Posted on 09/04/2007 10:37:19 AM PDT by 300magnum
Don’t let the eco weanies scare you. We have plenty of energy resources, we just need the technology to unlock them.
Bingo.
And don't forget "net-metering"; every house a reservoir.
Of course, politically and media-hype speaking, guess who will get the credit.
And it would have to make the trip as Texans do - average speed of about 85 miles an hour with at least one stop for some jalapeno cheese snacks, a Slim Jim, and a 32 oz Dr. Pepper.
As a personal aside, I found Clark to be an egotistical jerk.
I've heard that. I met Asimov and he certainly seemed to be.
But I'll always revere Childhoods End, City and the Stars, and the Foundation deal.
End of diversion.
And when all the gasoline is gone, you simply develop a weapon that can instantly deactivate the capacitors.
6hp = 4.5 kw. In one hour, your car will go 55 miles. Your car consumes 4500/55 = 81 watts/mile.
Is there such a car? Kellis91789 doesn't think so. Kellis91789 says the GM Impact (EV1) uses twice that. Converted SUV's are using 400 watts/mile, 5X your figure.
The math is correct. It's the "how much power does it take to move a car 500 miles" that's in question.
You say 12 kwh (16hp). Another poster said 45 hp. Another, 6hp. For a car people would buy (not some three-wheeled, fiberglass experimental 2-seater), I'm guessing it's in the 20-30 hp range.
You're lucky it didn't weld your zipper together.
It does only take about 6 hp to keep a car going 55 mph. It requires more power to get to that speed in a reasonable time. It takes more power to go up and down rolling terrain. It takes more power to run the AC and radio.
That is why a car may require more power than 81 watts per mile. As they say YMMV.
A car could be produced that would require less than 50 watts per mile but you wouldn’t want to drive it. The impact was designed to provide more acceptable size and performance. Remember the converted SUV is probably using well more than a half ton of batteries, reducing weight will significantly reduce rolling resistance. A car that doesn’t need to radiated hundreds of kilowatts of heat can be made much more aerodynamic.
Also remember that a gasoline engine and transmission are also overcoming internal resistance when traveling down the highway.
Folks here at the office are actually expecting some work out of me lately.
Go figure!
My boss has never been that deluded!
Oil for making things will remain a must have technology well into the next two centuries. The Arabs have a plentiful, cheap source.
"A" car. What car can do 55 mph on 6hp?
“It’s amazing how many miss the point that petroleum fuels are both A) suitable for energy for transportation and B) an energy source. Energy storage systems such as the topic of this article are A) only (assuming this isn’t vaporware).”
Petroleum only looks like an energy “source” because its energy was stored there by an earlier process. Petroleum is no more an energy “source” than a battery is. Petroleum is a carrier of energy that has the energy bound up in its chemical structure just as electricity is bound up in the chemical structure of a battery or charge is contained by the dielectric in a capacitor. The only difference is that the energy in a battery or cap is easily replaced, while once released from petroleum it is very inefficient to reconstitute the chemical energy storage mechanism.
Petroleum fuel is a suitable carrier of energy in only one way — it is dense. In all other characteristics, it is seriously flawed. Combusting it requires consuming the surrounding oxygen and there is generally no containment of its waste products. It is a dirty, smelly, loud, and inconvenient energy carrier for transportation.
If I remember correctly it was an MG. Part of a physics project in college.
Just one example. Google "solar battery chargers" for more.
>>Petroleum is no more an energy “source” than a battery is.
I’m an engineer, not a philosopher. For all practical purposes, petroleum is an energy source in a way that an electrical storage system isn’t. We can play your game all the way back to “God/< insert your deity here>/The Big Bang is the ultimate source of all energy.” It still doesn’t make it useful for solving people’s day-to-day problems.
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