Supposedly going faster uses more fuel. But your getting to the place quicker. Shouldn’t you just be using the same amount of fuel as if you were driving slower and getting there later?

Question

Supposedly going faster uses more fuel. But your getting to the place quicker. Shouldn’t you just be using the same amount of fuel as if you were driving slower and getting there later?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

Things aren’t always linearly proportional.

Example from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry

> convective heating is proportional to the velocity cubed, while radiative heating is proportional to the velocity exponentiated to the eighth power

So if you go twice as fast, you don’t just generate twice the heat. Instead, you’ll generate 8 times as much convective heat and 256 times the radiative heat compared to if you just went your “normal speed”. It’s not always 1:1.