why do you save fuel if you drive a distance slower.

Question

In school we learned ” what you save in energy, you have to increase the way.” By that rule you should use the exact same amount of energy (fuel) for the same distance no matter what speed. I’ve asked a few people, but no-one could give me a good answer.

In: 15

Answer 1

In order to move something you must continuously supply it with energy. In the case of our cars we use the burning of gasoline to turn the wheels. The faster we go the more energy we lose to friction, mostly air resistance. Therefore to maintain that speed we need to consume even more gas per mile than we would if we went slower and had less air resistance.