RE: Fuel Efficient Cars (was Oil Economics)

From: Edwin Evans (ektimo@pacbell.net)
Date: Sun Feb 09 2003 - 19:18:40 MST

  • Next message: Lee Corbin: "RE: fuel efficient cars"

    Kai Becker wrote:
    > > [quoting article]
    > > If cars of the same mass crash into each other, each will undergo
    > > identical speed changes.
    > ...
    > Its structure that matters, not mass. What is more efficient
    > for chopping wood, an iron axe or a wooden club of the same mass? Hitting
    > along the fibers or across? Why can a small bullet go through a steel
    > plate, but not through a ligher Kevlar vest?

    Both matter; it's not an either-or situation. If you add some more weight to
    the axe, it will cut further (but be harder to lift).

    > To look on mass alone seems to be one of the positive feedback loops
    > which normally lead to unwanted extremes. "Always drive a heavier car
    > than the others" would probably lead to everyone driving a tank and
    > therefore outweight the safety with several other disadvantages - e.g.
    > heavy protective gear for pedestrians...

    There are many values and countless variables to consider, but there is also
    the question that Brian asked: does new technology like airbags and the
    stuff BMW advertises increase your safety more than just getting a
    bigger/heavier car? The answer is "no, getting a very large car would lead
    to a much *larger* safety increase". This doesn't mean that those
    technologies aren't valuable; they are.

    It also doesn't imply that people should buy bigger cars, or that the U.S.
    should raise or lower taxes on oil, or that I have any opinion on those
    issues. 

    --
If, hypothetically, mass was the only factor and everybody found out, would
everybody start driving tanks? Only if people tried to maximize their safety
at the expense of all other values and acted rationally. If you want to
increase your safety right now, you should wear a helmet when you drive,
travel only on slow roads, etc.
Even if everyone gets heavier cars, it would still lead to fewer deaths. The
main reason is that cars often hit inanimate objects and mass is always a
positive factor in those cases. The most commonly struck object that causes
a fatality is a tree.
http://www.scienceservingsociety.com/pubs/OpEd/WashTimes.htm
-Edwin

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