The Impracticality of Mounting a Flamethrower to the Front of a Car to Melt Snow While Driving
As part of their ongoing “What If?” series, Randall Munroe of xkcd and Henry Reich of MinutePhysics answered a viewer’s question regarding the best way to melt snow while driving, either by mounting a flamethrower or a high powered microwave emitter to the front of the car. It turns out that the flamethrower is the better idea, however, the amount of energy and gas that it would burn would not be worth doing so.
No matter how big the tank on your flamethrower is, you’ll run out of fuel constantly. Gas mileage in the US is often measured in “miles per gallon” of gasoline. With your flamethrower guzzling fuel, your mileage would be about 17 feet per gallon, and you’d be using up fuel at a rate of almost 5 gallons per second.
Munroe suggests forgoing the idea completely but offers another alternative.
You’d probably be better off dropping the melting idea entirely and taking a cue from rail agencies, who use jet-engine-powered snowblowers to clear train tracks. In the end, it’s easier to just move the snow out of your way.
