Slashdot Mirror
Google-Backed Wind-Powered Car Goes Faster Than the Wind
sterlingda writes "A wind-powered car has been clocked in the US traveling downwind 2.85 times faster than the 13.5 mph wind. The definitive research by Rick Cavallaro of FasterThanTheWind.org is being funded by Google and Joby Energy. The run should now settle the DWFTTW (downwind faster than the wind) debate that has been raging for some time on the Internet about whether or not such a feat was possible."
Sailing vessels only go faster than the wind when they travel with the wind coming from the side. No matter how fast the vessel goes, the wind keeps blowing from the side and delivering energy to the vehicle. When you try to go faster than the wind in the direction of the wind, the relative motion to the air goes down to zero and then you start going against a head wind. Obviously the wind can not be the propelling force beyond the point where you go as fast as the wind in the conventional sailing sense, because at that speed there is no wind (motion is relative). The described device uses the sailing force to accelerate and then produces its own faster wind, so to speak, by driving a propeller via a transmission from the wheels.