Please Explain: Cars

On this week’s edition of Please Explain, we attempt to demystify the automobile. We’ll find out how transmissions work, and look at why Europeans prefer manual transmissions while Americans tend to drive automatics. We’ll ask two experts--Mechanical Engineers Stephen A. Ciatti from Argonne National Laboratory, and Larry Webster from Car and Driver magazine--how no-lock brakes work, and why a car works more efficiently at 55 mph than 85 mph.

» Argonne National Laboratory
» Argonne's 2002 National Laboratory Combustion and Emissions Control R&D Award for groundbreaking work in diesel fuel sprays
» Car and Driver magazine
» Please Explain series

Music: Soundtrack from Sonatine #6, 1