You know how we call those oil shocks as shocks - thats because thats exactly what they are - a shock to the very core each time you see the price at the pump. Hoping to shock some sense into cars in order to provide better mileage; researchers came across something interesting. Apparently, applying a strong electric field to fuel a moment before it's injected into the engine cylinders boosts fuel efficiency by almost 20 percent.

The technique works since the electric shocls make the fuel more like water (about 10 percent thinner) and help in more complete combustion since they are now broken into much smaller droplets. If applied to all the cars and trucks in the United States, that fuel savings would add up to more than 300 million barrels of gasoline and about 150 million barrels of diesel per year.

The device draws a very small amount of electric power (just about 1 watt) and it would only cost $50 per cylinder to install. This strong electric field polarizes molecules in the fuel: Each molecule develops a slightly positive electric charge at one end, while the other end becomes slightly negative.

These electric charges cause the molecules to clump together, reducing the molecules?overall surface area. Less surface area means less friction, which is what gives a fluid its thickness, or viscosity. By lessening friction, the device makes the fuel thinner.

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