Five properties of physics that affect your gas mileage
Friday, July 3, 2015 - 07:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Physics is inescapable. It's everywhere, making your Frisbees fly, your toilets flush and your pasta water boil at a lower temperature at altitude. We've harnessed these forces, along with chemistry and engineering, to build a marvelous contraption called a car—but many of the same properties that allow you to fly along the freeway also affect how much gas mileage you get out of your car. We talked to Argonne transportation engineer Steve Ciatti to explore some of the forces at work in your engine when it's on the road.