Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
"There are lies, d---d lies, and statistics." Cut out (or add, your choice) X amount of data, and you'll be able to prove just about anything statistically.
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It's a known fact that 79.3% of all statistics are just made up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisH
You don't design airplanes on what you wish the material properties to be, nor on what the vendor (who has an obvious vested interest) says they are.
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Indeed. This applies beyond aircraft as well. Excellent points all, Chris.
OK, so here's a good question:
How DO we solve the problem of energy independence? Sure, we could come up with a world-changing idea (think 'Mr. Fusion"), but in my experience things usually don't change dramatically - instead they are changed incrementally.
Example: If every house in the USA changed a single 100W incandescent bulb that was used for 4 hours a day to a Compact Fluorescent, we would
save over 34 Gigawatt-hours of electricity A DAY, representing 34 million pounds of coal*.
That's how we start saving -
little steps...
111,162,259 households * (
77 W * 4 h/day = 308 Wh) = 3.42 *10^10
*
DoE says about 50% of electricity in the USA is from coal. Sites disagree about how much coal is used for a kWh, but using 1 pount per kWh is a reasonable number and it makes the math easier...