Transportation is a key contributor to global warming and climate change so improving the efficiency of cars is more than essential. More than half of the CO2 emissions (51%) were released by means of transportation. Gasoline, which weighs about 6.3 pounds, could produce 20 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned due to the carbon and atoms separating. Since transportation plays a vital role in our world eliminating this is nearly impossible, but making transportation much efficient, smarter and greener must ensue. Sure there have been many innovations towards different parts of the car, but there have not been many towards energy recovery from the suspension of a car. Without a suspension system, cars wouldn’t be comfortable to ride in. The job of a car suspension is to maximize the friction between the tires and the road surface, to provide steering stability with good handling and to ensure safety and comfort of the passengers. There are two main parts of a suspension system, springs and shock absorbers. All vehicles have springs and according to Newton’s law of motion, all forces have both magnitude and direction. When vehicles roll over a bump, the springs compress. Once they are over the bump, the springs expand. This way, the wheel rides up over the bump while the vehicle stays level. Then, the springs would want to expand and compress over and over until the energy is gotten rid of, but that would make the car bounce uncontrollably. The shock absorbers absorb the energy of the vertically accelerated wheel, allowing the frame and body to ride undisturbed while the wheels follow bumps in the road. Since bumps on the road cause a vertical acceleration, there is energy that can be used and be converted into electricity or...
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... for the work:
Change in work
W= 1.394982 N* 2.089m - 1.372419 N * 2.089m
0.047134107 Joules
The total energy needed for the car to pass over the track was 0.047134107 Joules. The total energy that was recovered was 0.0139339205 Joules. They are not equal and the percentage that was recovered was only a fraction of the total.
Percentage
0.0139339205 Joules / 0.047134107 Joules
= 0.2956 %
Currently only 14-26% of the energy you put in your tank is actually used and by using regenerative shock absorbers thirty percent more energy from the same fuel would be used.
Professional Experiment:
Electromagnetic Energy-Harvesting Shock Absorbers: Design, Modeling, and Road Tests
This study conducted by George Luhrs involved the design and engineering process of building a productive and efficient regenerative shock absorber and then implemented on a Chevrolet Suburban SUV.
In this experiment, we are finding the Conservation of Energy. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Energy is summed up into two different properties: Potential energy and Kinetic energy. The law of Energy states that:
For example, in the late nineties and early two-thousands, there was a high level of reporting attributing SUV accidents to rollovers. Due to the high center of gravity, at fairly moderate speeds, the SUV is susceptible to rolling over. Conversely, most sedans and coupes are not as vulnerable to this. Mr. Bragg points out that the large cars of the 1970s were safer because they were big; however, cars of that era were merely made of different materials. Nowadays, vehicles are made of composite and recycled materials, consequently reducing the chances of withstanding minor
As with many things, breakthrough of any kind can be traced back to a mistake or a situation forcing people to think things through differently. The modern suspension of today’s vehicle is made of different components including those due to different circumstances. According to Motorera.com, a car crash that occurred when Alanson Brush’s brother wrecked his car, forced Alanson to rethink the suspension on the vehicle in order to make sure it could not happen again. Therefore he came up with the idea to add front coil springs along with shock absorbers. This was unheard of at the time and
U.S. energy dependence is higher today than it was during the oil shock of the 1970's, and oil imports are projected to increase. Passenger vehicles alone consume 6 million barrels of oil every single day. If just 20 percent of cars used full cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels every day. 10,000 fuel cell vehicles running on non-petroleum fuel would reduce oil consumption by 6.98 million gallons a year.
type of energy is lost or gained, and whether or not a factor that is
Cars are a fantastic invention. They make our lives even more carefree by getting us from place to place quickly while eradicating the need for legs altogether. There is no doubt that the benefits of driving from place to place are numerous. However, driving takes a whole lot of fuel, and everyone knows that fuel for cars isn’t the most plentiful (or cheapest!) of resources.
There are three safety features in the egg project. The three safety features are seat belts, brakes, and airbags. The seat belts are made out of tape. The seat belts put pressure on the passenger. This means that it will keep the passenger inside the car instead of flying out and getting injured. The airbags are made out of bubble wrap. The bubble wrap will have a huge impact on the area of the passenger. It is like a soft cushion. This protects the passenger from hitting the passenger. The passenger will get hurt by the airbag, but not as much without one. If there wasn’t an airbag in a car, people would be getting into a second collision. A second collision is where the body hits the car. That is the whole point of an airbag. The brakes are made out of cotton balls. The brakes prevent the passenger from getting hit and it puts force on it. Also, they prevent it from getting into a first collision. A first collision is where a
Imagine that you’re driving on an open highway in the middle of summer. All you see in front of you is asphalt for miles and miles. The windows are down and your favorite song comes on the radio. You’re behind the wheel of a Tesla Model S, the newest electric car that can go from zero to sixty miles per hour in 2.4 seconds. This will soon be the future of all motor vehicles. Electric cars are beginning to have colossal impacts on our society because of their energy efficiency, performance benefits, and the fact that they are less harmful to the environment. In the near future, electric cars will dominate the road and eventually the planet’s overall need for oil will decrease immensely.
If the purpose of brakes is to convert kinetic energy into heat, then in order to know how much heat the brakes make requires that we find out how much kinetic energy there is in a moving bicycle.
Lift kits on trucks change the angle of the driveshaft and can cause U-joint and powertrain issues. Slamming a vehicle drastically changes the alignment angles causing the automobile to wear out tires quickly. Another difference between suspension modifications and the upgrades mentioned above is the amount of work involved in returning it to a factory original condition.
Today, people use their own personal vehicles to travel more than ever before. Personal transportation is no longer considered a luxury; it is now considered a necessity. The number of cars in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1970s. The number of miles traveled by cars has risen nearly 150 percent, yet the United States population has only grown roughly 40 percent during that time (hybridcars.com, Driving Trends). Although it may seem like we are advancing into the future, in reality, we are moving backwards from the effects these vehicles have on our bodies and the environment. The pollution produced by these vehicles has brought us to the day where we must find other modes of transportation that cause less harm to the world in which we live. Advances in technology have developed hybrid vehicles to try and slow down the amount of pollution. Driving a hybrid vehicle, instead of a conventional gas powered vehicle, can reduce the amount of pollution that affects our lives and the environment around us.
The average driver doesn’t think about what keeps their car moving or what keeps them on the road, but that’s because they don’t have to. The average driver doesn’t have to worry about having enough downforce to keep them on the road or if they will reach the adhesive limit of their car’s tires around a turn. These are the things are the car designers, professional drivers, racing pit crews, serious sports car owners, and physicist think about. Physics are an important part of every sports and racing car design. The stylish curves and ground effects on sports cars are usually there not just for form but function as well allowing you to go speeds over 140 mph in most serious sports cars and remain on the road and in reasonable control.
In an elastic collision, kinetic energy is always conserved. Nearly all of the kinetic energy is transferred from the first object to the second. Thus, when two cars collide, all the kinetic energy would be conserved; no energy would be lost. The objects in an elastic collision “bounce” apart when they collide. The only time that an elastic collision occurs in an automobile accident is when the vehicles collide at a slow sp...
...e Tanked; like Tankless--they're Super Efficient Alternatives." Reeves Journal Sept. 2013: 26+. Home Improvement Collection. Web. 24 Mar. 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA345616258&v=2.1&u=mlin_n_great&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=dc192...id=GALE%7CA345616258&v=2.1&u=mlin_n_great&it=r&p=GPS&sw=w&asid=dc192....
There is no doubt that electric cars are the most appealing from of transportation in the world. They provide two of the most important key points of good transportation: reliable and efficient. They are reliable due to their simplicity of their power trains and the advancement of technology they have. They are efficient because they don't use any gasoline and because their motors can pass the zero-emission standard. Even though they may seem like a boring form of transportation, they offer good features that help keep the Earth's air clean and they help reduce pollution.