|
Re: Air Cars?
In the not too distant past I have read stories about cars powered by compressed air and they all seem to get anywhere from 15 to 30 something miles per tank. Too hear several hundred (or a 1000 for a gas powered/air powered hybrid) seems somewhat unbelievable.
Compressed air is really a form of kinetic energy. In effect, it is not much different then powering a car on a giant rubber band, which is wound up by a super-rubberband-winding-machine at the filling station. It's actually extremely efficient, except there is no way to store large amounts of energy for those long trips.
Chemical methods (fuel or batteries) are capable of energy storage orders of magnitude greater than mechanical (and nuclear is order of magnitudes beyond chemical).
|