw little warning stickers
warning not to attempt to charge one's laptop using the
airplane's power.