Generating Electricity

[Fulgerite]

So the air moving around the car is wasted energy?

Air does not just jump out of the way of an approaching Volt cuz it's scared. It takes energy to PUSH the air out of the way while the car moves forward. Just like it takes energy to PUSH your hand through a pool full of water. You have to PUSH the air molecules out of the way so the Volt can fit into that space and move forward. (This always requires energy.)

Chevy engineers spent a lot of time and effort to design the Volt to be as "pointy" as possible to reduce air drag... But you still need POWER to PUSH the Volt through the air. Faster you go... More POWER required.

If you are suggesting that you can put little windmills all over the Volt to recharge the battery... Windmills adds drag. It's like trying to pick your self up by pulling on your shoelaces. No matter how hard you pull on your shoelaces you can't lift your self off the ground.

[Fulgerite]

It would come from the car coasting. to my understanding a magnet inside a coil of copper wiring does not have friction this tires would still be free to move as if nothing were there? As for drag if the air is allowed to pass seamlessly the drag would be close to non existent. put it this way if a simple exhale could turn anything then going 35 mph isn't going to create drag. not just stick a fan on the front that's too much...

lets get a Dyson vacuum engineer they know how to move air?

Your understanding is not completely wrong. If you made a generator with coils and magnets... And that generator had completely firctionless bearings. And that Generator was in a vacuum so it did not have any air friction... Theoretically you could spin it and it would spin forever. And it might be making electricity. But as soon as you impose a LOAD on the generator it will have drag and stop. Put your palm face up and hold it out in front of you. Does it stay there? Or does it want to fall down? Now put a 20 pound rock in your hand... Does it want to fall down now? Does it take effort to hold the rock up?

Making a spinning generator with no load attached is not useful. The generator does not do anything useful until it is supplying POWER to a LOAD. It's like that old question: If you are alone in the woods and you scream... is there any sound if nobody is there to hear it?

It takes mechanical FORCE to PUSH a coil of wire past a magnet if there is an electrical LOAD on the coil. Without the load why bother? That's exactly how your regenerative brakes work. The coils in the motor/generator moves past a magnet and the battery imposed a load which translates onto a mechanical drag on the wheels which slow the car down & charge the battery.

You can't just wave coils of wire near a magnet without any effort and make free electricity thats useful. Coils and magnets are a way of converting mechanical force into electrical energy. (And the other way around too.) The physics laws of conservation state that the amount of FORCE required to produce an equivalent amount of ENERGY are equal. In other words... You don't get the ENERGY unless you apply an equal amount of FORCE. No FORCE = No ENERGY.

As for the Dyson comment... You start with electrical energy... You dump it into a coils mounted next to magnets and that translates into motive force. (That's called an electric motor.) The Motor turns and pushes air paddles which PUSH air out of the system creating a vacuum that draws dirt into the collection bin. Dyson is not magic. It follows the same physics as all electric motors and fans.

Even the stupid and wasteful Dyson fans that appear to have no blades... HAVE BLADES. The BLADES are hidden in the base and paddle air up into the ring shaped air plenum and spray out of nozzles in the ring pushing air forward. It's still a FAN with BLADES and a MOTOR that uses ENERGY. (Even if the fan is hidden in the plastic cylinder in the base.)

[Fulgerite]

so basically there is no way to generate energy from an already moving car.

Right. You got it. There is no way to generate free electricity form a moving car. Not without imposing DRAG on the car and slowing it down.

(This is exactly the kind of questions we get when we stop teaching basic science and physics in schools.)

[Voltage D]

(This is exactly the kind of questions we get when we stop teaching basic science and physics in schools.)

Thanks for leaving it on a high note, your intelligence is undeniable.