4 ms·
Would the distance traveled exceed that on a flat road with no generation? No. Climbing the hill the car uses extra energy (compared to a flat road) because it
by codeulike 5y ago
Would the distance traveled exceed that on a flat road with no generation?
No. Climbing the hill the car uses extra energy (compared to a flat road) because its fighting gravity. On the way back down the hill regen will recover some of that gravity-fighting energy but nowhere near all of it.
- hourislate 5y agoThis scenario is a little different than a car but a Swiss company is experimenting with a Komatsu Dump Truck that basically recharges its battery using regen braking on it's trip down so it has enough power for the trip up. It actually generates a surplus of an extra 10kwh because the truck is carrying a full load down. https://phys.org/news/2017-09-e-dumper-world-largest-electric-vehicle.html https://phys.org/news/2017-09-e-dumper-world-largest-electri...
- monkeybutton 5y agoAnd going up it is empty. Its basically exploiting the fact that rocks at the top of a hill have higher potential energy than at the bottom. If you charged the trucks with wind/solar at peak times and used them to carry the rocks back uphill you could have yourself a very convoluted and mechanically fraught battery!
- UncleOxidant 5y agoA good visual demonstration of entropy. Heat death occurs when all of the mountains have been leveled and there are no altitude differences to exploit.
- EvanAnderson 5y agoThat's excellent! I'm stealing that.
- codeulike 5y agoLike Pumped Storage Hydroelectricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumped-storage_hydroelectricit...
- unknown_error 5y agoThat's actually pretty cool. It's kinda like a dam... harnessing potential energy stored by geologic processes and turning that into power? I'm sure there's some fancy physics word for it that I don't know.
- polishdude20 5y agoWhat if you did this with passengers instead of a truck load of rocks? Carry passengers down a mountain, go up the mountain with an empty tesla.
- unknown_error 5y agoI don't think the passengers would appreciate getting back up via plate tectonics.
- polishdude20 5y agoI mean, you provide a service to bring skiers down the mountain. You can let regular taxis bring them up