Newtons Are a Unit of Mileage

I've actually done the same thing with modeling my car at different speeds! I used linear regression though haha. I have the same car too!What a coincidence. Time to compare homework!

Re: Newtons Are a Unit of Mileage

#5

Post by sudosysgen » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 7:35 PM UTC

I'm pretty sure there's an issue in the first equation. A Nm (Newton-meter) is the cross-product between a force and a distance and is a vector quantity (more specifically a bivector), while a watt is a dot product and is a scalar quantity. Converting Nm to W is a dimensional analysis error.

Similarly mileage is force along the direction of travel, but that's moreso a nitpick.

Re: Newtons Are a Unit of Mileage

#6

Post by addaon » Tue, Mar 04, 2025, 7:47 PM UTC

madcaptenor wrote: post #2

Mileage for gas cars is measured in square meters: https://what-if.xkcd.com/11/

Or inverse acres.

Re: Newtons Are a Unit of Mileage

#7

Post by BenjiWiebe » Wed, Mar 05, 2025, 6:12 AM UTC

sudosysgen wrote: post #5

I'm pretty sure there's an issue in the first equation. A Nm (Newton-meter) is the cross-product between a force and a distance and is a vector quantity (more specifically a bivector), while a watt is a dot product and is a scalar quantity. Converting Nm to W is a dimensional analysis error. Similarly mileage is force along the direction of travel, but that's moreso a nitpick.

I'm not very good at dinensional analysis, but both 'units' and Wolfram Alpha agree that Nm and Wh are interchangeable.