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Now, this won’t come as a big surprise to some of you considering some of my blog posts from the past, but I’m a bit of a nerd. The science of cars, and science in general, is very interesting to me, so it should come as no surprise that the Discovery Channel’s ‘Mythbusters’ with loveable nerdy duo Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman is one of my favorites. Recently, they tackled a question that I, and probably some of you, have considered before: Which is more green – a motorcycle or a car?

The results may surprise you.

During the segment, the guys chose three cars (representative of three decades of automotive engineering – the 80s, 90s, and 2000s), and three motorcycles, and tested them for not only CO2 emissions, but Hydrocarbons, Nitric Oxides, an Carbon Monoxide as well.

The results? Well, if you’re looking to reduce your Carbon footprint, the bikes have it. But in every other way, the cars won. By a long shot. So much so, that the other pollutants produced by the motorcycles more than offset their CO2 efficiency. Their conclusion: In most situations, cars are the greener choice.

Not the caveat “in most situations” – since the Mythbusters show is limited in terms of budget, time, and materials, it’s not a ‘definitive’ result, but in their aftershow they tackle some questions posed by the show’s extremely intelligent fanbase and discuss why they chose the methods they did, and why they stand by their results as they were presented.

Read the entire article at: Ask Patty

Earthgarage – Greener Car. Fatter Wallet