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Physics

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Traffic Jam Torment: Physics Proves That Bottlenecks Are Bulls**t

Traffic jams stand no chance under the onslaught of giant throbbing Japanese physicist brains! Well, to be accurate, physicists from the Land of the Rising Sun haven't exactly cracked the traffic-jam conundrum. But they have figured out why it took me four mother!@#$ing hours to crawl up the mother!@#$ing I-5 from San Diego to L.A. last week. More »

3:45 PM on Tue Mar 4 2008
By Matthew DeBord
2,043 views, 44 comments

laws of physics enrich gasoline retailers

Hot Gasoline: Less Bang Per Buck

Back in the early 20th century, US regulators decreed that the official definition of a gallon of gasoline was 231 cubic inches at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. All well and good, but the problem is that gasoline expands somewhat as temperature increases, meaning that you're actually getting less energy per dollar when you buy gas warmer than 60ยบ F. According to consumer-watchdog types, this translates to something like 3 to 9 cents extra per gallon at the pump this summer. The House Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, chaired by presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, says retailers should adjust prices based on fuel temperature; retailers say such a move would cause the destruction of the American Way Of Life. – Murilee Martin More »

5:30 PM on Wed Jun 20 2007
By Murilee Martin
977 views, 27 comments

Latest by Jake: I knew i saw this somewhere...ha! My guess was spot on...i knew they would make the temp the high average so that no one should complained... From: [www.energyquest.ca.gov] "Almost everywhere across the entire planet, the upper 10 feet below ground level stays the more »

science

Foot-Pounds vs. Newton Meters: Jalopnik Goes to School

So we mentioned in our R10 post from earlier that we didn't get the whole lb. ft. And because our addled little brain is somewhat screwy when it comes to physics (we did well in Honors Bio but struggled through high-school Chemistry and didn't bother with physics if it involves math, forget it). And we could've saved ourselves a lot of embarrassment if we'd just looked up a conversion table on this glorious interweb at our fingertips. But we didn't. Anyway, kindly reader Weston writes in and explains the whole damn thing. Click through to humiliate us further. More »

12:22 AM on Fri Mar 17 2006
By Davey G. Johnson
5,008 views, 10 comments

Latest by camp6ell: Newton was gay? Who knew. more »