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
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