r/SipsTea • • 1d ago

SMH Museum of Useless Inventions

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u/Romeo9594 23h ago

I really want to know, if they made anything real like what they showed off, how much pressure would be in the tank in order to do what what was shown with an actual EV. Like do we really want to be driving around with the next best thing to a bomb in the back seat?

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u/TheCerpent 22h ago

Well, think about it this way. Let's assume that the vehicle weighs around 3000 lbs, or 1.5 tons. If that's the case, the jets would need 1.5 tons of thrust to merely -equal- the mass of the vehicle. That's not enough to lift it. It would require even more thrust to push it upward. To push it upward at that sort of acceleration would likely take an order of magnitude more thrust.

To do that midair flip? That's right, something powerful enough to rotate 1.5 tons of machine without sending it crashing into the ground. Then, to land softly, still putting out massive forces to counteract gravity and prevent damage to an incredibly heavy vehicle. And that sort of force likely would have been reflected on the vehicles the "car" jumped over.

The fact that they used cold gas thrusters is basically the final proof that this isn't a real car. It would need something far more powerful to move something of real mass, which is why I mentioned jet fuel or rocket fuel. Which brings us to the biggest problem of all: the inverse square law.

Basically, if we need rocket fuel to do the jump, then we need to account for the weight of the fuel. Which means we aren't solving for a 1.5 ton vehicle anymore, but rather a 1.5 ton vehicle AND the weight of the fuel necessary to perform the stunt. Which means we need more thrust, and thus means we need more fuel, which requires more thrust, etc. It does finally reach an equilibrium point, especially if you have particularly efficient thrusters, but the space and fuel required to pull this off would likely exceed the remaining internal space of the car, meaning you couldn't even drive the damn thing.

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u/amsync 21h ago

So what is the point of demoing a concept car that cannot even be made real?

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u/Jessir12 20h ago

Pushes up the hype & stock price?