Spira (car)
The Spira is a lightweight, fuel-efficient, three-wheeled, two-passenger car designed for the roads of Southeast Asia. 90% of its bodywork is made from a lightweight, reinforced foam. The car weighs only 137 kilograms (302 lb), and has a fuel efficiency of more than 100 mpg. The car's foam contains millions of air cells, and these act as tiny airbags during collisions, which offers protection to the car's occupants, as well as to the pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists who are very common in the areas where the car is planned to be used. The car's foam can be made from soybeans. The car, which was invented by Lon Ballard, has been entered into the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize competition.
References
Spira
Spira may refer to:
People:
Other uses:
Spira (family name)
Spira is an Ashkenazi Jewish family name. Famous people with this name include:
A number of other names have arisen from or are related to Spira:
See also
External links
Car (surname)
Car is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Car (Greek mythology)
Car or Kar (Greek: Κάρ) is a name in Greek mythology that refers to two characters who may or may not be one and the same.
The name "Car" is unrelated to the English word "car" (vehicle).
Car of Megara
According to Pausanias, Car was the king of Megara and the son of Phoroneus (and Cerdo). His tomb was located on the road from Megara to Corinth. The acropolis at Megara derived its name Caria from him.
Car of the Carians
Herodotus mentions a (probably) different Car, brother of Lydus and Mysus; the three brothers were believed to have been the ancestral heroes and eponyms of the Carians, the Lydians and the Mysians respectively. This Car was credited by Pliny the Elder with inventing the auspicia.
Car was also said to have founded the city Alabanda, which he named after Alabandus, his son by Callirhoe (the daughter of the river god Maeander). In turn, Alabandus's name is said to have been chosen in commemoration of his Car's victory in a horse fight— according to the scholar Stephanus of Byzantium, "Alabandos" was the Carian word for "winner in a horse fight". Another son of Car, Idrieus, had the city Idrias named after himself.
Canopus
Canopus (/kəˈnoʊpəs/; α Car, α Carinae, Alpha Carinae) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina, and the second brightest star in the night-time sky, after Sirius. Canopus's visual magnitude is −0.72, and it has an absolute magnitude of −5.65.
Canopus is a supergiant of spectral type F. Canopus is essentially white when seen with the naked eye (although F-type stars are sometimes listed as "yellowish-white"). It is located in the far southern sky, at a declination of −52° 42' (2000) and a right ascension of 06h24.0m.
Its name comes from the mythological Canopus, who was a navigator for Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Observational history
In Indian Vedic literature, the star Canopus is associated with the sage Agastya, one of the ancient rishis (the others are associated with the stars of the Big Dipper). Agastya, the star, is said to be the 'cleanser of waters' and its rising coincides with the calming of the waters of the Indian Ocean. It is considered the son of Pulasthya, son of Brahma.
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