The Water-Powered Car

If you’re interested in explaining to someone that a “water-powered car” is theoretically impossible, you might want to start with the idea that water is the product of combusting hydrogen with oxygen or the use of hydrogen in a fuel-cell.  You can’t use the product of a reaction to power the next reaction.

Think about this for a second.  When you build a fire in your fireplace, can you simply use the ashes from a previous fire as fuel, do you need new, unburned logs that still contain the chemical energy necessary to heat your room?

In my quest to find solid renewable energy business plans, I come across this crap constantly.  When I explain (briefly) that the idea violates the laws of physics, specifically the first and second laws of thermodynamics, the guy on the other end of the phone often asks, “Well, wouldn’t you like to see our prototype?”

My response: Sorry, no.  What you’re saying has no more credibility than a claim that you can change stones into sweet potatoes or cats into dogs.