IDEAS

The Problem

As today, there are billions of cars burning fuel every second non-stop. More roads and more cars are being built for the ever increasing population. We rely on fossil fuel to run most the cars. Alternative sources of energy is being thought of and implemented in some new cars. However, trucks, planes, trains however still rely of fossil fuel.

Electric cars use batteries, but to charge a battery we still reply on chemical energy. Electric engines are 60% efficient versus petrol engines, which are only 20% efficient. So despite the fact that producing electricity and consuming it will still save energy, in a long run we are still polluting our atmosphere but at a slightly slower rate.

There is a desperate need to solve this problem globally. Especially in China, which has the highest population, where its industry is growing rapidly and they have little empathy for the planet, the environment and the future of our children.

The other problem is the cost of the new electic cars. The cost of the car is double a petrol engine car. The battery only last 8 years, and is more expensive than the cost of all the petrol used for that period of time. The high cost also means the user will have to work harder to cover that extra cost, which leaves behind even more carbon footprint. So overall the solution is creating more problem than it tries to solve.

Solution

I worked out that no matter how the energy is produced the problem will still persist in the long run. So I looked at the problem from another angle, that to my knowledge, no one has even considered yet. This is a very long term plan and should reduce the fuel consumption by about 90%.

According to laws of physics, displacement of a body vertically does not require any more energy to give the body a momentum mv. The reason we need to burn so much fuel to move from A to B, is only to overcome friction, air resistance, gravity, stopping and restarting. Now imagine a heavy object on a bed of ice. It can be pushed with a very little force from one end to another. If there was no friction, no air and the Earth was covered with flat ice and a perfectly flat surfaces then it theory it should be possible to send a car with flat bottom around earth by a simple tap. This is obviously not possible but shows how removing these forces alone can hugely reduce the energy consumption.

  • Gravity - A practical solution would be to redesign the roads so they are as flat as possible. Trains would run on magnetic rails which will be powered by wind wind turbines placed at every half a mile, which will provide constant supply of energy when necessary.
  • Stopping and restarting - Breaks will be replaced by flywheels. This technique is already in use.
  • Air resistance - Again this is already well researched and aerodynamic designs will be very important in this solution.

    • Conclusion

    To solve the problem we need a long term and effective solution. This solution is simple and can be integrated with other solution. It saves energy even if it is partially applied. So we need to think ahead with a plane and implement this starting from now.e