Uphill--Downhill

This weekend we went up the Chabot Science Center to see Michio Kaku give a very good talk about his new book, Physics of the Future. The Science Center is about 7 miles from our house and is about 1000 feet above our house, high in the Oakland hills. The Volt started with about 30 miles showing on the battery, but only had 11 miles showing when we got up there. However, the battery soaked up energy from the brakes on the way down and by the time we got home, the battery showed 18 miles left on the battery--i.e. it went up 7 miles while we were driving (coasting, mostly) the seven miles home. I guess that's the physics of the future.