Planet Mechanics

Last updated

Planet Mechanics
Dick Strawbridge and his unfeasably large moustache.jpg
GenreDocumentary
Created byNational Geographic UK
Starring Dick Strawbridge
Jem Stansfield
Narrated by Adam Longworth
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes8
Production
Running time45–50 Minutes
Original release
Network National Geographic Channel
Release6 April (2008-04-06) 
25 May 2008 (2008-05-25)

Planet Mechanics is a British TV program shown on the National Geographic Channel in 2008. The show has ended after the first series.

Contents

Background

Planet Mechanics sees two engineers, Dick Strawbridge and Jem Stansfield, travelling in an eco-friendly workshop, previously a horse trailer, to fix the planet's most pressing environmental problems.

Episodes

#TitleDirected byOriginal airdate
1"Air-Propelled Sandwich"Helen Williamson6 April 2008 (2008-04-06)
Travelling to Bath, England, Dick and Jem meet up with an eco-minded sandwich shop owner eager to create an environmentally friendly delivery vehicle. Riding around town on a tandem bike, Dick and Jem experience first-hand the challenges of creating a green vehicle able to cope with the hills and cobblestones of Bath. To build a lightweight 'green machine', Dick and Jem will need to make something small and agile – able to accelerate uphill and manoeuvre through traffic. The solution: an air-propelled motorbike.
2"Cow Power"Matthew Ainsworth13 April 2008 (2008-04-13)
Down on the farm in rural England, Dick and Jem must tame a fuel-guzzling monster by turning cow manure into natural gas. Farmer Andy's grain dryer uses 90 litres of gas an hour to dry 10 tonnes of grain. Drinking over 450 kilograms of fuel for one crop, this gas guzzler burns as much fossil fuel in one ten-hour day as a family car might in an entire year. Cashing in on the farm's hefty amount of cow dung, Dick and Jem hatch a plan to harvest the methane found naturally in cow manure. But storing a vast amount of this explosive gas is dangerous and Dick and Jem must work out a solution to keep their latest eco-friendly experiment from blowing up – literally. The pair cuts down an old 2-ton oil tank and submerge it in a custom-built massive water bath to minimise the explosion risk.
3"Water Wars"Caius Julyan20 April 2008 (2008-04-20)
Dick and Jem must make England's most remote youth hostel completely energy self-sufficient. With the only reliable energy source miles away, the pair must use only the natural resources found in the valley to help power this hostel. Setting out with two very different game plans, Dick looks to generate energy from a local stream while Jem searches for enough wind power to create a high-powered wind turbine.
4"Solar Paella"Paul O'Connor27 April 2008 (2008-04-27)
Dick and Jem head to Andalucía in their eco-friendly workshop to help one farmer pump enough water from his well to sustain his cattle. Dick and Jem devise radically different solutions to farmer Jesus' water problem – Dick harnesses wind power using a traditional windpump while Jem pushes his inventive boundaries to the limit with a Stirling engine.
5"Electric Water Taxi"Charlie Clare4 May 2008 (2008-05-04)
Invited by former Olympic sailor Alberto Sonino, Dick and Jem travel to Venice, Italy, to help save one of the world's most beautiful cities from the damaging effect of boat pollution. With 40,000 boats commuting around Venice, exhaust from Europe's largest car-free zone mixes with water and creates an acid that is eroding away the historic buildings' precious facades. With a stunning US$30,000 boat provided by Alberto, Dick and Jem get to work on creating an electric-powered motor. To power the engine using a clean power resource, Dick and Jem outfit the water taxi with solar panels that re-charge the motor's batteries.
6"Surf Power"Matthew Ainsworth11 May 2008 (2008-05-11)
Dick and Jem go to County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland in an attempt to harness the power of the ocean waves. It has been calculated that the sea around Ireland could contain enough wave energy to supply over eighteen times the country's entire electrical demand; however, the destructive nature of waves make them a difficult energy source to tap. Taking on the Atlantic Ocean, Dick and Jem want to generate green electricity for Irish surfers Keith and Rosy who tour the coast looking for the best waves in their travel trailer, the 'surf shack'. With a few days and some simple resources, Dick and Jem work with the surfers on a test project that will put the waves to work. Using practical experiments and demonstrations, the Planet Mechanics devise a huge wave energy converter with some surplus sewer pipe and steel and bolt it to a concrete pier.
7"Heavy Metal House"Caius Julyan18 May 2008 (2008-05-18)
The Planet Mechanics travel to Liverpool, England, to try to find a solution to Britain's affordable housing crisis. They have been invited by Professor Kronenburg, Head of Architecture at Liverpool University to help turn cheap and plentiful shipping containers into the economical and sustainable homes of the future. There are enough shipping containers in existence to circle the Earth more than twice if laid end-to-end.
8"Tree Powered Truck"Tim Walker25 May 2008 (2008-05-25)
Dick and Jem come to the aid of an environmentalist organisation, Trees for Cities. They modify a pick-up truck to run on wood gas.


Related Research Articles

Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together is called the "physical sciences".

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to physics:

Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to produce ephemeris data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orbital mechanics</span> Field of classical mechanics concerned with the motion of spacecraft

Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to the practical problems concerning the motion of rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. Orbital mechanics is a core discipline within space-mission design and control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographical pole</span> Points on a rotating astronomical body where the axis of rotation intersects the surface

A geographical pole or geographic pole is either of the two points on Earth where its axis of rotation intersects its surface. The North Pole lies in the Arctic Ocean while the South Pole is in Antarctica. North and South poles are also defined for other planets or satellites in the Solar System, with a North pole being on the same side of the invariable plane as Earth's North pole.

The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argument of periapsis</span> Specifies the orbit of an object in space

The argument of periapsis, symbolized as ω (omega), is one of the orbital elements of an orbiting body. Parametrically, ω is the angle from the body's ascending node to its periapsis, measured in the direction of motion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park</span> Canadian provincial park

Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park is one of the oldest provincial parks in British Columbia, established in 1922. The park has an area of 320.35 km2 (123.69 sq mi) and is located in the Selkirk Mountains in the West Kootenays region of BC. The park has three glaciers that feed over 30 alpine lakes which are the headwaters of many creeks.

Cody Caves Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It was formed in July 1966 to protect the Cody Caves and was the first subterranean park in British Columbia. The park is 13 km by road, northwest from the hot springs community of Ainsworth Hot Springs on Kootenay Lake.

Lava Forks Provincial Park is a provincial park in northern British Columbia, Canada. It is the site of Canada's most recent volcanic eruption, which occurred around 1904 at Lava Fork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muncho Lake Provincial Park</span> Provincial park in British Columbia, Canada

Muncho Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located on the Alaska Highway as it transits the northernmost Canadian Rockies west of Fort Nelson. The park is part of the larger Muskwa-Kechika Management Area. It is named after Muncho Lake, which is in the park and is both the name of the lake and of the community located there.

Otter Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada. It is located near the towns of Coalmont and Princeton. The park is open all year for day use and open May 15 - September 28 for overnight camping.

National Geographic is a British pay television channel that features documentaries It is a localized version of the original namesake American channel It features some programming similar to that on the Discovery Channel such as nature and science documentaries. The channel was launched in Europe in September 1997 and time shared initially with the failing NBC Europe until NBC Europe's demise in 1998, at which point it began timesharing with Fox Kids ; with analogue transmission of the channel ending, and the sale of Fox Kids to Disney, timesharing was eventually superseded by 24-hour broadcasting. It was later launched worldwide including in Asia and the United States. Today, the channel is available in over 143 countries, seen in more than 160 million homes and in 25 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Fork High Rock Canyon Wilderness</span> Wilderness area in Nevada, United States

The East Fork High Rock Canyon Wilderness is a U S Wilderness Area in Nevada under the Bureau of Land Management. It is located on the northeast side of High Rock Canyon but does not include the 4x4 trail inside High Rock Canyon nor a 4x4 trail to the Yellow Hills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hun Kal (crater)</span> Crater on Mercury

Hun Kal is a small crater on Mercury that serves as the reference point for the planet's system of longitude. The longitude of Hun Kal's center is defined as being 20° W, thus establishing the planet's prime meridian. The name "Hun Kal" means '20' in the language of the Maya.

National Geographic Oceania was a subscription television documentary network in Oceania that featured programmes on subjects such as nature, science, culture and history, plus some reality television and pseudo-scientific entertainment programming. It was the Oceanian version of the National Geographic Channel Asia Pacific. From 2020 to 2023, it was the only Disney-owned network in Oceania and to broadcast as a linear television channel, with the Disney Channel and Disney Junior having been shut down in favour of the streaming service Disney+.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical mechanics</span> Description of large objects physics

Classical mechanics is a physical theory describing the motion of objects such as projectiles, parts of machinery, spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. The development of classical mechanics involved substantial change in the methods and philosophy of physics. The qualifier classical distinguishes this type of mechanics from physics developed after the revolutions in physics of the early 20th century, all of which revealed limitations in classical mechanics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buffalo Peaks Wilderness</span> Protected area in Colorado, US

The Buffalo Peaks Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in San Isabel and Pike National Forests in central Colorado. The 43,410-acre (175.7 km2) wilderness was named after two highly eroded volcanic mountains, East Buffalo Peak and West Buffalo Peak, in the Mosquito Range and was established in 1993. The wilderness contains Colorado's largest herd of bighorn sheep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byers Peak Wilderness</span> Protected area in Colorado, US

The Byers Peak Wilderness is a U.S. Wilderness Area located in Arapaho National Forest in north central Colorado. The 8,913-acre (36.07 km2) wilderness was established in 1993 and named after its highest point, Byers Peak. Byers Peak was named after William N. Byers, the first mayor of Hot Sulphur Springs and the founder of Colorado's first newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News. The wilderness contains two glacial lakes, two peaks over 12,500 feet (3,800 m), and 23 miles (37 km) of trails.

<i>Richmond Planet</i> African American newspaper in Richmond Virginia

The Richmond Planet was an African American newspaper founded in 1882 in Richmond, Virginia. In 1938, it merged with the Richmond Afro-American.