Why is it not possible to make an electric car capable of recharging itself by means of mechanical generation of electricity?
My idea for such an electric car involves using a generator similar to that of a bicycle generator. The car uses batteries to start moving and then the generator starts feeding current to the battery to keep it charged and also feeding current to both the engine and to run lights, heater, AC, and other devices.
An alternate way to create electricity would be to install a fan just behind the grill that would use the wind created by the motion of the car.
If anyone knows why such a system wouldn’t work, please, let me know why.
Not possible. You you can’t take more energy out of the system than you put in.
Some electric cars do much of what you are suggesting. They use battery power to run the motors that move the car. When you decelerate they reverse the function of the motor to recharge that battery, but it can only generate the power you did not use. If the generator and motor were 100% efficient (they are not nearly that good) and the battery is not 100% efficient. In short. Perpetual motion machines don’t work.
Well said Joseph; I’ve had to listen to some starry-eyed environmentalists who actually seriously believe you can violate the laws of Conservation of Energy or the first and second laws of Thermodynamics.
When I was 9 years old I actually dreamed of such a machine! By age 10 my science teacher talked me out of it!
I wonder if that starry-eyed environmentalist ever had a course in physics.
Ride a bicycle that has a generator for the lights. I think you will find that you pedal a lot harder to generate the power to work the bicycle headlight.
The railroads used to generate the power for passenger coaches with a generator that wss turned by the axle. The generator supplied the power to 32 volt batteries. The electrical power supplied the lights for the coaches as well as the motors for the air handling fans. This system has been abandoned and the coaches are now powered from the engine and 480 volt lines are run from the engines to the coaches. The new system is more economical.
You hit on a sensitive spot. A relative of mine went through highschool in the seventies. One of his courses was Environmental Science. I asked him whether he needed to take a chemistry course first. No, that was not necessary; they just learned what things were “bad” and what things were “good”, without needing to understand why.
He graduated and went on to major in broadcasting, without ever learning the meaning of BOD (biological oxygen demand) COD (chemical oxygen demand), Aerobic and Anaerobic digestion, carbon cycles, nitrogen cycles, etc.
“A relative of mine went through highschool in the seventies.”
Good for him! We should never stop learning, no matter how many degrees or accolades we get. One way I define a good day is when I learn something new.