Re: Run Your Car On Water

I tried to run my car on water but it sank and I nearly drowned!

You used to be able to run VW beetles on water, but only until the body rusted through.

Back in Ohio I ran several vehicles on water but only in the winter...

You are not supposed to do that without you have your water wings on.

P D Q

You are not supposed to do that without you have your water wings on.

P D Q

Oh, I thought those were for when you just wanted to fly over water.

I have personal knowledge that a 1965 mustang will readily ride/slide on nearly 1.5 inches of lake ice until the water below is almost knee deep....they then sink!!!!!

Brakes will also not necessarily stop a moving car on frozen lakes in a timely manner.

I also happen to know that potentially frisky teen age girls are no longer frisky at all after your car sinks.

Life's journey gives all manner of useful information, sometimes a bit late....Rod

Naaah.. These wings allow one to float like a butterfly.

P D Q

You gotta watch those "potentially frisky teen age girls". =20

They have been known to take one's mind off the driving with undesirable = results.

BTB. I am reminded of a full blown new Chrysler that took off from a = hill and ended up in Lake Huron in the middle of January. The cops got = a laugh out of the brown bettys that floated out of the open windows.

P D Q

I saw the Myth Busters guys try something like this recently. They bought one of the kits to convert water to hydrogen with low voltage. After much trial and error they did get the thing to produce hydrogen. They figured it would take about 50 of those units in the back seat to get enough hydrogen to run a car. Since that didn't really work they decided to try to run the car (a carbureted Olds) on hydrogen directly from a tank. The Olds actually ran until it backfired and flames came shooting out of the hose going to the tank. It was pretty entertaining.

Mike O.

... and history repeats itself again. This was an old Laurel and Hardy comedy bit (based upon real scam artists) from the WWII gas rationing era. Probably been around as long as there have been cars.

Not sure what they expected to accomplish with running directly from a tank. A hydrogen conversion involves the same sort of effort as a natural gas or LP gas conversion, either of which is doable on most cars and trucks (call your gas company and they should be able to tell you where you can get it done). For an idea of what's involved in such a conversion take a look at

Three laws of thermodynamics:

1. You can't win.
2. You can't break even.
3. You can't get out of the game.

Now I can picture that and it is funny.....

A common Northern Ohio winter time diversion on Lake Erie around the islands.

One year, guy drove a brand new, expensive Jeep something a couple of miles out on the Lake Erie ice to go fishing.

The ice cracked behind him leaving the jeep stranded.

People got off ice, Jeep didn't.

The approach of spring could be monitored by where the Jeep was in the sinking process.

Just another example of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"If you buy them books and the eat the covers".

Lew

This whole "running a vehicle on water" debate reminds me of a tragedy that occurred last winter. It seems some local "newfie" boys had been binge drinking down at the bait shack when they suddenly discovered themselves deficient of hooch. The "head honcho" of this trailer park brigade decided that they should all pile into his cousin's pick up truck and head to the nearest liquor bender, a mere few kilometers across a frozen lake. As you've probably guessed... the truck broke through the ice! The driver and his passenger managed to extricate themselves from the rapidly submerging Detroit iron, unfortunately their 2 buddies who'd been riding in the truck bed were not so fortunate.

They drowned 'cuz they couldn't get the tailgate opened! (wink)

the German Navy has a submarine that's powered by sea water/hydrogen.. So a car powered by water can't be too far off and it is not science fiction.

That would be the Type 212 or Type 214, which uses a hydrogen fuel cell for low speed submerged propulsion. The hydrogen and oygen are put on board at the dock, not made onboard from sea water, and the primary propulsion is a thoroughly conventional diesel-electric system.

Hydrogen fuel cells are nothing new--they were used on the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft back in the '60s. Further, you can lease a fuel-cell powered Honda _today_. But that is a far cry from "running on water".

Water is burned hydrogen. To use water for fuel you have to unburn it first. Unburning it takes as much energy as you get out of burning it, plus more to make up for inefficiencies in the process.

You must have misunderstood something; that's not physically possible. It requires more energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen than one gets back by burning the hydrogen.

Incorrect conclusion, driven by incorrect premises. A car, submarine, or whatever, powered solely by water, is a physical impossibility. There *must* be an additional power source.

Indeed.

Even hydroelectric power is ultimately, a form of solar energy utilization.

In fact, all energy, including nuclear fission, is a form of solar energy. Maybe not this sun, but some earlier star. The only exception would be nuclear fusion. -- Doug