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2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/sci/ - Science & Math

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11566329 No.11566329 [Reply] [Original]

My physics teacher was telling me today about how the Intensity of the sun is about 1400 Watts/meter^2 and how inefficient that would be to power a car, and how little horsepower that would equate to. Is this true?

>> No.11566333

>>11566329
I don't know what he means by 'inefficient', but it would definitely be insufficient. 1400W is roughly 2 horsepower. Most car engines are on the order of 100-300 horsepower.

>> No.11566339

>>11566329
Yes, 99.9999999999999999999% of the suns energy doesn't go to Earth. Thats why we need dyson spheres to capture all of the radiated energy.

>> No.11566345

well, typically you don't put the solar panels ON the car. You put them OUTSIDE the car, and use them to charge the battery.

This seems like such common sense I feel like this thread is some kind of joke, and I'm wondering who's at the butt of this joke? Me? OP? or his professor?

>> No.11566356

>>11566345
im at the butt of youre mom

>> No.11566362

>>11566345
No I was being genuine about the question.

>> No.11566382

Teacher is very correct in assuming the power generated relative to our location of the sun. But once we learn to harness more of its power we will be able to do great things.

>> No.11566384
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11566384

>>11566333
This is why the solar powered cars we have made look like UFOs. Making it solar powered isn't the hard, making the most efficient land vehicle ever created is the hard part. This technology will never come to fruition for the average person because it's just impractical.

Even putting a solar panel on a regular electric car and leaving it to charge for 12 hours a day from your sunny southern California driveway doesn't make much sense because the area of the car is so small. It hardly offsets any of the power required to charge it.

>> No.11566467

>>11566329
"Sun's interior indicate a maximum power density, or energy production, of approximately 276.5 watts per cubic metre at the center of the core,[75] which is about the same rate of power production as takes place in reptile metabolism or a compost pile.[76][e]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Core

>> No.11566577
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11566577

>>11566329
it's enough to power an electric bike

>> No.11566585

>>11566467
1400 W/m^2 is referring to the density of energy flux found at the distance of the earth

>> No.11566590
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11566590

>>11566362
your car is just standing around most of the time, if you store the power in a battery you need almost no charging from the grid

>> No.11566603
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11566603

>>11566585
it varies with location

>> No.11566636

>>11566603
That's factoring in things like atmospheric thickness and weather. In space it's more or less the same everywhere.

>> No.11566902

>>11566636
unless you are Elon Musk your car is not in space

>> No.11566907 [DELETED] 

>>11566577
Just don't leave it parked in any city with >1% black population

>> No.11567734
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11567734

>>11566902
>unless you are Elon Musk your car is not in space

I wonder what kind of gas mileage that thing is getting out there?

Seriously, now I'm wondering how many gallons of fuel the rocket used, and how many times it'll orbit the sun before disintegrating or landing on something.

>> No.11567736

>>11566902
muh memlon

>> No.11567745

>>11567736
Jealous