I want to mention one other illustration of the incredible energy
potential of chemical fuels like gasoline.
Imagine taking a car and accelerating it up to 70 miles per hour, and
crashing it into a brick wall. More than a ton of metal crashing in a
tremendous impact, bricks and car parts flying everywhere. It's a huge
amount of energy being dissipated.
Yet all that energy came from just a little bit of gasoline, probably
no more than you could hold in your cupped hand. That small amount of
gasoline contains enough energy to produce such an impressive display
of destructive power.
Chemical fuels may not look like much but if you think about what they
can do it is really amazing.
Hal
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