It looks like the car is going against the wind... correct?
If so, any increase in vehicle speed (relative to the wind) from the "wind turbine" through the gearing will make the vehicle go faster (accelerate), which will make the wind speed against the turbine faster, which makes it accelerate... until the air resistance from the drag of the whole setup matches the force delivered from by the turbine to the wheels, which here must be 2.85 times the wind speed (at least at 13.5 mph wind speed). It doesn't have anything to do with sails!
If the wind speed is 10 m/s, and the vehicle is moving at 20 m/s, the relative speed seen by the turbine is 30 m/s. That energy is used to make the car go faster, say 15 m/s, which then of course makes the relative speed seen by the turbine 35 m/s, etc. It would seem that this could go on until the car is moving at c, but of course there is finite air resistance on the car and this resistance limits the speed the car can go. At that point, more energy would be needed to make it go that little bit faster... which the turbine can't extract from the wind.
Interesting concept.
Slashdot Mirror
nevermind it is going downwind... my bad!
It looks like the car is going against the wind... correct? If so, any increase in vehicle speed (relative to the wind) from the "wind turbine" through the gearing will make the vehicle go faster (accelerate), which will make the wind speed against the turbine faster, which makes it accelerate... until the air resistance from the drag of the whole setup matches the force delivered from by the turbine to the wheels, which here must be 2.85 times the wind speed (at least at 13.5 mph wind speed). It doesn't have anything to do with sails! If the wind speed is 10 m/s, and the vehicle is moving at 20 m/s, the relative speed seen by the turbine is 30 m/s. That energy is used to make the car go faster, say 15 m/s, which then of course makes the relative speed seen by the turbine 35 m/s, etc. It would seem that this could go on until the car is moving at c, but of course there is finite air resistance on the car and this resistance limits the speed the car can go. At that point, more energy would be needed to make it go that little bit faster... which the turbine can't extract from the wind. Interesting concept.