potatoflinger wrote:Alright, to end this efficiency battle, take another look at the slingshot/car analogy. If each car is given the same amount of fuel, the more efficient car will be able to pull the slingshot back farther than the less efficient car.
Maybe but it depends on the power output of the car
But, if the less efficient car has an unlimited amount of fuel, then it will be able to pull the slingshot back farther because it has more power.
Wrong, fuel doesn't equal power, power equals power, in your analogy eventually one of two things will happen, either the force needed to stretch the slingshot will be greater than the power of the car and the car will wheelspin, bog down, stall, or the power of the car will overcome the elastic of the slingshot and break it.
The amount of fuel that each car is given is the same as the air chamber size on a potato cannon, with the same size tank and barrel, the more efficient gun will have more power, but if you give the less efficient gun a way oversized chamber, it will have more power.
We shouldn't compare efficiency in two different sizes of gun, efficiency is all about getting the most out of the gun you have, which is about optimising design. There are two ways to do this, one is to decide for the power you want and build the gun to meet your specs, the other is to build you gun as efficiently as possible knowing that you've got the max power out of it.
An efficient gun will always be as powerful as it can be, it may however be a lot less powerful than another gun of different specifications.
Think .22 rimfire and .50 calibre.
