[Tfug] OT:Battery Powered Transportation

[Charles R. Kiss]

Sorry Don, for some reason you were always Bexley to me.

Anyway, you say,

> So, instead of driving your land yacht to the grocery store
> half a mile away, you possibly walk (gasp!) instead.  Or,
> use the eq

According to the numbers, apparently people are incapable of fathoming the  
enormity of the energy demand in the transportation sector. ie.  
quadrillions, 10^15 BTU, etc.

Even if that yacht were reduced by a factor of 1000, essentially weighing  
about 3 pounds (include some uncertainty factor less than 10 here), an  
additional 5000 regular sized nuclear plants, or the equivalent capacity  
in windmills, would have to be produced to power its transport across the  
same mileage as the aggregate US population, ie. meeting the mobility  
needs of 300million+ individuals, each weighing and average of 100lbs.,  
say.

I don't buy the whole battery powered vehicle arguments, I suppose if you  
want to make a small vehicle, make a small vehicle, but the energy is  
going to come from somewhere, and it's going to be a similarly  
incomprehensible amount.

I'm pro-hydrogen.  The shuttle doesn't propel itself into orbit using a  
battery for a reason. I think the whole battery vehicle thing is  
absolutely ridiculous and just a power grab by the electricity industry  
which I would imagine is hundreds of thousands of times larger than the  
hyrogen industry. Not that it's a conspiricy however, just wishful  
thinking, IMHO.

I suppose car could run on anything if the roads were frictionless and  
inside a vacuum tube, perhaps no actual work would be necessary  
(integrating a round trip).  :)

Charles


-- 


This message and any attachments may contain information that is  
privileged or confidential, and is intended solely for the addressee.  If  
you recieved this message in error, please notify the sender by reply  
e-mail and delete the message and any attachments.  Thank you.