THERE should be a law against it, we grumble. Back on 13 June, Mark Rowatt Anderson tells us, the normally reputable Reuters news agency 鈥� without whose accurate and precise business reports capitalism as a whole would be in deep trouble 鈥� distributed a short feature on the Japanese company Genepax, which says it has produced a car that runs on 鈥渘othing but water鈥� (At the time of writing you could see the video at ).
Again? How often does the 鈥渃ar that runs on water鈥� meme re-emerge? Every time it finds willing hosts in minds that just want to believe 鈥� believe anything at all, it seems. The magazine Popular Mechanics looked at the Genepax claim, and concluded: 鈥淩ubbish鈥�. Its readers speculate that the car actually runs on metal hydrides. In the same way, the engine design featured in these very pages two years ago (29 July 2006, p 35) would run on boron, which would also react with water to produce hydrogen for fuel 鈥� as reader Lucas Wilkins pointed out (12 August 2006, p 19).
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鈥淢ichael Guifford was impressed to discover from the that the H5N1 bird flu virus was found recently in droppings on Hong Kong鈥檚 appropriately named Po On Road鈥�
We thought for a moment we had a way of stemming the tide of water stories. Surely those clever people who write word-processor programs that put annoying green wiggles under our sentences with notes like 鈥渢he grammatical passive voice has been used鈥� could add a feature that crosses sentences out in red with the note 鈥渢his does not happen in the real world鈥�. Shouldn鈥檛 that feature be made mandatory in news organisations?
But then we remembered that when Microsoft tells us off about our grammar we invariably click on 鈥淚gnore rule鈥� and proceed blithely on. Back to the drawing board鈥�
SLIGHTLY more practical routes to fuel economy occurred to Cliff Allen when he noticed that, according to his petrol gauge, the fuel in the top half of his tank lasted considerably longer than the bottom half. As any Feedback reader (and possibly only a Feedback reader) would, he investigated. Systematically.
Over several months he recorded the distances travelled using the fuel from the top and bottom halves. The average for the top was 400 kilometres (250 miles) and for the bottom a mere 300 kilometres (185 miles). Since then, he writes, 鈥渙f course I have only used the top of my tank and have consistently achieved around 250 miles 鈥� I鈥檓 not stupid!鈥�
Cliff was obviously keen to discuss this, at length, with his learned friends, 鈥渟ome of whom gained General Certificate of Secondary Education qualifications鈥� at age 14. He was 鈥渕ostly appalled at their incredulity and lack of interest鈥�.
However, his friend Alan suggested that the fact that petrol always comes out of the bottom of the tank causes it to use more petrol so we might benefit from turning the tank upside-down. John suggested the increased efficiency might be due to the height of the fuel, so the tank should be put on the roof. Mostyn proposed putting a brick in the tank, as this apparently works very well for saving water in toilet cisterns. Tony wants to make the top of the tank larger than the bottom, to increase the proportion of its volume at the top, and thinks a carrot shape would be optimal.
It was Allen鈥檚 5-year-old son who pointed out that the effect might be due to (we paraphrase) non-linearity of the petrol gauge. Where does he get such notions?
PREFERRING intrinsically greener transport, Rob Ellis wanted to get a ticket from . The website helpfully told him that Day Travelcard Off Peak tickets 鈥渁re available for travel on Monday to Friday and at any time on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays鈥�. What Ellis wants to know is: 鈥淲hen are they not available?鈥�
HOW helpful it is of supermarkets to show the price per unit weight on the shelf label, David Shirtliff reminds us. He gives an example from the frozen food section of his local Asda store. The frozen spinach there is priced at 89p per 1-kilogram pack. For those who have difficulty with this concept, the price is also shown as 拢89 per 100 kilograms 鈥� particularly helpful for those who need to make price comparisons for very large families, or small armies.
FINALLY, Brian Carroll received a cheque from his insurance company with a security notice on the back saying: 鈥淒o not accept if security mark or invisible fibres are absent.鈥� He checked for the invisible fibres, but couldn鈥檛 see any.
He wants to know whether he should assume that the fibres are absent and that the cheque is a fake, or that they are present but invisible, as intended, in which case the cheque must be genuine.