Could we use wind as an alternative fuel?

Question

Here's my description. You'll need gas at first, but after gaining some speed, the wind from the speed of the car will power up the inner turbines, creating electricity.

Then the car would switch from gas to electricity. This power could be used in electric cars! Can we do this? Explain your opinion.

Answer 1

suppose you weigh 125 lbs. but you can lift 150 lbs.

why cant you just grab your boots & pick yourself up into the air?

or why cant you hook up an electric generator with a belt to an electric motor that drives the generator?  

THINK!

Answer 2

no, that would take up way too much room. a regular wind turbine is 400 ft tall. Hydrogen is a better source because it is lighter than a battery and you can get way more energy output with the same volume container.

Answer 3

they have made a car that runs on compressed air already, and they are trying to make it compress its own air...

Answer 4

hmmm, don't see why not....we use wind for electricity. Why not harness it in cars. It would be really difficult though.

Answer 5

One important thing to remember is that energy cannot be created or destroyed. In other words, you can't get something for nothing. But, energy can be transformed from one form to another. Like when you charge a re-chargable battery by plugging it into an outlet. You're just filling up the empty tank inside the battery with energy from the power company.

Looking at your example: (1) It would take one pound of energy to get the car moving. (2) Shut off the gasoline engine - now, the one pound of energy used to get the car moving is still there, in the moving car. If the car were perfect, and in a vacuum - with no friction from the wind - it may continued to move forever. Like an asteroid. But, unfortunantly, the air moving over the car will cause friction.  The car will slow and that one pound of energy is converted into heat friction. (3) The wind moving the turbine will cause it to spin and produce electricity, but the payoff is very small.

You do have an interesting idea though, and here's why. There's alot of energy wasted when you have to slow a car down and stop it. The brakes just heat up because the energy in the moving car is all converted into heat on the small pads.

What if you designed a car that, when you wanted to stop, you used your idea ? You step on the brake, some doors open and the wind turns the turbine. Your car would slow much more quickly because of more friction on the turbine blades, and you could use the turbine to charge a battery. The battery power could be used to assist your car in taking off again - since that's where most energy is used anyway.

You have a great mind. Keep thinking about it. Always remember, when it comes to energy, you can't get something for nothing, ok ?

Answer 6

I have heard on the news that they built one but it's not available in the US. It takes 8 gallons of gas to get over 35 miles per hour.

Answer 7

they have this, in some cars, there are like some tubes that go through the car and spin a turbine.  I think.  Not sure, might want to re-check that.

Also if it wer on the outside of the car, it would probably slowdown the car and take as much energy as it takes in to keep it at a constent rate.

Answer 8

Sure; Put a big wind mill out side of the door of the US congress.

It would generate unlimited power.

Answer 9

PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINES DON'T WORK!!!!

That is all.

Answer 10

silly but fun question. No, sorry too many reasons to list, but a few would be, wind drag, surface area of the wind turbines, i have to stop now my brain hurts like an ice cream brain freeze.

Answer 11

they use a similar system on some aircraft in case of total electrical failure.on the ranch we used to use automotive generators to recharge batteries,they were attatched to the windmills and ran off of a belt in case of power outage.i always wondered why they cant design a semi tractor that is powered by batterys to start off with then switch to a turbine type recharging system when on the highway for long haul.

edit:if inventors like Tesla didnt think outside of the box where would we be today..closed minds only stagnate progress..

Answer 12

This will not work.  Google "perpetual motion" and "second law of thermodynamics".

Answer 13

It sure would be nice but... no.

Take a look at "overunity" sites. YouTube has a zillion videos showing efforts that simply fail, a few obvious hoaxes and some - mostly involving the new neodymium magnets - that are, to say the least, perplexing (they seem to work but I can't be sure).

The problem is that the amount of energy entering the turbine in the form of "wind" is always equal to or less than the amount of energy used (in the form of gasoline, etc) to propel the car in the first place.

Now, on a really windy day, there might be enough wind power to drive a very light little car with huge sails - albeit probably slowly. And it would be almost impossible to steer it, restart after stopping, etc.

Look into other ideas such as Granny Clampett's Still to make ethanol from bio-waste or methane digesters to make methane from just about anything.

...