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135 comments on Postscript with Wang and Khosla

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old hermit on September 3, 2006 - 11:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
This is the part that got me:  
which a small step to the right direction to differentiate different types of Btus.
 How many types of British Thermal Units are there???

A rose is a rose, is a rose, is a rose, and will still be a rose,when it's put in a vase.

as the old saying goes;  " If you can't convence them with facts, baffel them with bull shit"  and the good Doc. appeares to me to be an expert at the last half of that quote, as the facts he quotes don't make logical sence to me.  

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canbrit on September 4, 2006 - 3:39am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
How many types of British Thermal Units are there???

Actually there aren't ANY kind(s)... because Americans are the only nation left using them...

If I remember correctly... in my (British) physics lessons... we changed to metric in about 1966... first cgs (ergs anyone??) and then mks (SI)

So, perhaps it's time to rename them American Thermal units??

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Ammond on September 4, 2006 - 9:06am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Actually there aren't ANY kind(s)... because Americans are the only nation left using them...

If I remember correctly... in my (British) physics lessons... we changed to metric in about 1966... first cgs (ergs anyone??) and then mks (SI)

Interesting. The world's largest cosumer seems to be out of step with the rest of the world. Why am I not suprised?

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Nick Rouse on September 4, 2006 - 10:29am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Never mind, the Americans have two different inches to make up for it, 25.4mm for most uses and 1000/39.37 = 25.4000508...mm
for survey work
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Larry the Luddite on September 4, 2006 - 3:34pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
A BTU is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree fahrenheit at sea level.
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Davidyson on September 4, 2006 - 5:10am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Now this is taking him a little too literally, isn't it? Of course he meant that the different energy carriers should have differing value to our societies because of their specific economcal, logistical and ecological properties.

I totally agree with this in principle.

You're picking up a straw man here.

However, I do not get how he deducts a big value of coal just because there still is a lot of it, ignoring its ecologic and climatic impact.

Cheers,

   Davidyson

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khaos3 on September 4, 2006 - 8:20am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I agree with your statement. But taking only EROEI into consideration would it be better to use coal in ctl plants instead of corn to ethanol processes?
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