PhilGoetz comments on The Correct Contrarian Cluster - Less Wrong
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For the gears connected to the ground to take energy out of the ground, it has to slow the vehicle down. You are then trying to speed the vehicle up, through the propeller, using only energy derived from the contact with the ground, which is necessarily less than or equal to the energy loss that the vehicle sustained in order to convert its forward momentum into the rotational energy to turn the propeller.
No, I'm not trying to do that because that wouldn't work. Energy taken from the ground/vehicle difference is not being used to accelerate the vehicle.