"The system will be 5 times cheaper than current drilling methods"
When did it become acceptable to write nonsense like that? How can something be five times less expensive? What is wrong with saying "one fifth the price?"
It's not just this author, I see this in print media everywhere.
Does "5 times cheaper" even mean 1/5th of the price?
To me, 5 times cheaper implies the starting point is not price of the thing being compared to. "5 times cheaper" sounds like it could be 80% of the price of normal methods.
Method A: $1005
Method B: $1000
Method C: $975
Method C seems to be 5 times cheaper than Method B.
Last quarter we went from $1000 profit to $1001. This quarter the profits were $1003. "Our profits grew 200% compared to last quarter, stocks are through the roof this morning".
Is there some phrase in stats used to describe this nonsense?
If someone said, "That trip is 20 hours of driving, but we could get there 5 times faster if we fly," then what would you think they mean? I would think 4 hours.
Yes, the language "five times cheaper" is imprecise, but common sense says they probably mean the simple interpretation.
In fact, because they aren't speaking precisely, it isn't reasonable to apply some kind of super technical methodology to interpret what they're saying.
It is basically using ramjet technology (such as in the Lockheed D-21), but it's kind of the inlet shape which moves through air enriched with combustible at hyper-sonic speed, on impact the projectile just vaporizes.
edit: the gif animation at the top of the article is very misleading
Nothing to do with ground source heat pumps, tho. This is for geothermal energy. Ground source heat pumps don't need a hypersonic drill tech as they're generally going through soil, not bedrock.
This really depends on the location. Many locations that are not generally flat floodplains (or glacial plains? IANAGeologist) don't have enough soil for this purpose.
> HyperSciences is developing a novel drilling system that fires concrete projectiles at over 2 kilometers per second in advance of a drill bit. It claims that its system can drill deep wells up to 10 times faster than existing systems, enabling geothermal energy “anywhere in the world.”
Surface Area. The 6 foot deep ones are usually dug horizontally like a trench to give enough surface area to exchange temperatures. (sometimes coiled up in the trench, to use more piping surface area) That is not an option outside of rural areas with lots of land.
Geothermal energy, not geothermal heat pumps. Think geysers and volcanoes, not pumping heat into or out of a lump of ground.
It's a pet peeve of mine that everyone seemed to think it was a good idea to call ground-source heat pumps "geothermal." Of course it would lead to confusion. shakes fist angrily at sky :)
The article covers two different things. There's something called Dandelion’s that goes 150 meters down for heat pump purposes. And then there's something else that goes 7 kilometers down for geothermal energy purposes.
The geothermal energy thing is the main subject of the article, but for whatever unknowable reason, the author of the article mentioned the heat pump thing as context.
When did it become acceptable to write nonsense like that? How can something be five times less expensive? What is wrong with saying "one fifth the price?"
It's not just this author, I see this in print media everywhere.