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I'm having trouble understanding why it would necessarily be comparable to a traditional electric motor in efficiency. Whether or not it's "technically" an elec
by justusthane 4y ago
I'm having trouble understanding why it would necessarily be comparable to a traditional electric motor in efficiency. Whether or not it's "technically" an electric motor, it's operating on completely different principles. The first things that come to mind are there are no moving parts to generate friction and heat, and it requires much higher voltage. Wouldn't those aspects alone swing the efficiency one way or the other?
- brianpan 4y agoBoth use electromagnetic force to move something. They are much more similar to each other than combustion, which is a chemical reaction. https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/brushless-motor.htm https://electronics.howstuffworks.com/brushless-motor.htm
- CSSer 4y agoIt was a big guess for sure. To be clear, I don't know. I did find this in my search, which suggests it's not exponential[0], so it seems you're correct. There's a drop-off at higher exhaust speeds, but it's unclear to me why that is. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster#Energy_efficiency https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_thruster#Energy_efficiency
- IIAOPSW 4y agoKinetic energy of the particles (which has to ultimately come out of the battery) is proportional to mv^2. Momentum of the particles (which is ultimately equal and opposite to thrust) is proportional to mv.