OT maneuvering with power

[mm]

OT

"Sion, giving you the power to maneuver today's congested cities"

How much power does one need in congested cities!

I thought power was for pulling a boat, a trailer, or going fast!

[Tony Hwang]

Is the heater good enough to give enough hit in -35F deg. cold winter with -45F deg wind chill?

[mm]

I doubt it. But why does wind chill matter if the windows are closed, and the car isn't sweating?

[Jeff Thies]

Do you live in a big congested city? I do.

You need a lot of torque to maneuver around those road clogging SUVs so you can get the next red light first. Also, city drivers like to drive fast to discourage rural drivers from visiting.

You don't need a lot of horsepower, but the two tend to go hand in hand.

Jeff

[David Jensen]

I gather you are referring to the SCION, a brand of Toyota. The Scion XD is highly maneuverable, quick and efficient. It sips fuel, the heater works nicely at sub-zero temps and the air conditioner keeps me cool at ninty-five.

[Tony Miklos]

First,about the car sweating, I used to think they figured humidity and evaporative cooling in wind chill, but it's not that sophisticated. I've looked at many wind chill calculators but none that I found ever factor air humidity or moisture content on the person.

I just found this definition of wind chill.

A wind chill temperature is a calculation of how cold it would have to be to cause the same rate of heat loss from your skin if there were no wind blowing. Same goes for cars instead of skin.

I would like to see a *real* wind chill calculator.

[willshak]

mm wrote the following:

What city? Miami - flat, San Fransisco - hilly.

...or going uphill.

[Vic Smith]

Why? You a weatherman? You can find a lot by googling "Joint Action Group for Temperature Indices." Looks like they don't include humidity. Probably because at the low temperatures where wind chill is important there's not much moisture in the air. More important in the heat index. The whole damn wind chill index is mostly for TV weathermen to scare people. I can see using it to warn people when it's dangerously cold, but sometimes they overdo it. Sometimes I'll glance at the TV when the weather is on and see -10 all over the map when it's +20 outside. Most people know you get cold faster when the wind is blowing. Same with cars. Most people know your car will stay warmer longer in an unheated garage instead of out in the wind. Even putting the backside to the wind helps. Though wind chill formulas only apply to human skin, it's all heat transfer and can be applied to most anything. I saw they use 95% percentile lowest skin conductivity in figuring wind chill. So most people will conduct more heat to the skin surface and not freeze so fast as wind chills might indicate. So if you want a real wind chill calculator you have to know your skin conductivity too. Do you want to do all that?

--Vic

[Tony Miklos]

I think you got that backwards. With low humidity in the air the evaporative cooling effect is much higher. It also is much higher when there is more moisture on the person, or object.

More important in the heat index.

Of course not, I want it done for me!

[Tony Miklos]

I know of a street in Bethlehem, PA that is so steep that the sidewalk is actually concrete stairs, and at the top is a stop sign. A little tricky with a manual transmission.

[mm]

Interesting.

I was driving around Bethlehem, Pa. and I wanted to take that big bridge (the hill-to-hill bridge?) because it was a big bridge and I had to go that way to get home, but because of maybe a 1-way street I couldn't go straight to it, so I drove around for 5 minutes and finally got to it and across it, and I was right back on the side I started on. Apparently I had gone over the Lehigh River when I wasn't looking.

[Tony Miklos]

LOL There is a much lower concrete bridge not too far away, you probably went over that one. Up and around a police station and past some giant steel sculptures?