Thread: Speeding ticket
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Old 08-10-2006, 04:50 PM
AASooted AASooted is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 135
Default Re: Speeding ticket

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lol, why do people believe that going slower saves on gas, are you really that dense?

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It's possible they believe it because it's true. Wind resistance is proportional to the square of your speed. In other words, doubling your speed gives you four times as much wind resistance. The energy to overcome that extra resistance has to come from somewhere -- that somewhere is your gas tank.

Starting and stopping (at traffic signals, for example) will increase the amount of gas your car uses. That's why mileage ratings for non-hybrid vehicles are lower for city driving than highway driving. All things being equal, however, driving slower is more energy efficient.

For a real world example, I used to have a pick-up truck which got horrible mileage. One winter, I was taking a trip through a snowstorm and couldn't safely drive any faster than about 45 mph. I got better gas mileage on that stretch (close to 50% better) than any other driving I did in that truck -- city or highway.

I don't care if you drive slower or not -- it's your money -- but you should understand that driving faster does use more gas. Whether you believe it or not, physics is going to have the last lol.
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