Do The Math: Drive Slower & Save Gas

So do you really believe that as speed approaches zero that your mileage will approach infinity?

Less speed = Less airfriction

HOWEVER.. motors may not run efficiently on low rpm etc..

The equation for efficieny is more likely to be a differential one than a simple linear one as suggested ;)

Interestingly, the original post has been blocked on this news server.

Graham

Many years ago, cars would get their best gas mielage between 60 and

Yes, it does if you adapt the engine accordingly. Most cars have too big engines to work efficiently even at 90 km/h.

Thats never been true, more like 45-55, maybe even slower for older less aerodynamic cars.

Somewhat OT, I was looking into who makes small stirling engines, say about 1KW, yesterday, and none of the websites I found had any information about buying them, all just saying how wonderful they are. No price lists or anything.

Stirling people are a strange bunch.

martin

After applying some simple algebra to some trite phrases and cliches, a new understanding can be reached of the secret to wealth and success.

Here it goes.

Knowledge is Power Time is Money and as everyone knows, Power is Work divided by Time.

So, substituting algebraic equations for these time worn bits of wisdom, we get: K = P (1) T = M (2) P = W/T (3)

Now, do a few simple substitutions:

Put W/T in for P in equation (1), which yields:

K = W/T (4)

Put M in for T into equation (4), which yields:

K = W/M (5).

Now we've got something. Expanding back into English, we get:

Knowledge equals Work divided by Money.

What this MEANS is that:

1. The More You Know, the More Work You Do, and 2. The More You Know, the Less Money You Make.

Solving for Money, we get:

M = W/K (6)

Money equals Work divided by Knowledge.

From equation (6) we see that Money approaches infinity as Knowledge approaches 0, regardless of the Work done.

What THIS MEANS is:

The More you Make, the Less you Know.

Solving for Work, we get

W = M x K (7) Work equals Money times Knowledge

From equation (7) we see that Work approaches 0 as Knowledge approaches 0.

What THIS MEANS is:

The stupid rich do little or no work.

Working out the socioeconomic implications of this breakthrough is left as an exercise for the reader.

Regards Ian

Graham

That must have been before the atmosphere was formed.

No, it's engine and transmission efficiency.

For the past two weeks I've been driving two granddaughters to downtown Phoenix for Valley Youth Theatre... one is an intern assisting teachers and the other is attending acting lessons for

I use the freeway HOV lane except for a few stop-lights on each end, so I average nearly 75MPH, the Frontier 4-banger just purrs at 3000RPM ;-)

This steady driving rate has allowed me enough data points to get an accurate MPG... I'm getting 24.5MPG!

...Jim Thompson

I did the math....It's cheaper to drive at 80 than at 45 MPH!. Yes you burn more gas at 80 but, "time is money." Most people earn enough money that the savings in gas going slow is trival compared to the saving in the value of their time when getting to their destination quicker. In my case, gas would have to be about $30 per gallon, or 10 times its present price, before savings in diving slowly would equal the value of my time. Do your own math and figure it out for your self. Going slow is nonsense, speed limits should be raised.

Amen! Finally some sanity. If I'm driving 75MPH my gasoline cost per hour is roughly $9. My income per hour is significantly more than an order of magnitude higher.

...Jim Thompson

Can't speak to the general question, but I've made a number of cross-country runs from 50mph on up, trying for best economy. My Acura gets best fuel economy from 65-85 mph, carefully tested and measured (and I'm not so sure that 65 is fast enough). At those speeds I get over 40MPG on Arizona gas.

A car-wise friend suggests that, up to a point, the engine's efficiency improves at high rpm enough to compensate for the increased aerodynamic drag.

Cheers, James Arthur

That's not what I asked.

I asked, Who owns you, Eeyore/Graham? I'm not talking generalizations here - that's what's got us into this pickle in the first place! ;-)

Who is the owner of your own personal life?

I'm the owner of mine, and I take my knocks like a Human - how about you? Whom do you blame for your plight?

In fact, I have that in common with the likes of John and John and Michael and Jim and some others who are much less viciferous about it than I am, but there you have it.

I own my life. Who owns yours?

Thanks, Rich

Some of us would rather not be in a collision with only a shoe box around us.

say

are.

The purpose of the sterling engine is to extract research grants and tenure - NOT to produce energy!

Along the same line, there is a really long advertisement every night on cable TV featuring, mostly, two young ladies with deep cleavage telling me if I send in $35, I will soon start receiving $1000 checks and $500 checks (the word "checks" is used a lot, leading me to believe that even if I were to receive one, it would be worthless), apparently for convincing people to do something (send in $35, maybe?). It's not clear to me from the ad what I am supposed to do or sell or demo or whatever, but I usually watch the ad until the ladies are replaced by The Intense Young Man (I don't know his name, but a few years ago he was intensely telling everyone they could make money with real estate if they sent him some money) comes on. Then I switch to Kevin Trudeau or the colon clenaser people.