Mythbusters has been running for almost a decade now, and they have already tested a lot of myths, suggested by fans and other rumors circulating the World Wide Web. The Mythbusters team is made up of special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, along with the build team consisting of Kari Byron, Grant Imahara and Tory Belleci. With the steady rise of gas and fuel prices, they launched a series of myths to help make your car fuel efficient.
On their second season, they tested whether turning on the air conditioning inside a car would be more fuel efficient than lowering the windows when traveling. At face value, both situations are not ideal in giving you sufficient fuel efficiency. By just turning the A/C on, it affects your fuel economy by at least 10%, on the other hand, rolling down your windows lets drag enter inside your car thus dwindles a cars fuel economy. Ironically the only way to combat drag is to accelerate your car and in doing so you are decreasing your fuel economy further. The Mythbusters team tried this myth by driving a vehicle in to two separate speeds, 89kph and 72 kph. In a controlled environment, the vehicle was subjected to turn the A/C on and to lower the windows down. Results have shown that its more fuel efficient to travel with your windows down in lower speeds and turning the A/C on when traveling faster. Fast forward to their third season, they debated whether driving a pick-up truck with its tailgate down is more fuel efficient than it is up. In fact, it is better to close your tailgate rather than putting it down because it allows drag to circulate at the back of your vehicle while putting it up creates this vortex of air flow over your vehicle that makes it more fuel efficient.
They also have a collection of other myths like the dimpled car, in which they covered a car in clay and pressed dimples into it similar to a golf ball. The myth was centered on studies that have shown dimpled golf balls to travel farther compared to their counterparts The results were astonishing as fuel mileage improved from 26 miles per gallon to 29 miles on a single gallon. Other myths include not taking any left turns, instead of driving normally, which is to wait for your turn go left. Its said that idling your vehicle consumes more gas than taking three right turns. Despite having a longer distance and is time consuming, the right turn route posted a 3% fuel efficiency improvement. Lastly, one of their famous myths is the Great Gas Conspiracy, which is believed that gas companies are in cahoots with vehicle manufacturers to produce fuel inefficient cars. With this, they tested products marketed to make your car fuel efficient. These included carburetors and a water fuel cell. All failed to make your car fuel efficient, some even made it worse. Surprisingly, one of the products used on this segment was cooking oil. It was used as an alternative to fuel and it made the engine run but was deemed to be inefficient.
Like any another resource, fuel might also run out in the future and we might have to find a suitable alternative or save on gas to prolong our resources.
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