Oopsie.
Posted on 07/18/2006 12:05:31 PM PDT by LouAvul
If you're fed up with paying high gas prices, Hybrid Technologies says it has a solution for you.
The company is out with an "electric smart car" that runs on a lithium battery.
The company's co-founder, Richard Griffiths, pointed out to The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler Tuesday that that's the same type of battery you'll find in cell phones, PDAs, computers, "pretty much anything we use now that's a portable electronic device."
Griffiths showed Syler how you simply plug the car in, literally, to a conventional 110 volt outlet.
"If you completely drain the battery," Griffiths said to Syler, "it's like your cell phone, if you drain the battery, a full charge is five to six hours. Normally, people won't drain the entire battery, so maybe one to two hours at night. Basically, it's like, 'Honey, did you take out the garbage and plug in the car?' It's kind of a new way of thinking. It's a plug-in hybrid. It uses absolutely no gas.
"On a single charge, you can go up to 120 miles and, depending how you drive, 150 miles."
"It's very, very small, though," Syler observed. "I am thinking safety. How does it crash test?"
"It has a three-star crash test rating," Griffiths responded, "and it has air bag systems, five air bags, three in the front. It's like a walnut. It's actually a very safe car. This is a city commuter car, so it's not a car that you'll necessarily be driving on the highway every day. So we're not looking at high speeds, necessarily."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
"Proof positive Americans are failing in science."
Is it any wonder that snake-oil salesmen selling 200-mpg carburetors, vortex generators, magnetic molecule aligners, fuel catalyzers, magic hydrogen generators, and so on, find a never-ending stream of suckers to bilk? I suspect that many of the hucksters don't even understand themselves why what they're selling is impossible.
OTOH, an over-familiarity with what conventional wisdom says is impossible can be a detriment to advances in technology. Still always good to have a grounding in the basics, however, so that you know the right questions to ask - if someone has some device or process that appears to be breaking the commonly-understood laws of physics they'd better have a good explanation for it.
Fair enough. If the favorable weather holds, I would expect to obtain a yield of close to 240 bushels per acre of corn this year. That will, in turn, yield about 650 gallons of ethanol per acre. Planting, tilling and harvesting will consume about 10 gallons per acre.
The nearest ethanol plant is maybe 60 miles away and the nearest fuel terminal is 20 miles from there. It really doesn't take 640 gallons of ethanol to haul one acre's yield 80 miles.
A large dam generally doesn't have to supply it's own water to dam.
A large damn can't operate in a closed system. What you described soundeds like it could easily be made into a closed system and supply more energy than it consumed.
No. The sun has evaporated the water from the oceans and thereby raised it to a higher level. The sun is the external source of energy that gets stored as gravitational potential energy in the water at a high elevation.
When the water falls (once) thru the turbines, the energy the sun stored in the water is released and we have a working hydroelectric dam. So hydroelectric energy is really indirect solar energy.
I was pretty much scared to death of "Bud". I ran the other way whenever I saw him coming. They had 17 children.
Could be that's why you're not in charge. Call them environuts if you will, but there's other things that are important that depend on a free-flowing stream of water in a river.
I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic. If not, then the deeper the well, the more energy it takes to pump the water back up.
In Minnesota. In Texas, well sure it's possible to drive with the windows down 9 months out of the year and remember the good old days. But Texas didn't have nearly as many people that wanted to live here in those days, and besides Old Mr. Carrier practically invented the modern Air Conditioner right here in Houston.
Anyway, I've got a motorcycle. I'll even ride it but it's damn hot this time of the year. Not as hot as if you were born on the sun maybe, but damn hot. :)
Gravity is free - but you are proposing pumping water back uphill to its original level. That IS NOT. By simple laws of physics and because of mechanical inefficiencies, it will ALWAYS take more energy to pump the water back uphill than you will get out. RonF is right that you could use this as energy storage.
But it will NEVER work as a net producer of energy.
Are you sure they aren't using above and/or below ground streams to help the turbines along?
Sorry, Bikers - the process you describe cannot exist.
ROFLMAO! :D
If a concept can't stand on its own without a subsidy from someone elses pocket, it isn't worthy of consideration.
July 20, 2006: World Jump Day
Join us in the attempt to drive planet earth into a new orbit!
Scientific research has proven that this change of planetary positioning would very likely stop global warming, extend daytime hours and create a more homogenous climate.
You want a good amount of depth to maximize efficiency. But you still cannot produce energy from a system like Bikers4Bush is describing.
Don't tell me - I've been arguing Bikers about this for awhile... He's the one that needs the physics lecture... :)
Why am I getting an image of Lee Ermey's character, Sgt. Hartman, from Full Metal Jacket?
My wife and I always joke about how the first half of that movie should be required viewing for those folks raising boys.
"If a concept can't stand on its own without a subsidy from someone elses pocket, it isn't worthy of consideration."
Absolutely! I was jokingly trying to make that point. I was saying, the only way I would consider one of these is if someone else paid for the electricity.
of course, If some solar solution can be worked out, or, if you live in Chicago, you can plug it into your windmill.
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