You are correct. It relates to the torque (rotational force) that can be produced at different RPM.

Diesel engines have a narrow range of RPM where the torque is highest. At low RPM, the torque of a diesel engine is low. That’s why trucks have to shift into a low gear to start moving and shift multiple times to get up to speed. The driver uses the different gears to keep the engine running within the optimal range of RPM.

Electric motors have high torque at low RPM, so they can start a heavy load moving without having to have any complicated gearbox between the motors and drive wheels.

In a diesel-electric locomotive, the diesel generator can be designed to run at an efficient speed without being affected by the mass of the train. The electricity it generates powers the electric motors which have the necessary torque to handle moving the train.

You now have to lug around a LOT of both fuel and water, instead of just water and dry coal. Water and oil are both heavy by comparison to coal when lugging a train car of it around.

I think you’re making an assumption there. You would need to consider energy density of the fuel. Diesel fuel has almost twice the energy density of coal. For the same trip, the weight of the diesel fuel you would need for an oil-fired steam engine would be just a little more than half the weight of coal needed for a coal-fired steam engine.

Also, delivering the diesel fuel to the boiler would require a less complex mechanism and/or less workers than coal.

We have two guinea pigs.

Very often, guinea pigs are named after food. Our two rescues came with food names. However, everything eats guinea pigs and I feel it’s wrong to name them after food. We changed their names.

We named them after two characters from Downton Abbey: Daisy and Rose. Plants are the only living things that fear guinea pigs, so they are nice, powerful names for them.

Daisy in the background, Rose in front.

Yeah, my wife (optometrist) gave me shit about cleaning my glasses with paper towels because they scratch the lenses.

I wear my glasses into the fucking ground because I have a big head and it’s difficult to find frames that fit. I’ve literally bought multiple identical frames and shifted the lenses in between and swapped parts to not have to get new frames.

I’ve never ever had to replace a lens because of damage from a paper towel. The only scratches I’ve ever gotten in lenses was from dropping my glasses and having them skid across pavement.

The only times I’ve replaced lenses was because my prescription changed or because I no longer had enough functional parts to rebuild the frame.

Having said that, when my wife had her practice, I was basically getting everything at cost, and she could bring frame reps in with their entire catalog to pick through. So, I got used to getting new frames more often (every five years or so). I also ended up with bunches of microfiber cloths, so I distributed them around to everywhere I go. I have one at work, one in my car, one at my desk at home.

So, I do things the “right” way now, but only because my personal experience led to it being easier than going to get a paper towel.

When she got disabled and we had to sell her practice, we kept a couple boxes of lens cleaner too, so we’ll probably never need any more. One large bottle seems to last about 10 years and we’ve got around a dozen. When we die, the kids will each be able to inherit a couple bottles of lens cleaner.

U.S. democracy

Do people do good, spirited debates anymore? Most of what I see would be more akin to wrestling a pig.

Every four years Jill Stein emerges from her burrow. If she sees her shadow, it will be four more years of fascism.