All boils down to transducers and instrumentation doesn't it? 1% answers are considered pretty good. Cheap and accurate are at odds with each other.
Some interesting transducers measured sound velocity and it changes with mix. I think they were looking for a reliable CO2 guage for greenhouse plants. But V changes with temp and barometric pressure. Suddenly not so simple. Air and pollutants-- who knows what is there. It is often a trick to determine what and how much is even more info. Meanwhile water content and temperature are moving. I think you won't find this done cheaply. Kirk -----Original Message----- From: murdoch [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 04, 2002 9:58 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; biofuel@yahoogroups.com Subject: [biofuel] Re: [mdiaircar] Nuremberg Inventor's Fair There's an invention in the general area of sustainability and environmentalism, that I've been waiting for someone to make widely available to the public, and it hasn't happened, and I haven't even heard the slightest discussion of such a thing even being tried, so let me take this opportunity to put it out there, should any capable people perhaps be reading and looking for some ideas to try. Actually, it's two inventions, or areas of inventions: I'd like to see the average Joe be able to take a quick and accurate reading of the chemical composition of his air, and of his water. So, if one is at home, why not be able to read a meter which shows a reasonably accurate reading on the gasses which make up the air, and their percentages (Oxygen, CO2, Nitrogen, etc.). Also, outside. Why not? We hear all these obscure references on TV to parts-per-million of pollutants, but don't have a good solid idea of the basic gasses, pollutants, percentages, etc. Likewise, such a device would be a good idea for tap-water-measurements as well. Sure, there are filters for tapwater, and there are devices which sniff our home air to detect fire. But water-cleaners and smoke-detectors do not give us a sufficient understanding of our environment. I suppose a third and similar device would be a way to detect pesticide residues in foods. Perhaps if this is too complex, one could set up a business which gives reasonably-priced data to those who send samples. I once spoke to an EV advocate who pointed out that, in a sense, our Oxygen on earth is a finite resource which is being used up as we burn up the finite resource of Oil. I wonder if the general O2 percentage is dramatically lower today than it was 200 years ago. There's no way to know this, though, in any commonly-available way. There have been some recent earth-science theories which seem to point to the release of O2 into the EArth atmosphere as a significant event which brought forth much more robust life on EArth, many hundreds of millions of years ago. I.e., it helped explain why for so long much life didn't exist, and then relatively suddenly it started to thrive. I don't know if this theory is born out, but I also think of this when I see Oxygen percentages not even discussed or measured commonly. Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.410 / Virus Database: 231 - Release Date: 10/31/2002 Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/