Can a Wind Turbine Power Cars for Extended Travel?

[RandyJ]

I have read some of the responses to the question of why a wind turbine would not be a useful source of energy for a car. Why could it not be used as a supplemental source to extend travel?

 

[QuarkCharmer]

You mean like, a wind turbine attached TO the car? So that it generates electricity or angular momentum or something to then power the car?

It won't work because said devices require work to operate. That work has to come from somewhere, and while the vehicle is moving it's coming from the engine of the vehicle, effectively making the whole idea pointless. Not only that, but every time you transfer energy into another form (wind to electrical in this case) you lose some of that energy to heat.

If it was only deployed when the car was stationary, it would take work to deploy it, since you don't want it running while you are moving due to the above reasons. Plus, the wind at the altitude of typical car travel is negligible, and the size and efficiency of the turbine required to make any small use of this idea would be enormous and costly.

 

[russ_watters]

Simple: The car's engine creates the wind, so either way it is powered by gas.

 

[Mech_Engineer]

Wind powered cars:

 

[russ_watters]

I don't do much of my driving on the salt flats, so for me, the wind would be generated by my car's engine...