Learn about Cars Trucks Autos: Cars, Trucks, Autos, Gas, Fuel and More!

Gas → Gas is one of the three classical states of matter (the others being liquid and solid). Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point (see phase change), boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons are so energized that they leave their parent atoms from within the gas. A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas or atomic gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or compound molecules made from a variety of atoms (e.g. carbon dioxide). A gas mixture would contain a variety of pure gases much like the air. What distinguishes a gas from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles. This separation usually makes a colorless gas invisible to the human observer. The interaction of gas particles in the presence of electric and gravitational fields are considered negligible as indicated by the constant velocity vectors in the image.

Fuel → An alternative fuel vehicle is a vehicle that runs on a fuel other than "traditional" petroleum fuels (petrol or diesel); and also refers to any technology of powering an engine that does not involve solely petroleum (e.g. electric car, hybrid electric vehicles, solar powered). Because of a combination of factors, such as environmental concerns, high oil prices and the potential for peak oil, development of cleaner alternative fuels and advanced power systems for vehicles has become a high priority for many governments and vehicle manufacturers around the world.

Trucks → An electric bicycle is a conventional bicycle that has been fitted with an electric motor. Converting an existing bicycle by retrofitting it with a "conversion kit" is the simplest and least expensive electric vehicle conversion option. Most often electric bicycles or "e-bikes" are powered by rechargeable batteries however some experimental electric bicycles run directly on or recharge their batteries via solar panels, fuel cells, gas generators or other alternative energy sources. Some experimenters have even used super capacitors to store energy. Using an on-board generator may impact the legal jurisdictional definition of an electric bicycle. A few types of electric bicycles are able to re-capture a small amount of energy from braking and can re-charge the batteries while braking or traveling down hills (regenerative braking).

Cars → The automotive industry in India is one of the largest in the world and one of the fastest growing globally. India's passenger car and commercial vehicle manufacturing industry is the sixth largest in the world, with an annual production of more than 3.7 million units in 2010. According to recent reports, India is set to overtake Brazil to become the sixth largest passenger vehicle producer in the world, growing 16-18 per cent to sell around three million units in the course of 2011-12. In 2009, India emerged as Asia's fourth largest exporter of passenger cars, behind Japan, South Korea, and Thailand.. In 2010, India reached as Asia's third largest exporter of passenger cars, behind Japan and South Korea beating Thailand.

Autos → A headlamp is a lamp, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car or a motorcycle, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as darkness or precipitation. Headlamp performance has steadily improved throughout the automobile age, spurred by the great disparity between daytime and nighttime traffic fatalities: the U. S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that nearly half of all traffic-related fatalities occur in the dark, despite only 25% of traffic travelling during darkness.

History

Rudolf Diesel was the father of the engine which bears his name. His first attempts were to design an engine to run on coal dust, but later designed his engine to run on vegetable oil. The idea, he hoped, would make his engines more attractive to farmers having a source of fuel readily available. In a 1912 presentation to the British Institute of Mechanical Engineers, he cited a number of efforts in this area and remarked, "The fact that fat oils from vegetable sources can be used may seem insignificant today, but such oils may perhaps become in course of time of the same importance as some natural mineral oils and the tar products are now."

Periodic petroleum shortages spurred research into vegetable oil as a diesel substitute during the 1930s and 1940s, and again in the 1970s and early 1980s when straight vegetable oil enjoyed its highest level of scientific interest. The 1970s also saw the formation ... Read the rest of this article

Featured Articles on Autos...

Automotive Industry Crisis of 2008–2010: North America - Canada The Canadian auto industry is closely linked to the U.S., due to the Automotive Products Trade Agreement and later the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and is in similar trouble... automotive industry in addition to criticism of their product range, product quality, high labour wages, job bank programs, and healthcare and retirement benefits...

Economics Of Automobile Usage - Compared to other popular modes of passenger transportation, especially buses, the automobile has a relatively high cost per person-kilometre traveled ... Nevertheless demand for automobiles remains high and inelastic in rich nations, suggesting that its advantages, such as on-demand and door-to-door travel, are highly prized, despite recent increases in fuel costs, and not easily substituted by cheaper alternative modes of transport, with the present level and type of auto specific infrastructure in the countries with high auto usage... Public costs related to the automobile are several; effects related to emissions have received a lot of attention, however the impact of manufacturing and disposal is less well-understood...

Automotive Industry in Japan: Timeline of The Japanese Car Industry - established 1911 - Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works established 1917 - Mitsubishi Motors' 1st car 1918 - Isuzu's 1st car 1920-1925 Gorham/Lila - auto production established (merged into Datsun) 1924-1927 Otomo built at the Hakuyosha Ironworks in Tokyo 1931 - Mazda Mazdago - by Toyo Kogyo corp, later Mazda 1934-1957 Ohta begins auto production 1936 - Toyota's 1st car (Toyota AA) 1952-1966 Prince Motor Company (integrated into Nissan) 1953-1967 Hino Motors starts auto production (merged into Toyota) 1954 - Subaru's 1st car (Subaru P-1) 1955 - Suzuki's 1st car (Suzulight) 1957 - Daihatsu's 1st car (Daihatsu Midget) 1963 - Honda's 1st car (Honda S500) 1966 - One of the best selling cars of all time, the Toyota Corolla, is introduced 1967 - Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) is founded This section needs additional citations for verification... 1981 - Voluntary Export Restraints from May limit exports to United States to 1.68 m...

Automotive Industry In North Korea - The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is not involved with the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobiles (OICA) or any other United Nations industrial committee, so information about its motor vehicle industry is limited... The automotive industry in North Korea is a branch of the national economy, with much-lower production than that in South Korea...

List Of Auto Parts - This is a list of auto parts, which are manufactured components of automobiles: Body components, including windows and trim: Bonnet/hood Bonnet/hood latch Bumper Unexposed bumper Exposed bumper Cowl screen Decklid Fascia rear and support Fender (wing or mudguard) Front clip Front fascia and header panel Grille (also called grill) Pillar and hard trim Quarter panel Radiator core support Rocker panel Roof rack Spoiler Front spoiler (air dam) Rear spoiler (wing) Trim package Trunk/boot/hatch Trunk/boot latch Valance Welded assembly Outer door handle Inner door handle Door control module Door seal Door watershield Hinge Door latch Door lock and power door locks Center-locking Fuel tank (or fuel filler) door Glass Sunroof Sunroof motor Window motor Window regulator Windshield (also called windscreen) Windshield washer motor Window seal See also: 42-volt electrical...

History of The Automobile: Eras of Invention - Early automobiles Ferdinand Verbiest, a member of a Jesuit mission in China, built the first steam-powered vehicle around 1672, designed as a toy for the Chinese Emperor, it being of small scale and unable to carry a driver or passenger but, quite possibly, the first working steam-powered vehicle ('auto-mobile')... This effectively killed road auto development in the UK for most of the rest of the 19th century; inventors and engineers shifted their efforts to improvements in railway locomotives...

Featured Articles on Cars...

Future Car Technologies - A variety of alternative fuel vehicles have been proposed or sold, including electric cars, hydrogen cars, compressed-air cars and liquid nitrogen cars... Platoons of cars that are controlled by the lead car Vehicle infrastructure integration Driverless car One major problem in developing cleaner, energy efficient automobiles is the source of power to drive the engine... Potential future car technologies include varied energy sources and materials, which are being developed in order to make automobiles more energy efficient with reduced regulated emissions...

Solar Vehicle - Solar cars combine technology typically used in the aerospace, bicycle, alternative energy and automotive industries... This limits solar cars to a single seat, with no cargo capacity, and ultralight composite bodies to save weight... The power limit can be mitigated by use of conventional electric cars supplied by solar (or other) power, recharging from the electrical grid...

Motorcycle Safety - In 2004, figures from the UK Department for Transport indicated that motorcycles have 16 times the rate of serious injuries per 100 million vehicle kilometers compared to cars, and double the rate of bicycles... National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2006, 13.10 cars out of 100,000 ended up in fatal crashes... Per vehicle mile traveled, motorcyclists' risk of a fatal crash is 35 times greater than a passenger car...

Automotive Lighting - The international ECE Regulations for headlamps specify a beam with a sharp, asymmetric cutoff preventing significant amounts of light from being cast into the eyes of drivers of preceding or oncoming cars... They are most notably fitted on rallying cars, and are occasionally fitted to production vehicles derived from or imitating such cars...

Industrial Ecology - Much of the research focuses on the following areas: material and energy flow studies ("industrial metabolism") dematerialization and decarbonization technological change and the environment life-cycle planning, design and assessment design for the environment ("eco-design") extended producer responsibility ("product stewardship") eco-industrial parks ("industrial symbiosis") product-oriented environmental policy eco-efficiency Industrial ecology seeks to understand the way in which industrial systems (for example a factory, an ecoregion, or national or global economy) interact with the biosphere... Let's imagine the government wants to reduce air pollution and makes a policy stating that only cars with an even license plate number can drive on Tuesdays and Thursdays... The first effect could be that people buy a second car, with a specific demand for license plate numbers, so they can drive every day...

Automotive Industry In Japan - It is home to a number of companies that produces cars, construction vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs, engines, etc... In 1911, Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works (later to evolve into Nissan Motors) was established and later began manufacturing a car called the DAT... In 1907, Komanosuke Uchiyama produced the Takuri, the first entirely Japanese-made gasoline engine car...

Compressed-air Vehicle - The storage tank may be made of: steel, aluminium, carbon fiber, Kevlar, other materials, or combinations of the above... The tanks may be refilled at a service station equipped with heat exchangers, or in a few hours at home or in parking lots, plugging the car into the electrical grid via an on-board compressor... The cost of driving such a car is typically projected to be around €0.75 per 100 km, with a complete refill at the "tank-station" at about US$3...

Effects Of The Automobile On Societies - As a result of this change, employment opportunities for people who were not wealthy enough to own a car and for people who could not drive, due to age or physical disabilities, became severely limited... In addition to federal, state, and local dollars for roadway construction, car use was also encouraged through new zoning laws that required that any new business construct a certain amount of parking based on the size and type of facility... (occurred in the 1950s) In Madagascar, approximately 30 percent of the population does not have access to reliable all weather roads...

Automotive Market In The United States - With the high fuel prices and the world petroleum crisis, the United States has seen its automotive market become more like the European market with fewer large vehicles on the road and more small cars... For luxurious cars, with the current volatility in oil prices, going for smaller cars is not only smart, but also trendy... And because fashion is of high importance with the upper classes, the little green cars with luxury trimmings become quite plausible...

Featured Articles on Fuel...

Headlamp - A slight theoretical fuel economy benefit and reduced vehicle construction cost through reduced wire and switch ratings were the claimed benefits...

Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program - The Synthetic Liquid Fuels Act approved on April 5, 1944 authorized the use of $30 million over a five year period for .the construction and operation of demonstration plants to produce synthetic liquid fuels from coal, oil shales, agricultural and forestry products, and other substances, in order to aid the prosecution of the war, to conserve and increase the oil resources of the Nation, and for other purposes... The Synthetic Liquid Fuels Program was a program run by the United States Bureau of Mines to create the technology to produce synthetic fuel from coal...

Liquid Nitrogen Vehicle - Liquid nitrogen propulsion may also be incorporated in hybrid systems, e.g., battery electric propulsion and fuel tanks to recharge the batteries... In addition, a petroleum fuel is a primary energy source, not just an energy storage and transport medium...

Automotive Market In The United States - With the high fuel prices and the world petroleum crisis, the United States has seen its automotive market become more like the European market with fewer large vehicles on the road and more small cars... Ford announced in late 2008 July that it will bring its more fuel-efficient European models to the U.S., but the cars may not arrive in time to stem the company's slide in customer satisfaction...

Solar sail boat - ...

Featured Articles on Gas...

Biogas - Biogas typically refers to a gas produced by the biological breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen... Organic waste such as dead plant and animal material, animal feces, and kitchen waste can be converted into a gaseous fuel called biogas... Biogas is produced by the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable materials such as biomass, manure, sewage, municipal waste, green waste, plant material, and crops...

Karrick Process - These are heated at 450 °C (800 °F) to 700 °C (1,300 °F) in the absence of air to distill out synthetic fuels–unconventional oil and syngas... Resulting water, oil and coal tar, and syngas moves out from retort through outlet valves at the bottom of the retort...

Real Gas - Real gases – as opposed to a perfect or ideal gas – exhibit properties that cannot be explained entirely using the ideal gas law... To understand the behaviour of real gases, the following must be taken into account: compressibility effects; variable specific heat capacity; van der Waals forces; non-equilibrium thermodynamic effects; issues with molecular dissociation and elementary reactions with variable composition... For most applications, such a detailed analysis is unnecessary, and the ideal gas approximation can be used with reasonable accuracy...

Second Generation Biofuels - Biomass is a wide-ranging term meaning any source of organic carbon that is renewed rapidly as part of the carbon cycle... First generation biofuels are made from the sugars and vegetable oils found in arable crops, which can be easily extracted using conventional technology...

Fuel - Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a process known as cellular respiration, where organic molecules are oxidized to release usable energy...

Ideal Gas Law - It is a good approximation to the behavior of many gases under many conditions, although it has several limitations...

Charles's Law - The law was independently discovered by British natural philosopher John Dalton by 1801, although Dalton's description was less thorough than Gay-Lussac's... It was first published by French natural philosopher Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1802, although he credited the discovery to unpublished work from the 1780s by Jacques Charles... Charles's law (also known as the law of volumes) is an experimental gas law which describes how gases tend to expand when heated...

Gas To Liquids - Methane-rich gases are converted into liquid synthetic fuels either via direct conversion or via syngas as an intermediate, for example using the Fischer Tropsch or Mobil processes... Gas to liquids (GTL) is a refinery process to convert natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer-chain hydrocarbons such as gasoline or diesel fuel... This method starts with partial oxidation of methane (natural gas) to carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and water, the carbon monoxide to hydrogen (H2) ratio is adjusted using the water gas shift reaction) and the excess carbon dioxide removal by aqueous solutions of alkanolamine (or physical solvents) the water is removed yielding synthesis gas (syngas) that is chemically reacted over an iron or cobalt catalyst to produce liquid hydrocarbons and other byproducts...

Featured Articles on Trucks...

Biodiesel: Blends - Blending B100 with petroleum diesel may be accomplished by: Mixing in tanks at manufacturing point prior to delivery to tanker truck Splash mixing in the tanker truck (adding specific percentages of biodiesel and petroleum diesel) In-line mixing, two components arrive at tanker truck simultaneously...

Biodiesel - Blending B100 with petroleum diesel may be accomplished by: Mixing in tanks at manufacturing point prior to delivery to tanker truck Splash mixing in the tanker truck (adding specific percentages of biodiesel and petroleum diesel) In-line mixing, two components arrive at tanker truck simultaneously... Renault, Peugeot and other manufacturers have certified truck engines for use with up to that level of partial biodiesel; experiments with 50% biodiesel are underway...

Electric Vehicle Conversion: Vehicle Types - A light truck is highly recommended as a first conversion effort because of the simplicity of component layout... With proper battery placement the stability of a late production truck can be improved over the ICE version... Light trucks are especially suitable for hobbyist conversion because it is easy to locate batteries remote from the passenger compartment and there is a good load handling capacity for the use of heavy batteries such as the flooded lead-acid batteries commonly used in golf carts...

Automotive Lighting - Trucks, vans and commercial vehicles sometimes have the CHMSL mounted to the trailing edge of the vehicle's roof...

Automotive Industry in The United States: History - These factories produced an astonishing amount of materiel, including 5.9 million weapons, 2.8 million tanks and trucks, and 27,000 aircraft... Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act the federal government initiated fuel efficiency standards (known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE) in 1975, effective as of 1978 for passenger cars, and as of 1979 for light trucks...

Automotive Industry in The People's Republic of China: History - 1928 to 1949 Zhang Xueliang founded his arsenal to make one truck called Ming Sheng in 1931 Another general, Yang Hucheng, patronized the inventor Tang Zhongming to make a new type of mobile energized by charcoal... March 10, 1958: The first 2½ ton light duty truck (NJ130), which was based on Russian GAZ-51, was produced in Nanjing... The truck was named Yuejin (meaning "leap forward") by China's First Ministry of Industrial Machinery...

Automotive Industry In The United States - These factories produced an astonishing amount of materiel, including 5.9 million weapons, 2.8 million tanks and trucks, and 27,000 aircraft... Under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act the federal government initiated fuel efficiency standards (known as Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE) in 1975, effective as of 1978 for passenger cars, and as of 1979 for light trucks...

Drunk Driving Law By Country - Italy: 0.05%, 0.08% (aggravated, up to 6 months imprisonment), 0.15% (aggravated, 3 to 12 months imprisonment), zero for drivers with less than 3 years' experience and professional dri... Angola: No limit Algeria: 0.01% Benin: 0.05% Cape Verde: 0.08% Central African Republic: 0.08% Comoros: No Limit Congo: No limit Egypt : 0.05% Equatorial Guinea: Zero Eritrea: Zero Ethiopia: No limit The Gambia: Zero Ghana: 0.08% Guinea: Zero Guinea-Bissau: 0.05% Kenya: 0.08% Malawi: Zero Mauritius: 0.05% Namibia: 0.05% Niger: 0.08% Nigeria: Zero Seychelles: 0.08% South Africa: 0.05% and 0.02% for professional drivers (trucks over 3.5 tonnes, and vehicles carrying passengers for reward) National Road Traffic Act, 1996 Togo: 0.042% Uganda: 0.08% Tanzania: 0.05% Zambia: 0.08% Canada: 0.05-0.08% The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 made it a per se offence to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) in excess of 80 mg/100 ml of blood...

Drunk Driving Law By Country: Laws By Country - Blood/Alcohol Limit - Angola: No limit Algeria: 0.01% Benin: 0.05% Cape Verde: 0.08% Central African Republic: 0.08% Comoros: No Limit Congo: No limit Egypt : 0.05% Equatorial Guinea: Zero Eritrea: Zero Ethiopia: No limit The Gambia: Zero Ghana: 0.08% Guinea: Zero Guinea-Bissau: 0.05% Kenya: 0.08% Malawi: Zero Mauritius: 0.05% Namibia: 0.05% Niger: 0.08% Nigeria: Zero Seychelles: 0.08% South Africa: 0.05% and 0.02% for professional drivers (trucks over 3.5 tonnes, and vehicles carrying passengers for reward) National Road Traffic Act, 1996 Togo: 0.042% Uganda: 0.08% Tanzania: 0.05% Zambia: 0.08% Canada: 0.05-0.08% The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 made it a per se offence to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) in excess of 80 mg/100 ml of blood... Italy: 0.05%, 0.08% (aggravated, up to 6 months imprisonment), 0.15% (aggravated, 3 to 12 months imprisonment), zero for drivers with less than 3 years' experience and professional dri...

Automotive Industry In Pakistan - Assembly of Daihatsu and Hyundai cars (1999) and various brands of LCVs and range of mini-trucks commenced recently... According to Ministry of Industries Pakistan produced its first vehicle in 1953, at the National Motors Limited, established in Karachi to assemble Bedford Trucks... Assemblers of HINO Trucks, Suzuki Cars (1984), Mazda Trucks, Toyota (1993) and Honda (1994) in particular, entered once deregulation was introduced...