Revolutionize, probably not. Be an improved option over 'regular' internal combustion in (apparently) weight, size and efficiency, maybe. This seems to be a great option for a hybrid. Being smaller and lighter is what you want in an energy efficient vehicle, as is fuel efficiency. Since fossil fueled vehicles will be the norm for the foreseeable future, any step towards making them more efficient is a good thing (although not the end goal, true enough). This seemed to have many advantages of Wankel motors (rotaries) without the efficiency problem due to low compression/incomplete combustion. 14:1 on pump gas is INSANE! My offroad race motor is only 12:1 and it needs trick racing fuel.
Also, as far as simplicity, this had no valves and assorted crap, just inlet and outlet ports (from what I understood anyway) like Wankels. That's a HUGE jump in simplicity, with an entire system eliminated, so there's far less to break/wear out/need tuning. IF manufacturing cost can be reasonable, I see this as a great step forward possibly making hybrids more acceptable to many more people.

If a large percentage, or at least a majority of cars were now electric, I would agree. But they are not. Because internal combustion engines are still the norm, even in hybrids, making one that's more efficient and lighter with fewer parts is a great idea.
Don't let the great be the enemy of the good.
I wonder how they deal with centrifugal force when it runs at high speeds, it seems like the piston would ride the cylinder wall, creating major friction and heat. Maybe I missed something.

Paradoxically, one of a sailor's biggest fears is fire...
Lots of combustibles; on the water, no where to go.

Note, there is a significant weight advantage on that steam tractor. But you just can't deny the sheer power of steam engine, the torque that it outputs at low revs, 0-1RPM is just massive where as combustion engine has really none..

The industrial age is part of 'economic liberty'.

People were free to make inventions that use coal, or use oil, and were free to market them either as products or services.

That differs from the earlier times/case where folks were obligated to participate only in activities sanctioned by their local lords. Often where they couldn't even travel freely.

Much of the math and chemistry we have comes from centuries worth of largely superfluous [essentially hobbyist at the time] higher education of the privileged classes. (eg. Boyle's/Charles' laws being a foundation of modern internal combustion engines, not used in said form for centuries after written down).

(Note : Which still continues to be the case, what we come up with in a purely theoretical form today, ends up being used in practical application much later. Although maybe it's speeding up. eg. Relativity is used in making GPS work, and that time delta isn't quote as large.)

Once the idea of economic liberty took hold, and people were free to come up with ideas that use the universes natural/physical properties to replace 'manpower', you had the industrial revolution.



The 'honor' part plays a good role too. You can witness this still being an issue today.
You can go to parts of eastern Europe, and talk with people about jobs and respectability.

There are plenty of places where a laborer is scum, and a businessman (eg. owner, who does not himself work, but has people working for him) is highly respected.
In these places, you don't see much work getting done, as a large portion of the typical western service sectors just doesn't exist.
For example, there are ~no house painters. Showing up with paint buckets and overalls would just get you strange stares and mumbles from people around you, and parents would be saying to their kids "See, this is what happens if you don't get good grades".
If you want your house painted, you gotta do it yourself. Few self respecting people are willing to do that job.
In contrast, ask people around the U.S. about who painted their house. Odds are, they hired for it.

The effects on small business are visible too. Lots of shops, the moment the owner can afford to not come in himself, that's exactly what they do.
And on top of that, they take every chance they can get to point out to folks that 'they don't work anymore - people work for them'.

It's a culture where the people responsible for productivity are looked down on, and it has a chilling effect on productivity.

-scheherazade

For reference because this confuses the shit out of me.


Nonflammable -

non·flam·ma·ble
adjective \-ˈfla-mə-bəl\

: not burning or not burning easily : not easily set on fire
Full Definition of NONFLAMMABLE
: not flammable; specifically : not easily ignited and not burning rapidly if ignited

Flammable -



flam·ma·ble
[flam-uh-buhl] Show IPA
adjective
easily set on fire; combustible; inflammable.
Origin:
1805–15; < Latin flammā ( re ) to set on fire + -ble
inflammable -

in·flam·ma·ble
inˈflaməbəl/
adjective
adjective: inflammable

1.
easily set on fire.
"inflammable and poisonous gases"
synonyms: flammable, combustible, incendiary, ignitable;
volatile, unstable
"inflammable fabrics"
antonyms: fireproof


WHY NOTS THE ON FIRES OR NOT ON FIRES-ABLE ??

This is an old idea, traditionally combustion engine driven, that someone turned electric. Move along, nothing to see here. (have a look for Track-Packs and the Ruff (circa 1942). Russia had the Itlan and the Technomaster.)

I have a degree in physics. I'm guessing that English is maybe a 2nd language for you? Your explanation of mass and weight is a little confusing. With regards to our astronaut on the moon, it's the difference in weight that matters. He should be able to (approximately) lift six times the weight he could on earth.
(Sidebar: It's often been said that Olympics on the moon would be fantastic because a man who could high-jump 7 feet high on earth would be able to high-jump 42 feet high (7x6) on the moon. In fact, he would only be able to jump about half that. Do you know why? I'll leave that with you as a challenge.)

Insofar as faked moon landings, I'm 90 % sure we went to the moon. However, bear in mind that Americans didn't know their own government was spying extensively on them til last year. It's the old joke... "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't watching you..."

Alternative 3 is an interesting study of conspiracy dynamics. I first heard of it 30 years ago. It started as an April Fools joke in Britain on a science news TV show. It was brilliant in it's conception...

Short version:
1. Global warming will lead to total collapse of earth's eco-systems in two centuries or less.
2. Global governments are co-operating to move the cream of earth's leaders, scientists, etc to bases that have been established for decades on the far side of the moon and on Mars. (Alternative 3. Alternative 1 was huge underground bunkers, Alternative 2 was huge geo-synchronous cities... both were deemed too impractical to carry out.)
3. Mars is actually very liveable. We landed there in the 60s, established bases, using flying saucer technology developed here on earth by scientists.
4. The general population is being kept ignorant of the impending disaster, our advanced technology, the true state of Mars, etc. Governments worldwide are co-operating at the highest levels to perpetuate the myth that our progress in space is a slow, laborious process. (Which explains why the Soviet Union did not expose the Apollo programs as fake...) They don't want to cause a panic while they advance their agenda.
5. They have even developed psychic assassins capable of killing with their minds via spontaneous human combustion.

Due to TV schedule changes it was shown at a later date convincing the general public there that it was the real deal. (You can actually see the original show on YouTube... you'll even recognize some of the 'real scientists' etc as British character actors if you're old enough.)

It's a long convoluted story but thanks to a couple of follow up books and the Internet which gave it new life it has now 'morphed' into this vast conspiracy that involves alien / government co-operation at the highest levels à la X-Files. (The original conspiracy did not involve aliens...)

Adding to the fun and mystery is that some real world events -- too complicated to explain here -- later played right into details of the conspiracy.

I always thought it would make for a brilliant Hollywood movie -- the original version, not the 'updated' version.

Ahhh cellulose, you burn so bright and so fast
Guitar picks produce a similar accelerated combustion sensation when ignited.
Very nice crucible and as always, no ashes.

APFSDS - Armour Piercing, Fin Stabilized, Discarding Sabot. The American Abrams tankers used to call them 'Silver Bullets' back in the early nineties; maybe they still do. They were made largely out of natural or depleted uranium and they combusted slightly when shot through the air, leaving a faint glowing silvery trail behind. You could see it best at night obviously.

Kick-ass cclarkbar, talking hamburger meat w/combustible head!

I think it's also just that we're in the midst of great technological and sociological change.and it's due to the internet mostly.

if you lived in a small conservative town pre-internet, It was far more likely that you'd either never say anything, or succumb to peer pressure when it comes to voicing any dissent. Any views of alternative thinking always came from someone outside that town, so it was easier to dismiss or ignore. But when the internet puts you in touch with everyone else on the planet and it's far harder to deny thinking that runs contrary to how you think or at the very least, harder to drown it out.

We're also on the verge of some huge changes like medical technology getting better and better. Instead of relying "old wives tales" to cure what ails you. We're on the verge of massive transportation changes...the slow death of the internal combustion engine, we're not that far away from cars that will drive themselves. We also have to think more about the environment.

It's a time of HUGE change, and the people who are in power don't always like change. Even people who are not in power can often get distraught and upset at change.

Ideally, a railgun would eliminate recoil, muzzle flash and noise, making it more effective for sniping.

The problem is that getting the railgun to fire bullets faster than combustion-based weapons requires a lot of electricity.

Racist idiot baits fundamentalist idiots, and the world keeps getting slightly worse...

Also @artician, no, this isn't a mock-up. Vilks was invited to hold a lecture on freedom of speech at Uppsala university, and to illustrate that he chose to show part of Sooreh Hera's photo series 'Allah ho gaybar'. Since everybody knew he was a racist asshole who deliberately wanted to provoke Muslims, a bunch of fundamentalist Muslims who wanted to be deliberately provoked showed up at his lecture. Idiots met idiot, and combusted.

Oh and since he'd been getting death threats for his previous hijinks (depicting the prophet Muhammad as a dog), the cops were on hand for this occasion.

I guess I need to quote @chingalera:
Monsanto is the reason heath care is unaffordable-
Monsanto is the reason gasoline no longer lubricates rubber and composites in combustion engines

As for Percy Schmeiser, I agree he should have won in his case, and it was a bad legal wrangling. I also, however vehemently disagree with your characterization of him as one of the many small farmers just like everyone I know.

Schmeiser admits that he deliberately sprayed his own seed crop with round up, harvested the surviving plants, and used them for seed the following year. You can't make a much more concerted and deliberate effort than that to get seed that is from Monsanto's GMO plants. Schmeiser's complaint was not that his seed that he'd used for decades was contaminated, his complaint was when Monsanto found out and came to sue him for planting their seed without paying the patent tax. I agree he was legally correct and should not have had to pay anything to Monsanto. But I don't see how Schmeiser is anything like farmers intentionally buying and planting Monsanto GMO crops, or anything like farmers choosing to continue to grow and replant their own seed. Nobody growing and raising their own heritage seed has made it part of their rotation to deliberately kill off their seed crop before they could harvest it. Even if they did, there would plainly never be any seed there to plant. Monsanto's 'attacks' on small family farms have not come against those that buy from Monsanto, nor have they come against those that choose to user any other seed from any other source including their own. Monsanto's suits have been limited to those farmers that ARE planting and growing Monsanto's seeds without buying it from them.

The situation between Monsanto and farmers is nothing like the ridiculous half truth extremes shown in this video or the one you linked. I didn't just base this opinion on some video a watched, but instead on multiple first hand accounts, and extensive searches through scientific journals on Google Scholar. If you want to dismiss that as anecdotal while pointing at some agenda laden video as 'real' evidence then you may have hit upon the problem here...