Cool weather and higher humidity doesn't help at all with fiberglass, epoxy and other resin work. The temperature part is easy to figure out, cooler slows down the chemical reactions. Dunno how humidity has any influence given that it's a chemical reaction that doesn't depend on evaporation - and the resin casting I do is in sealed pressure tanks. But when the humidity is up I have to leave things in the tanks longer.
With stuff that does dry or cure via evaporation of volatiles, high humidity slows it down because the "space" in the air where the volatile components would go is taken up by water vapor. Same reason why swamp coolers aren't very effective coolers. Where your sweat would go into the air is already filled with water vapor. You feel cool at first but your dumb autonomic systems insist on attempting to cool your body as fast as possible, by sweating, instead of letting the cooled air do it by conduction and convection. "Ahhh! Cool!" (2 min later) "WTH am I sweating in here when it's cool?". Air cooled with a refrigerated system is *dry*, the moisture having condensed out on the evaporator. You still sweat but it evaporates more easily into the dry air instead of running down your back and into your undershorts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stankoprowski
Niel,
I see Smart cars in the wrecking yards here in Guadalajara. I'm surprised their not in U.S. wrecking yards.
Stan
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There aren't that many in the US yet. They're too expensive for the size. If it's MPG you care about, a decent old Geo can be bought for a lot less and will get quite a bit better mileage.
Then there's this
crushed-smart-car-wreck « Smart Car Wreck Yes, that pic *is* a Smart car, unlike many squished vehicle pics that aren't. I'd like to know what ran over it.
And this
Doesn't matter if the doors still open when so much of the energy gets transferred to the occupants. If it had about two more feet of car on both ends... The test that should be done is park a Smart behind a big truck and smash it from behind with another big truck at 35 MPH. That happens quite a lot at stop lights where drivers fail to stop and crunch a car into another car or truck. (Yes, I've seen that pic of the Ford Escape the driver was lucky to.)
Lots of people just don't feel such a small car can be safe and would rather spend the same $ on a larger car that can be used for more than hauling around two people and a very small amount of stuff.
Where a little bit like the Smart makes sense is in cities where all the roads are slow and the highest speed impact you'll get as the filling in a Smart car sandwich is 25 MPH or less - and if you have a lot of need for never having more than two people and a hatful of cargo in a car.
New York City, yes. Chicago or Los Angeles, no. If I won one in some contest, with taxes included, I might use it for a town runabout simply because it'd get better MPG in town than my Taurus* but I'd never take it out on 65 MPH highway 95 to go the 20 miles to Ontario, OR, or even on the 55 MPH Highway 201.
*Which averages 26 MPG on the mixed speed route to Boise, ID that includes a long stretch of 75 MPH freeway. Nearly as good as the EPA ratings for most of the Fiat 500 models and better than the "hot" Abarth version's 25 MPG. Oh, and my Taurus gets that mileage with just me on board or with four people and a trunk full of stuff.