5 ms·

You haven't made them lighter, you've made them more bouyant. A ton of feathers weighs the same as a ton of rocks, but a ton of rocks is far more aerodynamic.

JoblessWonder 5y ago
I mean, this is sort of off-topic.... but I just love this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg
nostromo 5y ago
Sure, but the point is a more buoyant semi would lose less energy to friction between the tires and the road.
- trulyme 5y ago
  You're missing the point. Liquid hidrogen takes much less space, that's all. It is neither lighter nor heavier than the same amount of hidrogen gas. And for buoyancy to matter, the trucks would need to be huge (zepelin style).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- HPsquared 5y ago
  That works until there's a light breeze.
- the_pwner224 5y ago
  And if you have 20% less weight on the wheels, you now have 20% less traction and thus 20% (or more?) longer braking distance. You still need the same engine output to accelerate 100 tons, but you only have the traction you would get from an 80 ton load. That's a bad thing. Meanwhile, you save a miniscule amount of energy by having less-loaded tires. Anyway, you need to compress hydrogen to store any meaningful amount, which increases the density and makes it like a normal gas/liquid instead of making you more buoyant. So it's not even possible.
  - barrkel 5y ago
    No, under ideal friction the reduced traction is cancelled out by the reduced mass that needs decelerating, so that braking distance remains constant. But actually, braking distance vs mass is more like a bathtub curve. With very little weight (talking toy cars here) it's hard to grip a surface, meanwhile very large masses like trucks have huge amounts of kinetic energy to disperse through their contact patches, leading rubber to melt, which reduces its stickiness beyond a certain point. Trucks end up with longer braking distances in practice.
    - the_pwner224 5y ago
      The point is that there is not reduced mass. You have the same weight, but less traction. That is not the same as reducing weight, in which case the two cancel out as you said.
agumonkey 5y ago
unless you store them in a black wing shaped bag and let the sun lift the fuel for you
BuffaloBagel 5y ago
You've confused weight with mass.

JoblessWonder 5y ago

I mean, this is sort of off-topic.... but I just love this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg

nostromo 5y ago

Sure, but the point is a more buoyant semi would lose less energy to friction between the tires and the road.

trulyme 5y ago
You're missing the point. Liquid hidrogen takes much less space, that's all. It is neither lighter nor heavier than the same amount of hidrogen gas. And for buoyancy to matter, the trucks would need to be huge (zepelin style).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
HPsquared 5y ago
That works until there's a light breeze.
the_pwner224 5y ago
And if you have 20% less weight on the wheels, you now have 20% less traction and thus 20% (or more?) longer braking distance. You still need the same engine output to accelerate 100 tons, but you only have the traction you would get from an 80 ton load. That's a bad thing. Meanwhile, you save a miniscule amount of energy by having less-loaded tires. Anyway, you need to compress hydrogen to store any meaningful amount, which increases the density and makes it like a normal gas/liquid instead of making you more buoyant. So it's not even possible.
- barrkel 5y ago
  No, under ideal friction the reduced traction is cancelled out by the reduced mass that needs decelerating, so that braking distance remains constant. But actually, braking distance vs mass is more like a bathtub curve. With very little weight (talking toy cars here) it's hard to grip a surface, meanwhile very large masses like trucks have huge amounts of kinetic energy to disperse through their contact patches, leading rubber to melt, which reduces its stickiness beyond a certain point. Trucks end up with longer braking distances in practice.
  - the_pwner224 5y ago
    The point is that there is not reduced mass. You have the same weight, but less traction. That is not the same as reducing weight, in which case the two cancel out as you said.

agumonkey 5y ago

unless you store them in a black wing shaped bag and let the sun lift the fuel for you

BuffaloBagel 5y ago

You've confused weight with mass.