An Intelligent Speed Bump Uses Non-Newtonian Liquid (businessinsider.com) 143
turkeydance quotes Business Insider: A Spanish company has designed a speed bump that won't hinder slow drivers but will still stop motorists driving too fast. The speed bump is filled with a non-Newtonian liquid which changes viscosity when pressure is applied at high velocity. They've been installed in Villanueva de Tapia, Spain and there has also been interest from Israel and Germany.
There's a video on the site showing the speed bump in action.
There's a video on the site showing the speed bump in action.
Bobcat rental (Score:1)
I bet these speed bumps are easier to remove than standard ones. So good.
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if people start destroying them or stealing them you can bet the regular old hard concrete speed bumps will be installed
Finally, somone that has some understanding. You'll note that the assholes that drive like tools over the present ones can drive just as fast as they always do. I reccomend over 100 mph, you know, because speeding makes the wimminfolk really horny.
But if these fools want to vandalize them, something more onerous might show up in their place.
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You'll note that the assholes that drive like tools over the present ones can drive just as fast as they always do.
Prediction: the viscosity of the fluid will be such that you are required to drive below 15 MPH to ooze through it without a bump, in order to enforce a 25 MPH speed limit.
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Yes and that's why there are no road signs nor street lights anywhere.
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Very funny... Maybe tire spikes would be the better option. :-)
Cameras (Score:2)
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I don't think that argument will convince those people not to do it.
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The same can be said of your body, and would probably be a greater improvement.
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You'd be surprised what kind of impractical ideas people will try to get away with when looking for funding.
The bump's outer layer must be flexible. This automatically makes it more susceptible to cutting.
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Not necessarily. The whole thing could sit on a cushion made of the magic shit(TM) and retract.
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Do you mean a solid shell resting on top of the bag of gloop?
That would just spread the force across the whole bag and negate the desired effect.
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I am surprised that they didn't call it AI and have an whole article about how it would replace the job of cops.
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I am surprised that they didn't call it AI and have an whole article about how it would replace the job of cops.
Speed bumps have been called "sleeping policemen" or "lying-down policemen" in various parts of the world for decades.
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Re:The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, many generations of language reformers have tried and failed to fix the sloppy way humans naturally use language .
Perhaps the most famous attempt was in 1668 by Royal Society Fellow John Wilkins, who created a language intended as a replacement Latin as the universal language of scientific (then called "philosophical") communication. The first order of business was to get rid of all that figurative cruft and replace it with precisely defined concept-signifiers. The attempt, while attracting great interest, was a dismal failure. Exactly one paper was ever written in Wilkins' "philosophical language", an essay by Robert Hooke (of Hooke's Law) titled "The Universal Character of Pocket Watches".
The reason these attempts never go anywhere is human beings have a powerful, context-aware language processing computer inside their skull that effortlessly interprets fuzzy, associative and figurative language with near-perfect accuracy. Not absolutely perfect, mind you, but good enough that improving on it results in a language that so painfully awkward that it is impossible to use with anything like the perfection the creators envision.
This doesn't stop every new generation of pedants from trying, as most attempt are such irredeemable failures nobody has ever heard of them. The only one to have any kind lasting success was a theologian named Peter Mark Roget. His philosophical language was as useless as any of them, but the detailed concept index he compiled for it turned out to be quite handy for writers looking for just the right word.
Re: The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:1)
I wouldn't care about it being called "intelligent" except that not only is it technically incorrect but it's also a buzzword that gets thrown around far too frequently.
Re: The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:5, Interesting)
That's the point: people use technically incorrect buzzwords all the time until the buzz is used up and then it's just another alternative meaning for the word.
Some time look up a list of dead metaphors, like "deadline". A "dead line" was originally a boundary past which a prisoner would be shot. "Deadline" as applied to projects was a humorous metaphor, but as with "software", it's no longer a joke; it's just a word.
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A really intelligent one would differentiate between authorized and non-authorized over-speeders.
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Little known fact about Hooke: Isaac Newton hated him. Thought he was a right fucking twat.
The only reason the poor sod got the one about springs named after him was because old apple-bonce got a fit of the bloody flux and was on the privy a month.
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Newton was a right fucking twat himself. I think he might have hated everybody.
It may not posses conventional intelligence... (Score:5, Funny)
But it might be street smart.
Re: The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:2, Funny)
Physics is bullshit anyways. God changes the viscosity.
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Re: The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:5, Informative)
A non-Newtonian fluid is one that doesn't follow Newton's Law of Viscosity. So that part is actually correct. However, it is most certainly not intelligent.
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However, it is most certainly not intelligent.
That's okay, neither a lot of drivers
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not the un-sentient amorphous goo that makes it work
Are you referring to the jelly in the donuts that cops eat? Because I don't think that makes them work any better.
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doesn't violate Newtonian physics
That is not what "non-Newtonian" means. The google is your friend.
Re:The speed bump does not possess intelligence (Score:5, Insightful)
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the sun doesn't set, the horizon rises.
No, the earth rotates. How's that for pedantic?
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the sun doesn't set, the horizon rises.
No, the earth rotates. How's that for pedantic?
Technically it doesn't just rotate, it rotates and translates. And in the meantime the whole system (sun and earth) is moving relative to the galactic frame, which is its self moving. So if you want to predict the exact time the horizon will come up to to block out the sun, you need to do a bit more than just calculate the time one rotation takes since the earth will have moved noticeably meaning that the suns relative position will be just a bit (slightly less than 1/356 of a rotation) moved from the pre
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Newton got his name attached to more than one concept. Newtonian mechanics and Newtonian fluids are two separate concepts.
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Newton did a lot of stuff, and got his name attached to a lot of things.
One of them is Newtonian mechanics. Another is the term "Newtonian fluid."
These are two separate concepts.
That's clever (Score:2)
Re: That's clever (Score:4, Insightful)
People have known about the existence of the liquid as far back as the Egyptians. Fill a bag with water and flour or tapioca and it behaves the same way.
The problem with these designs which have been coming and going for decades and every other speed bump or road project with similar properties is the durability.
Roads are a pure hell hole of abrasion, it's why you don a hot as hell leather suit on a motorbike even in the middle of summer. Asphalt and concrete, which is a very durable, non-stretchy substance needs to be replaced every few years. Stretchy substances or even things that move ever so slightly like tiles, hell even bridge joints (or energy absorbing materials or solar freaking roadways) have the byproduct of encapsulating anything that fits in the folds/gaps which subsequently destroys it very quickly.
Won't get wide acceptance (Score:2, Insightful)
It's going to cost too much and not be durable enough. Regular speed bumps are extremely cheap and made of asphalt; slightly fancier ones are cheap and made of rubber and metal.
Also, if it doesn't hinder slow drivers, the people installing them won't be satisfied. Speed bumps are a tool installed by hateful people to make driving suck more; reducing the suck defeats the purpose.
Re:Won't get wide acceptance (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be useful for temporary use at events and similar, but won't work in winter conditions as it would suffer from snow plows and change viscosity at low temperatures.
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Maybe it will be like Bott's dots and used in places that don't get snow.
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Good news! (Score:2)
It's patented by some spanish company, so you won't be seeing installations in the US any time soon. ;)
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I should start the process of being the "sole distributor" of this thing in North America.
With over 300K intersections in the US alone, this strategy should guarantee millions of dollars in income, with little to no effort.
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Add to it studded winter tires.
Yes but what use is a non-Newtonian speed bump? (Score:5, Funny)
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"Non-Newtonian" in this context doesn't mean what you think it does. Or maybe you're just making a joke that's not that funny.
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Or maybe you're just making a joke that's not that funny.
Or maybe you're just a humorless asshole.
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Whooosh, I think.
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That'd be cool.
"Kids, your dad has been driving too fast again. Police estimate he went all the way to next week."
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i had an acura integra a couple years ago (it was one of the really old models). it actually got stuck on one of the bigger speed bumps and i had to push the car to get it off. speed bumps are bullshit.
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Well designed speed bumps are better (Score:5, Interesting)
These liquid-state speed bumps will never survive real world conditions. Solid-state ones, since well designed, work just as well. They need to be sufficiently long (> 1.5 m) and have a sinusoidal shape.
But looks like they're hard as hell to build and made of solid gold, because they're f*king hard to find.
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They need to be sufficiently long (> 1.5 m)
Materials cost money. The bigger the bump, the more it costs.
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The best "designed" speed bump is a simple pothole. They're very easy to find. The other solution is to just not pave the road. It will be like a washboard after a little rain.
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bulletproof boob implants? (Score:5, Funny)
Soft to the touch but can stop a bullet?
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Would make for an interesting boobjob too. "faster Faster FASTER! OWW no SLOWER Slower slower!"
Halfbakery (Score:2, Informative)
This idea was on halfbakery back in 2001,
http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Custard-Filled_20Speed_20Bumps
I Like Speed Dips (Score:2)
As the saying goes - speed bumps are no problem if you take them fast. Like "washboard" roads this is really true, a car's dynamic suspension can even out the double bump if you moving fast enough.
But speed dips are another story entirely. Mostly these aren't really put in for speed control, usually it is for surface drainage, but they work really well to make people slow down. A memorable occasion I recall in one such town was a caddy that went into the dip excessively fast, and the front of the car pitche
Re:I Like Speed Dips (Score:5, Interesting)
I have been told that speed bumps being ineffective at higher speeds is actually a feature- a normal person who wants to go medium slow is now forced to go slow slow, but an emergency vehicle that has a siren blaring can go fast safely.
Of course, this also lets a normal driver just go fast as well, but trade offs are always made I guess?
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That makes sense. Thanks.
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A man here got compensation for injury, not sure about vehicle damage, and speed bumps removed when he got tossed within his van enough to hit his head.
A dip that damages vehicles more than a pothole would be unlikely to last legal challenge here (not even get heard in court) and might be costly.
So, it's filled with (Score:1)
Taxi (Score:1)
Cab drivers NEVER slow down for speed bumps. The cab shocks are destroyed within the first few weeks on a new cab. The cab still rides great, even better than before. When you go full speed over a speed bump with a broken in cab, you can't even feel the bump. Time is money to a cab driver. I know, I drove one in Las Vegas.
Naming this "reversible computing" is confusing (Score:2)
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Are they adjustable? (Score:2)
How adjustable is the fluid/goo inside these?
The most annoying this I find about speed bumps is that you can't drive over them comfortably at the ADVERTISED SPEED LIMIT. These things are supposed to be used to discourage speeding, which means driving ABOVE the advertised limit, but that's never that case.
So can these be adjusted so that driving over them at 50km/h in a 50km/h zone will be a smooth ride, but when driving at 60km/h it'll harden?
A better idea. (Score:2)
Because fuck you if you didn't slow down before going through their town.
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The right idea is to run the road around the town, so that you don't have to go through it at all. Of course, this requires carving up a bunch of other people's property, which may explain all those rinky-dink roads I see on television in Britain. They must run along property lines both ancient and twisted.
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In the middle of the road, or the middle of the lane? If the former, so what? If the latter, what are drivers expected to do?
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Oh, OK, I don't envision roads in the UK having much room to go around. They seem just wide enough for one car per lane.
From 2010?? (Score:5, Informative)
Found the same video on youtube from 2010.... had no idea /. was going this far back for "current news"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fng6gCjl58 [youtube.com]
All They Need Now is a Non-Euclidean Speed Bump (Score:1)
Not good enough (Score:1)
We need a solution that will let emergency vehicles on alert pass at high speeds while slowing other forms of fast traffic.
Speed bumps kill dozens every year in avoidable deaths by delaying emergency services.
Speed-bumps-as-a-solution need to be binned
Speed bumps are misunderstood (Score:1)