franklyn
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5 0 0 ! _ M.P.G.
You can't make this stuff up,
See ->
http://www.whatsnextnetwork.com/technology/index.php/2006/07...
Leaving the prospect of little green pills aside, a well engineered
vehicle can get perhaps 80 M.P.G. while still retaining what anyone
will consider to be drivability. Now if thermodynamic and mechanical
efficiency can be doubled this only yields perhaps 200 M.P.G. all
things being equal ( weight ).
However if vehicles become much lighter by the use of composites and
such, they will have to come with strings attached to keep them from
floating away when you park. Also, how often will the driver have to
rewind the spring ?
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IrC
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The problem with these plastic cars is the fact that some people are still driving 1958 buick's. Being hit by one by even low speeds like 30 mph will
assure you of being flatter than a sail bunny.
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Organikum
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Well when you look at the Mosler MT900 GTR then you will see whats possible. The car has a chassis/passenger compartment made from a honeycomb
structure of carbon fiber, aluminium reinforced with chromium/molybden steel which weighs 90kg. Passed all crash tests without problem, crashtests
designed for a car which runs over 300km/h.
/ORG
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IrC
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Remember in the movie "Aliens" when the little girl said "it won't matter" When Ripley told her the men were soldiers there to protect her from the
monsters?
This is exactly what any new car is facing no matter how many cool new composites they invent. Clearly you guys in Europe were never run into with a
1958 Buick!
I have no doubt you could build 7 or 8 hundred new cars by melting one down!
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not_important
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The `58 Buick arguement should only be used by people still lugging around vacuum-tube based 'portable' radios and sending telegrams when they want to
get a message to someone in a hurry.
Fuel goes up to $5 US or more per gallon, those Buicks won't be on the road often. As for collisions, in Germany a bus run into a "Smart Car" and
shoved it along for some km before it got flagged down. Passenger was just fine.
http://www.moparchat.com/FORUMS/showthread.php?s=9bbda7dbf1c...
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12AX7
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As you might've guessed from my screen name, I'm listening to a push-pull 6V6 amplifier right now. About 10 watts, plenty for the vintage 1959-ish
Magnavox cabinets I have.
Tim
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not_important
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I noticed, but I doubt you try to use it as a portable radio 8-)
I even have some tube stuff stored away. Neither room nor ventilation to use it right now.
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ethan_c
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| Quote: | | Originally posted by IrC sail bunny. |
I have never heard this turn of phrase. And it's fairly hilarious, despite my complete ignorance as to its origin-
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IrC
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No idea who coined it. Around the time of the grapes of wrath, dust bowl, desert southwest, probably in the 1930's (to set the scene). People walking
along and hitch-hiking noticed that animals run over and squashed by a car or truck would be flat, thin, and hard as a rock being baked in the desert
sun. In any case bored hitch-hikers would throw them like a frisbee, and somewhere along the line someone coined the term "sail bunny" (obviously
since they flew through the air) for any such animal. In any case the term became well enough known that some or other old movie actually used it in
context. I have no memory what movie now, been way too many years. Possibly it was the movie "Paper Moon" but I could be mistaken. Anyway it was funny
and stuck in my mind as being an accurate description of a new car being run over by a 1958 buick.
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12AX7
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"Sail bunny" is a new one, but around here we have "sail squirrel".
Shit our town is overrun with squirrels...meh...
Tim
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IrC
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I think the combination of the Arizona sun and a zillion jackrabbits prompted the whole thing. Unlikely where you live they get baked to that ultra
thin lightness needed for extended flight.
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evil_lurker
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We have possums in Tennessee... but as of the last few years of global warming we now have armadillos which outnumber the possums...
The term "Tennessee road pizza" has been coined to describe them.
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Marvin
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This is miles per gallon of petrolium derived fuels.
Electricity, ethanol, methanol, pedal power all count as zero, so a hydrogen car would have an infinate mpg according to the same math.
The point that all the big diesel locomotives are now electric is somewhat out of context, the electric motors are powered by a diesel generator.
This is a way of solving the torque problem. Diesel engines only produce a reasonable amount of torque over a narrow range of RPMs, so to pull a
train, you either need very narrow gear ratios and keep shifting up as the train accelerates with about a zillion gears, or you turn the diesel power
into electric, which can be done well over a narrow RPM range, and then drive the wheels with electric motors which have good torque over a huge range
in speed.
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12AX7
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Well, hydrogen is usually derived from petroleum (I am unfamiliar with the chemical element "petrolium", I assume it is found only deep in the
Earth?), natural gas to be specific.
Tim
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unionised
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My calculator won't cope with 500!, in fact it won't cope with anything more than 69! Does anybody know how many digits 500 factorial has?
BTW, it's a pity that Moore's law doesn't seem to apply to cars. 100MPG was just about possible way back.
http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,9526...
If the ecconomy had improved in line with the development of the coputer industry, just think how well itwould be doing now.
(NB, for comparison between US and UK MPG figures please note that a gallon isn't the same as a gallon.)
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sparkgap
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Mathematica says 500! has 1135 digits. 
sparky (~_~)
"What's UTFSE? I keep hearing about it, but I can't be arsed to search for the answer..."
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franklyn
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .( 10 ^100 )
How many digits in a googleplex 10
it's right there in power notation, ten to the power of a google
which is a one followed by 100 zeros
There is not enough space in the known universe to express this in
decimal notation.
See ->
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Fun/Googolplex
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/numbers.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~mrob/pub/math/largenum.html
The factorial of just a google is greater than a googleplex
. . (9.9565705518098× ( 10 ^101 )
10
As for the factorial of this googleplex thingy good luck
figuring that. There is not enough RAM in the universe.
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[Edited on 24-7-2006 by franklyn]
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IrC
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Damn! I just figured out where google got it's name! The number of paid ads you get for the first googleplex of hits before you actually get a link
you need when doing a search!
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franklyn
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| Quote: | Originally posted by unionised
BTW, it's a pity that Moore's law doesn't seem to apply to cars. 100MPG was just about possible way back.
http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,9526...
If the ecconomy had improved in line with the development of the computer industry, just think how well it would be doing now. |
For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo
(COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer
industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics :
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason.
You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could
continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five
percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning
light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle,
turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the
same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off
[Edited on 25-7-2006 by franklyn]
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franklyn
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In my experience it is rare to hear of a truly new technical
advancement in the thermodynamics of prime movers ( heat engines ).
Most so called " revolutionary " developments are revisions
of old ideas or different mechanical arrangements. The prospect
of an original idea capable of altering the world econmy seems
the stuff of frauds and charlatans. This is the real thing, the
equal of the work of Deisel , Otto , Stirling , Rankine or even
Watt. What are known as bottoming cycle engines , attempt to
recycle unused heat normally wasted to produce useful torque.
These are basic exhaust gas heated vapor generators that drive
a small auxilliary turbine or expansion motor. The complexity
and added cost of this scheme kept it only a curiousity. The
holy grail of a cheaply implemented mechanism has always seemed
distant until now , and to realize that one could actually
modify existing car engines so easily and simply , I slap my
forehead " why didn't I think of that ! "
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franklyn
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W O W !
http://news.discovery.com/autos/new-car-engine-sends-shockwa...
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/emergingtech/wave-disk-engines-to-...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIPSTTvHfLs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_disk_engine
Numerical investigation of the Wave Disk Micro-Engine - ( I have trouble understanding this )
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/gtsj/jgpp/v02n01tp01.pdf
A Review of Wave Rotor Technology and Its Applications - ( more historical in overview )
http://www.egr.msu.edu/mueller/NMReferences/AkbariNalimMuell...
P.S.
The first post opening this thread can now only be viewed in the " internet archive "
http://web.archive.org/web/20071214064529/http://www.whatsne...
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franklyn
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Go ahead , make my day
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/dubai-police-drive-70...
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