Re: [Phys-l] cars and physics

[Bill Nettles <bnettles@uu.edu>]

What we really need regarding this question is a search of the historical archives at Chevrolet, Pontiac, Ford, etc., to find the meeting notes where the decision was made.  Does anybody on this list have the right connections to get that done? I suspect that the people who actually made the decision are no longer around.  Are there archivists/historians at the car companies that would look this up for us?

I suspect there is not a 100% overlap between our speculation and the business decision that was made. I also suspect that the engineers were the main driving force and probably co-opted a "we can save money by having thinner wire (but don't mention the more expensive battery)" explanation to satisfy the bean counters when that was far from their original motivation.

By golly, we've GOT to search those records! This is important ... (just having fun). Seriously, the answer is written down somewhere. Who can find it?

-----Original Message-----
From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of brian whatcott
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:51 PM
To: Forum for Physics Educators
Subject: Re: [Phys-l] cars and physics

On 2/23/2011 1:07 PM, Edmiston, Mike wrote:
> /snip/  It seems to me the 12-volt battery would cost more than the 6-volt battery even if it didn't use much more material /snip/
> Michael D. Edmiston, PhD.
This looked like a straight forward technical or commercial question 
that might be answered readily by interrogating the price of comparable 
batteries in the market.

I was surprised and disappointed to find that comparing a 6 and 12 volt 
battery of equal  stored energy  and construction type, was not to be 
established by my headlong search among suppliers.    For the average 
car battery, people want $70 to $90. And that's not saying much.

I think that a reasonable figure of merit would comprise these factors:
  volts X amp.hours  X weight / cost.

That's something that could be evaluated at a supplier's shop with a 
bathroom scales, I suppose.   A sample value would be  350 watt.hour.lbs 
per dollar in that fine American customary unit mix.   :-)

Brian W
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