Darren New wrote:

>> Hey, I wonder - can I use the alternator on my car to drive the car 
>> instead of recharge the battery? :-D
> 
> Yes. It's called a starter motor. ;-)

The starter motor is designed to convert electric to kinetic. The 
alternator is designed to convert kinetic to electric. I'm musing over 
whether either device can do the *opposite* job. :-P

Actually, you laugh, but I did see a report about a car that has a giant 
motor inside it that drives the wheels at low speeds, acts as a starter 
motor to start the petrol engine when the car is moving fast enough, and 
acts as an alternator to charge the batteries thereafter. Basically the 
petrol engine only runs while the car is doing more than 20 MPH. The big 
advantage being that waiting at traffic lights uses no fuel.

[Actually, having computed that my car uses 10^(-6) L of fuel per minute 
even when it's flying down the road at 75 MPH, I wonder just how much 
fuel it can possibly be wasting on tickover? And also, doesn't 
repeatedly starting up a petrol engine waste fuel anyway?]

Last I heard the car never came to market. They were still playing with 
the control software to try to figure out the most optimal algorithms...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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