ATV fuel consumption [a funny calculation made by ESA]

[goldenpeach]

I just thought some of you might like this, especially at the end when they .make a (not serious) calculation of the fuel comsumption in litres per 100km and compare this to a car.

It has no educational purpose, but it's still interesting

click here to see the article

[Padishar]

It has no educational purpose, but it's still interesting

Or value due to several mistakes in the calculations. Not only are the masses of the fuel and oxidiser the wrong way round, but even the simple addition of the two volume amounts is, apparently, beyond the engineer concerned...

[78stonewobble]

Well according to wikipedia, the fuel efficiency of the Saturn V 1st stage (with rest of rocket) was just under 5 inches per US gallon or just under 4 cm per liter.

[Bill Phil]

That's not how it works...

Oh, and BTW, Litres is on an official SI unit...

Edited January 22, 2015 by Bill Phil

[Streetwind]

Neither is the metric tonne, Bill. But you're still allowed to call it 'metric', it has its own unique symbol, and it is widely used everywhere - to the extent that use of the correct unit (megagrams) is practically nonexistant. You know why? Because the SI organization has officially sanctioned a number of non-standard units as acceptable for use within the metric system. The litre is also one of them. Who uses cubic decimeters, anyway?

Edited January 23, 2015 by Streetwind

[lajoswinkler]

Neither is the metric tonne, Bill. But you're still allowed to call it 'metric', it has its own unique symbol, and it is widely used everywhere - to the extent that use of the correct unit (megagrams) is practically nonexistant. You know why? Because the SI organization has officially sanctioned a number of non-standard units as acceptable for use within the metric system. The litre is also one of them. Who uses cubic decimeters, anyway?

Cubic decimetres are standard in science. Molar concentration is expressed as moles per cubic decimetres, mol dm^-3. Litres are an older and more colloquial term for the same thing. When you do science, you use dm³, when you don't, you use litres.