Friday, January 29, 2010
Real science
Since the "scientists" are no longer doing science, the police have to do it!
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By damn, a genuine and complete experiment, for a genuinely important purpose.
The deicer in question is an oily liquid that has been used for several years around here, ever since the government-funded terrorist organization EPA decided that plain old sand and salt were saving human lives.
As a pedestrian I've definitely observed that the deicer doesn't deice, and sometimes adds slippage. I haven't been driving since the changeover, so can't say how it feels from a driver's viewpoint.
Basalt sand, which has sharp edges, worked beautifully and saved not only lives but gasoline and labor. The street crews would distribute sand at the first snowfall, and the sand gave traction through several later snows before it had to be renewed. The terrorists at EPA kicked it out because the resulting dust in springtime may have bothered some asthma sufferers, and because it saved lives.
Salt worked beautifully against more serious ice, though it wasn't as durable as sand. The terrorists kicked it out because it may have washed into the river and made life slightly more difficult for the Royal Old-Growth Fish, and because it saved lives. ¶ 9:20 AM
After a recent car accident where an SUV slid off a roadway not long after de-icer was placed on the same stretch of road, Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies set out Friday to conduct skid tests to determine whether or not deicer makes roads slippery.
[They] shut down a stretch of East Wellesley for several hours for skid tests.
When doing a skid test investigators assign various surfaces what is called a 'Coefficient of Friction.' A 1.0 Coefficient of Friction would be sandpaper, 0.8 is dry pavement, 0.6 is wet pavement, 0.2 is snow and 0.1 is ice.
[Until Friday] no study to determine deicer’s friction coefficient has ever been conducted in the United States. ...
For nearly two hours a deputy drove at speeds up to 60 miles an hour and then slammed on his brakes, changing variables such as braking with and without anti-lock braking engaged and then doing brake tests at intervals after the deicer was applied.
One test was done just after deicer was applied and then the test was run every 15 minutes for the next hour and a half. .....
By the end of the brake testing deputies determined two things. First, deicer makes the road only slightly slicker than dry pavement. If a dry road has a 0.8 friction coefficient, than the deicer is about 0.7, roughly in-between dry and wet pavement on the scale.
= = = = =
By damn, a genuine and complete experiment, for a genuinely important purpose.
The deicer in question is an oily liquid that has been used for several years around here, ever since the government-funded terrorist organization EPA decided that plain old sand and salt were saving human lives.
As a pedestrian I've definitely observed that the deicer doesn't deice, and sometimes adds slippage. I haven't been driving since the changeover, so can't say how it feels from a driver's viewpoint.
Basalt sand, which has sharp edges, worked beautifully and saved not only lives but gasoline and labor. The street crews would distribute sand at the first snowfall, and the sand gave traction through several later snows before it had to be renewed. The terrorists at EPA kicked it out because the resulting dust in springtime may have bothered some asthma sufferers, and because it saved lives.
Salt worked beautifully against more serious ice, though it wasn't as durable as sand. The terrorists kicked it out because it may have washed into the river and made life slightly more difficult for the Royal Old-Growth Fish, and because it saved lives. ¶ 9:20 AM
