Maybe some kind engineer or physics teacher can help me on this. I remember reading somewhere that a canoe is the most efficient boat design, the bicycle is the most efficient land transportation and the jet airliner is the most efficient means of air travel. All are based on people/miles for the least expenditure of energy, or something like that. Could this be true?

I also remember that text books in the 1950's and '60's said that a steam engine was 10% efficient, a gasoline engine was 25% efficient and a diesel was 35% efficient. Considering the engineering imporvements in engines, have these percentages changed?

I spend a great deal of time traveling by jet, car, and canoe, with an occasional short ride on a bicycle, so I am curious about such things. Sometime I even wonder how new and old motorscooters figure into all this.
Howard