Posts by Ed

California to get 'space age' three-wheel EV

Power Output

As they have specified the drag coefficient and the max speed, then if someone of known height wouldn't mind just standing next to it, so as I can calculate the frontal area, I can calculate the power.

World's smallest working fuel cell developed

"Generates 1mA of power"

No it doesn't!

It sources 1mA of CURRENT if you like, but the power is dependant on the potential difference across which is can push that much current. According to the article they have a 0.7V p.d. so that's 0.7mW of power.

At the suggested 30hours of life, this gives 21mWh of energy. This compares well with an SR63 Silver Oxide watch battery, of 5.8mm dia and 2.1mm thick, also with a capacity of 21mWh

Gov to Manchester: No new trams without road pricing

Where do I start?

So, if they don't vote yes for something that will be blatantly unpopular, then they'll cancel a bunch of badly needed public transport investment? So the chances of them having to pay for the public transport investment are quite small.

The DfT can seem to justify road building even after massive cost increases, but try to build a tram system or reopen a railway and there's much sucking of teeth and millions wasted on feasibility studies, that delay the project so much that cost increases to the point they kill it off (they compare the build cost against the original benefit value). See Liverpool's Trams or the East West Rail Link as examples of both.

You'll notice that, generally, building and maintaining roads is referred to as an "investment", but public transport is always a "subsidy".

Fifty years later, steam appears on British railway

@Andy Taylor - 7ft Gauge

The railway bridges, cuttings, embankments and tunnels are civil engineering. The gauge of the track laid on it is not.

Whilst a boarder gauge is better (which is why the Russians, Spanish, Irish and others use 5' 3"), the rest of the Britain at the time was being covered with 4' 8.5" gauge track.

Mine is the one with the gauging bar in the pocket, ta!

First new *Main Line* steam engine

Pedant Mode ON:

It's the first new Main Line steam loco. There have been lots of steam engines built in the UK in the last forty years. Look up "David Lloyd George" on the Festiniog Railway (2ft Gauge). "Iron Duke" at Didcot Railway centre (7ft Gauge - Brunel should have stuck with Civil Engineering)