Octane is a measure of a fuels ability to resist det under compression.
A very useful data point with many many applications. Using it to tell people how 'good' a fuel is when they are going to put it in a standard engine wth low compression and totally standard internals (99.99% of cars) is pointless, as I am sure you can see. What milfy shopping civic driving 28yr old mum needs to know the petrols ability to resist premature explosion under compression? She doesn't.
Octane can be altered in a number of ways, not all of them beneficial to the car.
On the other hand take calorific value. Ahh, now thats a measurement that would cut to the chase and drive out the waffle. If every fuel was measured in the amount of energy its actually going to release on combuston i think you would see quite a few fuel producers go out of business quite fast as people saw that they were getting drokk all for the same money.
A readng by which you can see the relative energy content per liter. This you could then use to decide which brand was best for your car. It would give people more control and more choice but you cant do that in a monopoly.
Thing is you can raise the octane of petrol by adding ethanol. Ethanol has a slightly higher resistance to det under compression for sure but it also has a lower calorific value than distilled petrol, useless for normal cars and is cheap...Are you with me.. You can water down the calorific value of the fuel, making it less efficient, while at the same time raisng the magic number that people use to ''know its the good stuff, look its says 99!''...
Momentum being a prime example. They buy in all the dregs from the majors and mix it together. See what the octane is and add ethanol till it comes up to spec. A false spec that rips people off daily.
Its the difference between a well distilled single malt and Bells or any other 'blend'. Or Smirnoff and tesco value voddy. Both will get you off your box but you'll feel worse the day after for the unfiltered tesco rotgut. Your engine is the same.
BMI is very much the same for me. It is a happy fun fun grade for everyone to fit into and takes no real account for the realities of people and bodies. Sure it has very useful applications when used in conjuction with other readings for an overview of general health. But like Octane it is too obscure/too subjective to be of real use to people in the real world.
If people want to live life by numbers then ok here is a nice little number for you. Like Octane though its not a real reading of
your body. Just a quasi 'perfect' that doesn't exist.
I think if you jiggle when you wiggle you need to loose some. If you can feel your ribs when you stretch you need some pies.
I'm not saying its totally void or anything I just think its too unfocused to be useful.
We are arguing the same case
6th gen Prelude please Mr Honda. RWD 2.4 turbo lude.
http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/p ... 140426.pdf
