Posted on 06/25/2005 1:22:51 AM PDT by goldstategop
Toyota Motor Corp. boasts that its hot-selling Prius gasoline-electric hybrid doesn't have to be plugged in.
But a growing number of hybrid buffs interested in further boosting the car's fuel economy are asking, "Why not?"
By replacing the Prius' batteries with a more powerful array and recharging it using a standard electric outlet at home, engineers have enabled the hybrid to get more than 100 miles per gallon of gasoline....
But the plug-in Prius is the firm's principal claim to fame.
In May, Energy Control Systems entered its Prius in the Tour del Sol fuel economy rally in New York. The car won its class by averaging 102 mpg over the 150-mile course. Hanssen said it cost $1 to charge the batteries the night before the race and about $4 for the gas it consumed.
If hybrid makers added plug-in, Hanssen said, mass production could get the extra cost down to about $3,000 over that of a regular hybrid model.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
"In any event, you still need to generate power via electricity, which is currently in the form of natural gas etc. If the entire nation moves to electric or electric-hybrid and cut oil consumption dramatically, we'll need to convert to nuclear energy."
Agreed. WE NEED NUCLEAR ENERCY IF WE WANT ENERGY INDEPENDENCE!
Don't have one. If you get defibbed/ablated improperly the stents could act as low impedance current shunts and burn up cardiac tissue.
You're right, the cubic term is for strength of a magnet, not the field in a wire. It's inversely proportional to the square of the distance - it still drops of quickly.
You mention welding currents, and I'm not aware of welders dropping like flies due to magnetic field exposure.
I would still suggest the stainless steel hat instead of the tin foil hat if you remain concerned.
The field of a wire drops off as 1/R, not 1/R^2. Ampere's law- check it out sometime.
Stainless steel is a very poor choice for magnetic "shielding", it's on the order of titanium, they're both non-ferrous. To get any "shielding" type effect the permeability of the material has to be high to act as a shunt path for the magnetic flux. Soft iron works much better. There's really no such thing as shielding a magnetic field, place iron on the magnet and you have a bigger magnet. The best one can do is divert the field.
Are you aware of the OSHA regulations regarding welding currents induced in the body?
The Lincoln welding company:
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/knowledge/articles/content/lenstaybl.asp
"# Electric current flowing through a conductor causes Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF), which can interfere with pacemakers and may effect health in other ways. Consult your physician before arc welding if you have a pacemaker.
# To avoid excessive exposure to EMF, keep the electrode and work cables together, never place your body between the two cables or coil the electrode lead around your body, and do not work directly next to the welding power source."
I wish the EV1 could have made it in the car market. It was an exciting car. GM should build on the lessons learned from the EV1, and develop a flex-fueled or diesel plug-in hybrid. A car like this just might give GM new life, and save them from Bankruptcy.
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