Hello, I¹m Nash Hoover. A pretty normal 7th grader who plays in a band, does
Airsoft, and makes dumb YouTube videos. Some days, when I¹m almost late for
school, I run out without remembering to turn off the room lights or the
computer. My dad gets mad when this happens. To remind me to save energy,
he tried charging me for every hour the lights stayed on when I wasn¹t
there. It didn¹t work out all that well, and let¹s just say I still owe him
$1.19.
So after that idea failed, he decided we¹d go to the gym where I had to get
on an exercise bike and pedal the same 100 watts of energy that it took to
power a light bulb. Then he got the most insane idea ever. He decided we
could go across the country in an electric car using only the 100 watts of
electricity of a light bulb.
He started with something called a Microcar, which is a sort of four-wheeled
bike built by a small company in Montana. He added an electric motor from a
company called Ecospeed, and then took it to our friend Ken Fickett for help
with the rest of the design. Ken owns Mirage Manufacturing, and is a genius
when it comes to designing and building things like boats and airplanes.
All spring, we¹d go to Ken¹s factory in Gainesville and test ride the car.
Ken and his son Travis are really into bikes and cars, and every time
something didn¹t work, they would figure out a solution. Meanwhile, my dad
started planning our route, and ordering all sorts of camping gear and
cameras. He¹s a writer, and one of the magazines his company publishes is
Popular Science, so he agreed to blog our trip on their web site, and GE
sponsored it. It¹s called the PopSci and GE Ecotour 2011.
So now, all we have to do is go 4,200 miles in this crazy little car. And on
the way, we will meet a lot of people and spread the message that even
something as simple as turning off a light when you leave a room can make a
real difference. After all, the energy of just one light bulb is taking us
all the way across the country.
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