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You get a better car. :)

The Wright brothers were masters of aerodynamics. I recall reading a book where one of the brothers, Orville I think, designed the currently used configuration of bicycle where the rider leans forward so his torso is horizontal to significantly reduce his aerodynamic footprint. The first time he road this bike, he destroyed the competition who all rode conventional upright sitting bicycles. Pretty soon they were selling these to all competitive bicyclists.

The true innovation in the Wright brothers made to flight was figuring out the design of a wing, that would provide lift. They even tested this in a wind tunnel, which they built: http://www.solarnavigator.net/inventors/wright_brothers_wind_tunnel.htm. An engine twice as powerful as the one they used wouldn't have lifted them off the ground without their innovation in wing design.

I am not as familiar with Wyoming, but google maps shows an awful lot of brown...

T

I have personally witnessed a large fishing vessel actually outrun a USCG vessel on fishieries enforcement (which was pretty funny, but it couldn't outrun the helo).

No great achievement there. Check out:

http://www.solarnavigator.net/hull_speed.htm

Or google for similar.

In summary, due to various wave displacement thingies (err, hydrodynamics) a ship forms two waves, one at the front and one at the back. Turns out the power required to go more than X of those wavelengths per minute scales by some crazy huge polynomial. So thats the qualitative explanation.

For a simple displacement hull, there's no way to get a USCG 100 foot boat above maybe 15 knots, whereas a 300 foot fishing boat can easily coast along at 25 knots or so. Maybe the USCG could plane some, and go somewhat faster, maybe, at immense fuel costs.

It's always kind of funny how "sailor-types" don't know these formulas, and the few that do, don't know landlubbers know them, so you get hilarious claims from some sailors about aircraft carriers that go 75 knots, but that's "top sekret info".

Obviously this does not apply to hydroplaning hulls that skip or "plane" across the surface of the water, or hydrofoils, but most "big boats" are simple displacement hulls... A hydrofoil nuclear powered aircraft carrier would be impressive. Usually those hydroplaning boats don't handle rough seas very well and don't have very long range. So simply send the robo-shipper thru storms and rough seas that it can shrug off, but would utterly swamp an inflatable or a pontoon boat or whatever it is pirates use, and floor it so the tiny pirate boats can't keep up in the long run anyway.

As a side note it's even funnier when a boat tries to outrun a navy vessel, given how fast bullets, ship to ship missiles, and torpedos move. USCG has helicopters, USN has supersonic aircraft with harpoon missiles, or barely subsonic cruise missiles....

While some canadians tell me that they believe people that this dude thinks that he is this dude, I completely disagree, however I think that

this guy believes himself to be this guy.

This asshole really wants to be this asshole

This goof is really this goof.

You can put that noisy hot computer in a special ACed room which we would call, "The Computer Room" and have the monitor keyboard and mouses in the office, much like this picture

If private businesses were allowed to make their own rules: New York old timer structural steel worker empire state building. Private Businesses that were forced by the government to adopt safety standards: Sky HKWorkers. Which would you rather be?

If private businesses were allowed to make their own rules: http://www.solarnavigator.net/geography/geography_images/New_york_old_timer_structural_steel_worker_empire_state_building.jpg Private Businesses that were forced by the government to adopt safety standards: http://www.parallaxfilm.com/sky_hkworkers.jpg Which would you rather be?

Why is this a troll? I always feel the same way when Americans are being dramatic when the rest of the world pays at least twice as much "a gallon". In Belgium it is atm 1.3EUR/liter,
which is (3.7 * 1.3) 4,81EUR/gallon
which in turn is (4,81 * 1.3) 6,25USD/gallon.

More like South America to SE Asia via Africa.

My memory is a bit foggy, but I beleive most DC systems us about .45kWh per mile. AC systems I think were in the .17-.28 range. So it entirely matters on the amount of surface space, the amount of solar energy you receive, and the efficiency of the panels.

This site: http://www.solarnavigator.net/thin_film_solar_cell s.htm has a 1.5v 330mA thin film solution, that's about half a watt per cell. Over a nine hour day parked in the sun you'd be looking at 4.5Wh (.0045kWh) per cell. so you would need about 100 of them to get 1 "free" mile. At 19cm x 5 cm you would have to have one heck of a large car to hold them all. Even for the most efficient AC systems you would still need 38 to get your 1 free mile. In any case, it's not very economically feasible to count on vehicle based solar cells for power.

But if you are using a battery powered moped, and you have a fold/roll out solar array, you may be able to get enough juice while at work to power the bike for a few miles.

-Rick