Ok, my little slice of the internet looks like it may be in danger of becoming The Electric Car Blog, but would that really be so bad?
Knowing my proclivities, my good friend Cameron Gordon (the actor, not the mathematician) shared with me this little blurb about the rise of cheap Supercapacitors / Ultracapacitors / Whateverintensifieryouwanttousecapacitors.
To clarify, these are not the devices that send your DeLorean back to the future, but big brothers of the little things inside your TV or computer that can make it hazardous to open the case months after the device was unplugged due to their ability to charge (and discharge!) rapidly. This technology has long seemed the obvious answer to the problem with electric cars -- even with reliably-spaced charging points, a long-distance trip becomes an exercise in tedium while you wait for your car's batteries to charge before you can speed off again. You may recall my last post about the Tesla Model S kerfuffle, where the New York Times reviewer failed to fully charge the batteries, thereby screwing up Tesla's mileage calculations and instigating the whole thing. (On a side note, perhaps it wasn't the BEST design strategy to have the car's dashboard interface read "Charge Complete" while the battery meter reads only 90%, but without such ambiguity, we wouldn't have all these fun semantic arguments to keep us entertained.)
And if you watch the video (hidden above under the Supercapacitors link), you may note that the graphene substrate used is fabricated using a consumer-grade Lightscribe DVD burner. So buy whatever kind of stock you want, or maybe just go to your local electronics dealer and see if you can corner the market.
And if you're not clicking all my links anyway, you're missing out.
(Note: the white lightning bolt car is a Shelby Aero EV. Not actually powered by capacitors... yet... cuz then it'd be even FASTER.)
Knowing my proclivities, my good friend Cameron Gordon (the actor, not the mathematician) shared with me this little blurb about the rise of cheap Supercapacitors / Ultracapacitors / Whateverintensifieryouwanttousecapacitors.
And if you watch the video (hidden above under the Supercapacitors link), you may note that the graphene substrate used is fabricated using a consumer-grade Lightscribe DVD burner. So buy whatever kind of stock you want, or maybe just go to your local electronics dealer and see if you can corner the market.
And if you're not clicking all my links anyway, you're missing out.
(Note: the white lightning bolt car is a Shelby Aero EV. Not actually powered by capacitors... yet... cuz then it'd be even FASTER.)
I'll answer your question with another.. How could passion for cars be a bad thing?
ReplyDeleteYou should do a post on the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, I think most people assume they'll get all the kinks out. It seems like a very elegant plane. (from wikipedia):
ReplyDeleteThe Boeing 787 Dreamliner or simply Boeing 787 is a long-range, mid-size wide-body, twin-engine jet airliner developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Its variants seat 210 to 290 passengers. Boeing states that it is the company's most fuel-efficient airliner and the world's first major airliner to use composite materials as the primary material in the construction of its airframe.[8] The 787 has been designed to be 20% more fuel efficient than the 767 it is to replace.[9][10] The Dreamliner's distinguishing features include mostly electrical flight systems, a four-panel windshield, noise-reducing chevrons on its engine nacelles, and a smoother nose contour. It shares a common type rating with the larger 777 twinjet, allowing qualified pilots to operate both models, due to related design features.
[...]
The aircraft has suffered from early in-service problems, notably fires on board related with its lithium-ion batteries. These systems are being reviewed by both the FAA and the Japanese aviation agency. On January 16, 2013, the FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive that grounds all 787s in the U.S.