Research paper topic

[ZL-1]

Empty topic, yay!

What subject?

[SuperSport623]

i did a short research paper last year for english on the history of the muscle car...lol

[Satty]

I had to do a crappy compare and contrast research paper on a crappy movie and the crappy book it was based on. So I did the obvious thing, I wrote the paper as a screenplay. I ended up getting an A, apparently the riveting fictional elements were able to blind my prof to the fact that I half-assed the research.

[ZL-1]

I'm doing a Literature Review on EVA: why it appeared, what issues does it address and empirical testing to determine its association with Market Values and stock returns in comparison with other performance metrics such as earnings or cash flow from operations.

I'm -ing with every line I write, even though the subject itself is really interesting! The 'academic research' style of writing and arranging ideas is boring me to death...

[Flybrian]

I don't think professors and teachers understand that sticking hard and fast to a predetermined style template really stifles the creativity and expression of an essay. It is so easy to take a truly interesting subject and bleed the ever-lovin' life out of it because of rigid essay structures.

[ZL-1]

I don't think professors and teachers understand that sticking hard and fast to a predetermined style template really stifles the creativity and expression of an essay. It is so easy to take a truly interesting subject and bleed the ever-lovin' life out of it because of rigid essay structures.

I'm just glad I had the quietest day ever at the office: I got to rewrite the 2nd part of my assignment and tomorrow at the first set of presentations I'll see if I need to correct anything or if my work's just a pile of dung (in which case I'll dump the course and take the case-study course instead).

[Drew Dowdell]

Benefits of banish the UAW from the earth.

[CARBIZ]

I would love someone to do an indepth study of the demographics of who buys what type of vehicle. Go beyond the usual statistical crap about household income, education, etc.

Really get into the meat of it: number of speeding violations, driver infractions, arrest records, hobbies and interests.

It would help to lay to rest some of my sneaking suspicions.

[Paolino]

I can recommend very boring topics if you like

Or, if you want to do something I did in a 9th grade honors class (only to a higher degree), superconductivity.

You get to play with liquid nitrogen!

[ZL-1]

You get to play with liquid nitrogen!

You just reminded me of my nephew. He actually did extra work for chemistry class because 'you get to blow up stuff'

[XP715]

f@#king internal server errors. Anyways, this has to be around a 30 or so page research paper, having something to do at least loosely with politics. Ideally I'd be able to tie in the automotive industry somehow, but I'm open to any and all suggestions any of you may have, so put on your thinking caps!

Thanks in advance for anything you're able to come up with!

[Z-06]

1. CAPITALISM AND DEMOCRACY ARE WE SEEING THEIR END?

2. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE: AM I GOING TO DIE?

3. HYDROGEN FUEL CELLS: HELLO WORLD!

4. IMPACT OF RUBBER GRANULARITY ON THE ROAD NOISE

5. IMPACT OF ONE-SIDED OPEN MARKETS ON AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY

Don't come and beat my ass for that.

Edited September 24, 2007 by smallchevy

[Paolino]

I have some 30 page papers... prob is, they're in Italian.

If you want some 15-page papers, those are in English on various novels. You choose :AH-HA_wink:

[loki]

f@#king internal server errors. Anyways, this has to be around a 30 or so page research paper, having something to do at least loosely with politics. Ideally I'd be able to tie in the automotive industry somehow, but I'm open to any and all suggestions any of you may have, so put on your thinking caps!

Thanks in advance for anything you're able to come up with!

uh, NAFTA? it's a huge political / trade including autos topic.

or just the idea of giving up our sovereignty to become this North American bohemith (sp?) country/economic power.

[capriceman]

Um If you need Ideas heres a paper i did on Electric cars about a 6 months ago. for some gay class to get a certification. Its only 5 pages, but you can link the EPA CARB and CAFE standards and crap to it, seriously you guys should watch Who killed the Electric car? its a very well done documentry while you will want to strangle some of the people in the film its very open minded.

Excuse my 3rd grade writing but i got a decent score on it i think since my presentation was a hell of a lot better. Also having to explain every detail a million times. I hate stupid people.

The Other Alternative, Electricity

As the future approaches the mindset of the automotive industry is changing. Gas prices are ever increasing as emission standards are becoming stricter. Governments press for more stricter gas mileage regulations, but there is a way to avoid all this, its called electricity. It is a simple concept that has been around since the 1830's. It usually involves a power source like a battery, electronic controller, and a electric motor. Over the years there has been public interest, but very limited product availability. Though the real question: is it practical? Finally do electric cars have a future? Throughout the years automobile company's alike have been searching for alternative fuels and power sources, but have we found our permanent solution from electricity?

In recent years country' have been slowly raising their required CAFE standards. “CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) is the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in miles per gallon, of a manufacturer’s fleet of passenger cars or light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 lbs. or less, manufactured for sale in the United States, for any given model year.” 1 For example, to sell cars in 2012 in Europe your company will have to have a CAFE standard of 50 mpg. This is problematic to some companies because a lot of companies offer trucks and SUV's which are essential vehicles to a vast majority of consumers. Trucks and SUV's were never classified as fuel efficient vehicles. However the average truck gets a gas millage of 17 miles per gallon (mpg) city and 21 mpg highway. while economy cars get between 28 mpg city to 38 mpg highway. Also, diesels are getting improved mileage, but what about cars that don't use gas? Those car company's are rewarded credits that can be used to increase their CAFE standards. This would allow automotive manufacturers to not have to improve their other important vehicles. So what are these options that would allow for these “credits?” Well hybrids do get these as well as hydrogen and electric vehicles. Where hybrids only seem to be a temporary fix to appease the public until the company's alternative cars come out, this however won't be for several years as mentioned by numerous manufacturers because of cost and other issues. Although one alternative has been proven to be successful and cost effective to some degree, It is called the electric car.

“In 1834 Thomas Davenport from America unveiled the first American electric carriage on a short track.”2 While this was a big thing at the time, no one really gave him much credit because the primitive technology gave the car dismal performance. “While who invented the first gas powered carriage is still a heated debate, it didn't show up on the picture till the 1880's.”2 “In fact 100 years ago there were more electric cars on the road than gasoline powered cars.”3 What happened? With the advent of mass production by Henry Ford, gasoline internal combustion engines (ICE) were chosen. The reason was because they were cheaper and easier to produce. Additionally gasoline was in abundance. Once mass production was around, the price of a gasoline car dropped to cost between $500-$1000. “A comparable electric roadster in 1912 cost $1750, while a gasoline roadster cost $650.”2 Also with limited technology the average range was about 20 miles. This is primarily the reason why the electric car never took off.

Electric vehicles are very simple in nature, only requiring a minimum of 3 parts to make them work. The first and most obvious is the electrical source which is normally a battery. Then current is fed to the second part an electronic speed controller (ESC). The purpose of a ESC is to have some control of the throttle so it's not like theres is a “on off” switch which would only allow full throttle and off positions. This would allow a percentage of power to go to the motor, which is the the third part. The motor is the physical part which converts the electrical energy from the battery to raw kinetic power. However consumers demand other things than just the basics to get from point A to B, such as power brakes, power steering, cruise control, and air conditioning. Another element to consider is entertainment like the radio. These are the things that people have become so accustomed to that they would not be used to a car without them. Also a common stereotype with these vehicles is they are small and unsafe. In reality they normally are on the same platform as a economy car which now get high ratings in crash tests. For example, “a four door Ford Focus in frontal crash test received 5out of 5 stars from NHTSA. While a Toyota Tundra only receives 4 stars out of 5 from the newly release NHTSA results. Imagine that, being safer in a economy car than a pickup truck.”4

Being that there is electric power on the car already this enables all the features mentioned above to work. Without a ICE to pull a vacuum how will the brakes work? There are many ways for the brakes to work. One example is an ordinary hydraulic brake booster with an electric motor attached to it. Secondly there is something called regenerative braking (Regen). The idea behind it is that in a moving conventional car, the car has kinetic energy. When the brakes are applied the pads on the caliper close on the disc turning the kinetic energy into heat energy and it slows the car down. However in Regen braking the car uses that kinetic energy and changes it into electric energy to recharge your batteries. “This works because the ESC stops giving current to the motor and turns the motor into a generator. Then the ESC demands a current from the motor turned generator, the current demanded from it depends on how hard the brake pedal was depressed. Since the motor is now trying to supply a current this causes a load on the motor which uses the kinetic energy the car has to fulfill the ESC power demand. The load on the motor requires more energy than the moving car has, thus the cars kinetic energy is used up quickly to create electric energy which creates the drag in the drivetrain to slow the car down.”5 This allows braking to be adequate, for example “GM's EV1 was able to go from 60-0 in less than 160 feet which is acceptable in today's standards.”6 Also in recent years a new technology has come along called Electric power steering. “It uses high torque electric motors and ratio reduction gear boxes to provide more nimble and precise steering.”7 This will be powered off the cars main power source batteries. Another essential is heat and air conditioning, but without an ICE that produces heat how will this work? Or won't a electric heater element use a lot of energy? While those are issues with ordinary heat and air conditioning, they are not issues with a heat pump. A heat pump“is an air conditioner that contains a valve that lets it switch between air conditioner and heater. When the valve is switched one way, the heat pump acts like an air conditioner, and when it is switched the other way it reverses the flow of Freon and acts like a heater. Imagine that you took an air conditioner and flipped it around so that the hot coils were on the inside and the cold coils were on the outside. Then you would have a heater. It turns out that this heater works extremely well. Rather than burning a fuel, what it is doing is moving heat.”8 Having this very efficient and simple system in the car will easily replace ordinary systems and the differences will be subtle to the average consumer. Those are the only systems that really need to be modified to work in a electric vehicle. Other systems like the radio and cruise control are controlled by the on board computer. So if an electric car was parked next to a conventional car there would be very minor differences between the two from the interior and exterior views.

Over the years there have been Electric Vehicle (EV) projects by almost every manufacturer, either as a concept or special project, but only one in recent years was a production model. It has been one of the most known EV's to exist. It was made by General Motors from 1996-1999, available for lease only, it was called EV1. While the styling is subjective, the structure and drivetrain were revolutionary. “The car only weighted 2200 pounds and 900 pounds of that were the batteries.”4 The EV1 was sold through Saturn dealerships in California and Arizona only. The lease was $250-$500 a month which is about the price of nice luxury car at the time. The reason why the car was made as well as other EV's from the time was because of the CARB mandate of 1990. CARB or California Air Resources Board proposed a law that stated, to sell a car in the state of California the manufacture had to have a certain percent of the cars sold be cars with zero emissions. Even though this was unlawful, manufacturers still participated in zero emission cars. Ford had the TH!NK program, as well as having EV Rangers. Eventually the CARB Mandate was overturned in a hearing. After that all EV programs seemed to have stopped overnight with no explanation. Although there is no Certain reason as to why this happened many suspect conspiracies. Even the EV owners protested for their vehicles. The most likely reason was that these projects were not profitable and loss of manufacturer interest ensued. As like in the early 20th century one could buy EV's but by the 1920's they were phased out because of cost, another reason they weren't successful. Although several companies claimed that they would make an EV, there were very few successful attempts until the 1990's. However, this year “Tesla Motors is selling the all electric Tesla Roadster at a hefty price of $92,000.”9 Unlike previous programs though you will own this car. Even other marques are seeing the possibility's of electric vehicles because the are starting to produce there own EV concepts. There are many groups that praise EV's that for a fee they can convert almost any car into a electric car, this may not be practical since the car was not designed to be a EV, but they are trying to get there voices heard about the wonderful solution of electric vehicles. So these cars have proven themselves as production ready.

The average consumer will visit a gas pump 2 times a week depending on the vehicle the person drives, but what if all there was to do was to plug the car in the garage? Then next day drive the car around return to the garage and plug it in again. Plus with solar panel technology where they can be painted, would allow auto companies to integrate them into the vehicle. For example a 2002 Ford F-150 extended cab with a tonneau cover has 75.17 square feet of surface area facing the sky. Thats a lot of surface to cover with solar panel to charge the car while it is parked. Another thing is there could be specialty markets in the south united states, that would offer solar charging stations that could fold into a storage in the car. With technology where it is today there are batteries that can give EV's a range of 300 miles which is pretty impressive since thats the average range a conventional cars gets out of a tank of gas. While it only takes two minutes to fill a tank up with gas it can take up to 3-4 hours to charge a car full capacity which is a disadvantage. The batteries used now are Lithium Ion which are light weight and do not have memory problem which was notorious in lead-acid batteries. With the increased range of these vehicles there is a reduced need for a charging infrastructure which is a problem with current hydrogen cars. Are electric cars slow? Absolutely not! The Tesla Roadster has a 0-60 time in less than 4 seconds and the EV1 had a 0-60 time in under 8 seconds. This is faster than most economy cars. Plus the EV1 had top speed of 85 mph. So you can stay in the fast lane on the expressway. The cost to charge a electric car is not even comparable to a gasoline car, with gas costing about $2.50 a gallon. Estimates show that it cost about $1 to travel 75 miles in a EV. A gallon of gas will on average allow only 28 miles at a price of $2.50. These cars are no different then what is on the lot already. For a daily commuter car to work or to get groceries these cars are more than practical, they are convenient because in major cities there is a big trend in compact car parking and special vehicle parking right next to the door.

The future of electric vehicles looks promising, with the Tesla Roadster hitting the streets and stronger strides towards zero emissions why would the EV not have a future. The fact that support groups approve of electric vehicles and there is an increasing demand for alternative cars and trucks prove that they will be successful if marketed correctly. Also they have been proven before because they were mass produced. Although Hydrogen fuel cell cars are very promising and versatile, the technology is just not here. They still estimate 10-15 years before those cars to be affordable and practical, while tomorrow they could build a EV and sell it. If they built EV's as a temporary solution until the fuel cell cars were perfected, it would take a lot of pressure off the fuel cell projects. Also it would please the environmental lobbyist. As the realization of the problems with fuel cells is recognized, the consumer market will see electric cars reappear as the zero emission solution.

The one plausible solution to the next generation of vehicles is here already, it just has been overlooked too many times, Its called the Electric Vehicle. Automobile manufacturers have the technology and the capability to make these cars into a reality. Its very affordable and has list of customers that would line up to buy one. Also the major point is it is a zero emissions vehicle which would give them CAFE points so they would have less costly modifications to the rest of the company's fleet to meet the newer higher standards required by federal governments. The search for alternative cars and trucks may continue, but one strong answer is already here, it is called electricity.

1.Unknown Author and date http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/CAFE/overview.htm

2.Sheldon R. Shacket The Complete Book Of Electric Vehicles Pages 3-5

3.Who Killed The Electric Car A documentary by Chris Pane

4.From comparisons 2007 Toyota tundra http://www.pickuptruck.com/html/news/tundranhtsa.html 2007 Ford Focus http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/safety.a...amp;model=Focus All studies done by NHTSA Authors unknown.

5.Michael Shnayerson The Car That Could pages 17, 25-27

6.EV1 Clubs Performance FAQ section Unknown author http://ev1-club.power.net/ev1faq/ti1.htm

7.Delphi Electric Power Steering http://www.delphi.com/manufacturers/auto/c...g/electric/eps/

8.Howstuffworks How does a heat pump work? http://home.howstuffworks.com/question49.htm

9.Tesla Motors Offical Site http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

Bibliography

Michael Shnayerson The Car That Could

Sheldon R. Shacket The Complete Book Of Electric Vehicles

Tom Denton Automobile Electrical And Electronic Systems 2nd Edition

International Energy Agency Electric Vehicles: Technology, Performance And Potential

Jim Motavalli Forward Drive

Robert J. Traister All about Electric & Hybrid Cars

Caroline Kettlewell Electric Dreams

Chris Pane “Who Killed The Electric Car?”

EV1 Club http://ev1-club.power.net/ev1faq/ev1faq.htm

Tesla Motors http://www.teslamotors.com/performance/electric_power.php

Article on paintable solar cells

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/con..._1084_tc024.htm

EV company http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560

Guide to Electric Cars http://www.evworld.com/evguide.cfm

If you actually read it please at least tell me what you think of it i know its garbage and boring i wish i had the Power point still.