Cool Science

...on saving the planet. I think I need to wrap up this theme of posts for a while so I can get to other things. So I'll just rattle off a few more. This first one I really should heed (it's 1:30 AM) : sleep more. You turn down your utilities, you're not running the lights, etc. Second : see if your employer will let you work from home one day a week - or more. Cuts down on that smoggy driving. Chat up clients in your jammies. There's another bonus - may enhance your productivity, job satisfaction, etc. And you might end up with some extra tax deductions too. Third, skip a shower once in a while - the ultimate lazy thing. Even the queer eye guys said this can help lead to healthier hair too. Fourth, go online and donate a few bucks to your favorite green charity (another tax deduction). Fifth, while you're online use the web to send a quick note to your congressman - it's incredibly easy - asking them to support green legislation.

OK, I guess I got preachy. Here's some cool science : Why cool mints spark.

Teaser for next time : why glaciers are blue.

Posted by Dave at 01:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

...while being lazy. Get one of these unlikely-looking shower heads that use only half (or even less) water than a conventional shower head. Sorry for that obscure link - you can find bins of these things in Lowes and Home Depot. They don't look like much, but they constrict the water flow and deliver a very high pressure shower. Once you try it you won't go back. Never mind that you'll conserve water and heating energy. You can take a longer, hotter shower than before and still use less water/energy than your standard shower head.

Scam laundry balls have been reincarnated as Eco Balls. Thankfully they are not magnetic. What they are is a bit of a mystery. Although billed as "chemical free" they contain surfactants (otherwise known as "soap") and random ingredients that claim to "activate water", which by itself is totally bogus and silly claim. You have to buy refills for them, too. Something fishy going on there. Aeons ago, I complained that the magic ingredient in magnetic laundry balls was (gasp) soap. Looks like same thing with these Eco Balls. In case you've been pining away for them, magnetic laundry balls have had a little reincarnation of their own as magno balls. The new claim is that they reduce limescale by 'crystallizing lime particles'. If true this would be wondrous indeed and would surely earn a Nobel prize. What's really happening (if anything....)? A wild guess - the hard surfaced ball whacks against the sides of your washing machine and knocks lime deposits loose.

Posted by Dave at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...while being really lazy. Cleaned out your car recently? A lot of people use their cars as trash cans. So drag a trash can out to you car and empty out the junk. Your car will smell better (with all the benefits this entails) and you could get quite a bit more mileage too. Here's a quick story: this morning with one passenger and his luggage in my car I got 38 mpg on the highway. Then I dropped him and the luggage off and with just me and no luggage I got 42 mpg. The conservative estimate is that every 100 lbs costs about 2% of your mpg but is actually even more significant for smaller cars like my 4-cylinder Malibu. Bottom line : if you've been stowing 100 lb of junk in your car you'll see a difference (get out a scale and start pulling out your ancient CD's, tapes, 8-tracks, the map of the grand canyon you'll never use again, and starting looking under those seats...). Then go to www.fueleconomy.gov for more good tips. Combine driving style with low weight and you too can get near-hybrid like performance out your regular car like my 42 mpg malibu.

I feel like there hasn't been a lot of science here, so one BIG deal in fuel economy is the drag due to wind resistance which is why you can see big improvements in your mileage by not speeding. Click and Clack (who have a lot of good advice on fuel economy) mentioned in one of their shows that wind resistance goes as the square of speed. Doubling your speed quadruples your wind resistance. Aerodynamics is so crucial to fuel economy that Mercedes designed this concept car based on the oddly well shapped boxfish and the resemblance is spectacular (as well as the coefficient of drag!). I love that you can look at the car and get a total flashback to which fish it was based on.

I'm never all that comfortable about citing wikipedia although it looked correct. It was also a little dry and boring. Here's a great racing article that explains terrifically (and with a good citation) not just that wind resistance is a square law, but that horsepower is a cube law in the speed of your car. If it takes about 7 hp to get to 55 mph, you need 31 hp just to get to 90 mph.

Posted by Dave at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)