Question: how does such a wee ammount of petrol make a car go many a mile

Philip Denniff answered on 20 Jun 2011:

This is a really good question because the efficiency of the petrol engine or its replacement will play its part in global warming and oil depletion.
Over the last 60 years car engines have become about twice as efficient. In 1950, the year of my birth, the Ford Anglia would do 36 MPG, the best Eco Ford Fiesta will now do 78 MPG, but it is only about 20% efficient. That means that 80% of the petrol the engine burns is not used to make it move. The reason it is so poor is because it runs at a low temperature (a rocket engine is 70% efficient) because it needs to be lubricated with engine oil. The world needs someone to invent a new type of engine that is much more efficient.

And to finish a joke (I think it is one of the best) General Motors or (GM) was the biggest car maker in America, that make Vauxhalls in the UK.

At COMDEX recently, Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”

In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive, but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation” warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced, car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again, because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. Oh yeah, and last but not least . . . you’d have to press the “Start” button to turn the engine off!