Gas price Idea

[z1n]

What about the hybrid cars? I realize they still use gas but it seems it may help the problem. oh and do you have to plugin hybrid cars (electricity is just as bad as gas right? which wouldn't help) or does the electric part get charged from the gas motor? Also the hydrogen cars would be nice.

[Newc]

Electric cars and such they are pimping now are not viable because it always comes back around to being dependant on oil - to run the electric plants that provide power to charge up the cars, etc etc.

Then they've got to figure out how to convert a gas station into an electrical station because someone's gotta make a buck.

You have to remove the possibility of becoming a bajillionaire from the equation before you can find anything that is truly beneficial.

While I'm no electrical genius, I do know that you can build an electric motor and power setup that charges itself so there would be no need to plug it in beyond the first charge. This would eliminate the need for refueling stations, and thus eliminate megacorporations that dictate the price.

There was a thing on the Science Channel or Discovery a while back about a guy in California who put an electric motor based on Tesla's designs in a few cars. They had plenty of giddy-up-and-go, all his design needed was the self-recharging feature and it'd be perfect.

[rjohnstone]

Newc, what you are talking about is impossible to build.
Falls under the category of a perpetual motion machine.
Laws of physics are pretty clear on this.
I saw the same episode you're talking about.... killer engine design, but powering it is still defendant on an outside source of juice.

[DrDoug]

Yup rjohnstone. Ain't the Law of Thermodynamics a bitch? The current options are just not truly feasible on a large scale. Even ethanol, the great white lightning of hope, costs energy to make and food production takes a hit over the loss. Brazil uses cane for their ethanol, which requires very little energy to convert to alcohol.

Energy has to come from somewhere, and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

[Freyr]

I actually did sell my car, and switch to using the public transportation. Kind of a bitch late at night, but it's alot faster in rush hour... that, and I save $20 a day

All the buses here use biodiesel too. Eat that, gas companies.

[Newc]

Perpetual motion isn't a myth, it simply cannot be patented. If it wasn't possible, the US Government wouldn't specifically state denying anyone a patent on it.

And it's not perpetual motion - it's a self-recharging battery-based system. A portion of the current from the electric motor is devoted to recharging the main batteries. All you have to do is keep the batteries in shape.

It's feasible, and it's possible, but no one's willing to chance it because they can't put the repeat-customer spin on it like with fuel.

[shobet]

Perpetual motion isn't a myth, it simply cannot be patented. If it wasn't possible, the US Government wouldn't specifically state denying anyone a patent on it.

And it's not perpetual motion - it's a self-recharging battery-based system. A portion of the current from the electric motor is devoted to recharging the main batteries. All you have to do is keep the batteries in shape.

It's feasible, and it's possible, but no one's willing to chance it because they can't put the repeat-customer spin on it like with fuel.

I still don't get it Newc. I think I understand what you are saying about the system but I fail to see how it can be self-perpetuating. Is the system capable of producing more energy than it uses? Is it completely closed or does the charge it produces only feed back into the system to keep it topped up, thus reducing the amount of external energy required by the system? I would have thought that it would need topping up from an external source periodically otherwise it's magic.

[marcus]

Perpetual motion isn't a myth, it simply cannot be patented. If it wasn't possible, the US Government wouldn't specifically state denying anyone a patent on it.

And it's not perpetual motion - it's a self-recharging battery-based system. A portion of the current from the electric motor is devoted to recharging the main batteries. All you have to do is keep the batteries in shape.

It's feasible, and it's possible, but no one's willing to chance it because they can't put the repeat-customer spin on it like with fuel.

Perpetual motion machines are unpatentable because they don't work. And yes, your proposed solution here is a perpetual motion machine: it generates more energy than is put into it. As Dr. Doug mentioned earlier, this violates the laws of thermodynamics. In fact, the kind you are talking about violates both the first (conservation of energy) and the second ( increasing entropy) laws of thermodynamics. There is no way around this.

It is possible to put an alternator in an electric motor to convert some of the mechanical energy of the motor into electrical energy, but you will never generate more electricity than you are using to power the engine. I wish this would work, believe me, as it would solve a lot of our problems.

[Rsmacker]

I used to vanpool to work before most of you pups were born.:ROTF: I worked in SF and took the vanpool, bus, or ferry. I did my part before anyone gave a shit.:ROTF:

I bet it looked like the Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo. Fett = Shaggy? Like wow, Scoob!

I'm not going to say come and live in England because the price here will make your arse hurt ($2.19 per litre-ish), because that's what we whining Limeys always say at this point in these threads. Oops, said it.

What I want to know is why our petrol prices keep rising when the price of oil is set in dollars and the pound is very strong against the dollar. Our fucking fuel should be getting cheaper! Of course, it's down to a certain theiving Scotch cunt in No 10 (he'll do for a start) and his mates squeezing our nutsacs. And them robbing Saudi fuckers. They need their hands chopping off.

Protest, take a leaf out of the Unabomber's book, send your friendly neighbourhood oil company a nice Christmas present. One in a Jiffy bag that ticks. Or get a horse.

[Coyote]

Kick Bush's ass out of there and I bet the prices will go down he's a oil guy like he wonts it to go down Yeah right

[YetAnotherOne]

Kick Bush's ass out of there and I bet the prices will go down he's a oil guy like he wonts it to go down Yeah right

Replace Bush with the party that believes we should all be paying a couple of bucks per gallon in carbon taxes? No thanks, $3.25/gal is enough for me I don't really feel like forking over any more taxes on top of that.

Besides, it's a self-correcting problem. Have you guys been paying attention to the stocks of so-called "green energy" companies? Through the roof. Venture capitalists can't find enough people to throw their billions of dollars towards in that sector. It's the tech boom of the late 90s all over again but this time in alternative energy. This isn't happening because all of the folks charged with turning a few bucks into millions suddenly became environmental wackjobs, it's happening because the price of hydrocarbon-based fuels is sky high and has been (in historic terms) for several years. Some good will come of all this but in the long run there's still only one real answer to the energy issue.

[RacerX]

I still like the veggie oil in converted diesel motor solution. It's a win/win.

http://www.lovecraftbiofuels.com/

[YetAnotherOne]

Nukes. Lots and lots of nukes. The more nukes the better.

It'll take about 250 mid-sized plants provide the electricity necessary to crack enough hydrogen from seawater to completely replace current motor fuels in the United States. Were we willing to issue a simple moratorium on litigating each new proposed plant and work from a standardized design we could've built them all for the cost of the Iraq War. And by the time that's over we'd have enough cash to fuel 'em all and operate them for decades. Of course there's that pesky bit about converting all of our cars and trucks and developing infrastructure that can handle H2 but still ....

[dironifish]

I seen on TV a few weeks ago, some guy deffending the oil companies. He was saying that the price of a gallon of gas would be about $1.00 if it wasn't for taxes. I have an idea. Why don't we audit the government like they do us. Aftre all, they work for us don't they? That would solve a butt-load of problems.

[Rsmacker]

What this thread needs now is young Wes (Douche of the Day) to come along and tell us where we are going wrong.