Audi find secret to universe

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Just heard this in a TV advert

"When a car brakes, the energy it creates is lost..."

What they have is a system that recovers some energy on braking. I doubt they have actually created energy.

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Ah, someone else has spotted it (http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/ot-off-topic-forums/70237-audi-recuperation-advertisment-bad-science.html) as well.

[shadron]

Ah, someone else has spotted it (http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/ot-off-topic-forums/70237-audi-recuperation-advertisment-bad-science.html) as well.

Yeah, but there sure seems to be lots of confusion there about what energy is, and the fact that it never created, but just converted to one form or another.

[casebro]

Sounds like a bit of scientific pedantism on the part of the above posters. You ought to be able understand plain English enough to realize that Audi said "energy wasted". I suppose they are using a regenerative braking system, good at reclaiming about 15% of the fuel 'wasted' by slowing down.

By the way BSM, the "find" in your title ought to be 'finds'.

[RoboTimbo]

Audi find secret to universe

It isn't 3 after all (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=140655)?

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

By the way BSM, the "find" in your title ought to be 'finds'.

Oops.

[progressquest]

It isn't 3 after all (http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=140655)?

I thought we landed on 5 for the secret.

[GodMark2]

By the way BSM, the "find" in your title ought to be 'finds'.

English speakers around the world have yet to decide upon whether companies should be treated as singular or plural nouns, so for much of the world, "finds" would be incorrect.

Separated by a common tongue.

[Dr. Trintignant]

Sounds like a bit of scientific pedantism on the part of the above posters.

Yeah. It's perfectly reasonable here to use "lost" as a synonym for "unrecoverable". Braking energy is normally converted to heat, which is indeed unrecoverable in most circumstances. One might even say that because it's redundant to say that energy can never be destroyed, adjectives like "lost" should always be expected to refer to recoverable energy.

- Dr. Trintignant

[Badly Shaved Monkey]

Yeah. It's perfectly reasonable here to use "lost" as a synonym for "unrecoverable". Braking energy is normally converted to heat, which is indeed unrecoverable in most circumstances. One might even say that because it's redundant to say that energy can never be destroyed, adjectives like "lost" should always be expected to refer to recoverable energy.

- Dr. Trintignant

It was the "creates" I was highlighting. I can accept "lost": a thing mislaid is not a thing destroyed.

[Dave Rogers]

If they'd just said "When a car brakes, energy is lost," personally I'd give them a pass. Adding words to a simple and correct sentence to make it incorrect and slightly more pretentious, though, is what advertising agencies do best.

Dave

[CNY_Dave]

It's all in how you define the system.

If the car is the system, any energy (potential or kinetic) converted to heat is lost to the system.

It's all about the system definition, always is.

Dave