<mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: Rubbish. The ignition of the fuel in a normal car engine cylinder results > in a > power production on the order of half a megawatt for a couple of > milliseconds, > and that's just chemical energy (with maybe few hydrinos thrown in ;). >
Really? Hmmm . . . How do you figure that? At 60 mph a typical old car consumes ~20 mpg. 1 gallon is 3.8 L, so that's 0.19 L per mile (or per minute). 1 L of gasoline produces 34.2 MJ. Divide by 20 to get 1.71 MJ per minute. A single piston stroke produces only a small fraction of that. I don't know how long it takes the gasoline to burn, but I doubt such a small amount would reach the half-megawatt level. Here is a paper on the burn rate of gasoline, which you have to pay for: http://papers.sae.org/2008-01-0469/ At 60 mph, I think engines run at about 2500 rpm. A single piston stroke with a 6-cylinder engine running at 2500 rpm would consume . . . ummm . . .1.71 MJ / 15,000 = 114 joules. Right? That takes only 0.0002 s to burn? - Jed
