jmichael@noscvax.UUCP (James A. Michael) (01/10/85)
(Zap! Another one bites the dust) Craig Werner gives some figures to show how 1 gal of gasoline produces about 1 1/2 gal of water. Part of his reasoning is that "car engines are about 1/4 effecient," so only 2 water molecules are produced per gasoline molecule, instead of 8 or 9. However, I believe that the engine effeciency is unimportant, since virtually all of the gasoline molecules react with the oxygen. The engine effeciency of approximately 25% is a measure of how much of the energy contained in a gal of gasoline is actually available to move the car (the transform of chemical energy to kinetic energy), not a measure of how much of the gasoline is consumed to produce water. Jim Michael {ihnp4,decvax,akgua,dcdwest,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!noscvax!jmichael