Energy per distance, better than gallons/liters?
Ok, so there seem to be a million ways to compare gasoline/petrol with diesel with electricity with CNG with LP, etc. But what makes the most sense?
In the USA we're all used to miles-per-gallon. In some other countries, they use liters per 100 kilometers, which in some ways is a more intuitive measurement. The nice thing about both is that they aren't price locked. A 40mpg car will cost less to fuel than a 30mpg car, regardless if the fuel is $1, $3 or $100 per gallon/liter. But that's assuming we're talking about the same fuel, or fuels with basically the same price per gallon. If one car get's 100mpg, but it uses electrcity, and another gets 40mpg, but it uses diesel fuel, the price of each of these fuels could make the miles-per-gallon type measurements kind of useless. Cost-per-mile remedies a lot of the MPG measurement problems. If my car costs 10¢ per mile and someone else's costs 5¢ per mile, then the comparison makes perfect sense regardless if the fuel is diesel, gasoline or electricity. You can also add more to the total cost-per-mile than just fuel costs. What if a vehicle costs more to insure even though it costs less to fuel? It could still be more expensive and using cost-per-mile would help differentiate that. But what if we're comparing the same or similar vehicles from different places? Differences in fuel costs could make the two vehicles seem like they are completely different when they aren't. Another measurement is efficiency. But efficiency of what? The motor/engine? That plus the drive train? But that would seem to imply that the only important factor is motor/engine efficiency and that things like rolling resistance, acceleration or air drag have no apparent effect. So instead do we calculate what would be the absolute least amount of energy needed to move an average person through air, at a "highway speed," over a paved road and then compare that to the total energy the vehicle in question uses? So what if we just did energy per distance. Calories per meter, joules per foot, BTU's per mile? My vehicle uses x amount of energy to go a set distance. That would make comparing between diesel, gas and electric vehicles a bit easier to understand. Then just state the cost per unit of energy, and we know how much it both uses and costs to drive. It may be a bit difficult to calculate since we don't always know the energy content of our fuels, like winter vs. summer blends. But at least we could guestimate and that would be better, in my opinion, since it would help alleviate the occasional complaint of "well diesel has more energy, and summer fuel has more energy and electric fuel has more energy". |
Isn't that essentially wh/mile?
|
Quote:
Actually, yes, watt-hours per miles would be in the same idea. |
A watt-hour is 3.600 Joules. It is an SI unit (Système international (d'unités). The mile is an Imperial measure. The two systems share the second in common.
Quote:
|
We should dump all imperial entanglements. Time to peel that band aid off.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s-oNxdKf3g |
Abandon it for a system based on a misapprehension of the distance from the Equator to the North Pole? Let's not be hasty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M...ic_archaeology Quote:
|
All I know is if I have to figure out what 16’ 2 and 1/16th” minus 3’ 7 and 3/8th” in my head again, I’m succeeding.
|
Thou might convert to thou. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousandth_of_an_inch
Quote:
|
I’ll start using thou when there are 10 inches in a foot, 10 feet in a yard, and 100 yards in a mile, or something else divisible by the number of fingers on my hands.
|
Darest thou! Why shouldest thou find another meaning of "thou?" He who hath thought such nonsense knoweth not the English language.
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Hogsheads per furlong?
This is a quick read: www.dozenalsociety.org.uk: A Defence of Sacred Measures Quote:
|
If you insist on natural units then my fuel consumption today was 1.53x10^62 Plank areas.
|
Instead of base 12 math why not base 2 or binary? Because otherwise the machines would take over. They may be able to figure out chess, but they will never understand the king's system of weights and measures!
|
Imperial measure is base nothing. Base 12 for inches in a foot, base 3 for feet in a yard, base 5280 for feet in a mile, base 32 for 32nds of an inch, base 16, for 16ths of an inch, base 8 for 8ths of an inch, base 4 for quarter of an inch, base 2 for halves in an inch, base 1000 for thousandths of an inch.
I couldn't invent a worse way to measure distance if I tried. I'm simply not smart enough. |
Imperial made sense when you would measure with your foot or the width of your thumb (inch). Until the standardized it and made it to where everyone's foot and thumb were the same.
|
As the king's arm grows longer, the world becomes smaller. Take that robots!
|
Quote:
|
You forgot rods which is base 16
|
Unlike barleycorns per tablespoon or whatever, Wh or Joules per km makes sense, is easy to use for range and emissions calculations and not based on an archaic system of people with unusualy large feet.
Alternatively use Joules per Meter or Kilojoules per Kilometer if you want smaller numbers. But the metricly impaired will cry a river about the metric system beeing "less intuitive" because they didn't grew up with it. |
I remember the same noise when the UK changed their pound to 100 pence, but they actually have backbones.
|
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 12:57 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.5.2
All content copyright EcoModder.com