Articles - Physics of Racing en-us http://reviews.hspn.com N/A http://reviews.hspn.com ben@hspn.com 20 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/131/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-13-Transients/Page1.html Obviously, handling is extremely important in any racing car. In an autocross car, it is critical. A poorly handling car with lots of power will... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Sun, 25 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/130/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-12-CyberCar-Every-Racers-DWIM-Car/Page1.html The cybernetic DWIM car is coming. DWIM stands for "Do What I Mean." It is a commonplace term in the field of Human-machine Interfaces, and refers to... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/129/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-11-Braking/Page1.html I was recently helping to crew Mark Thornton's effort at the Silver State Grand Prix in Nevada. Mark had built a beautiful car with a theoretical top speed of over... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/128/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-10-Grip-Angle/Page1.html In many ways, tyre mechanics is an unpleasant topic. It is shrouded in uncertainty, controversy, and trade secrecy. Both theoretical and experimental studies are extremely difficult and expensive. It is probably... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/127/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-9-Straights/Page1.html We found in part 5 of this series, "Introduction to the Racing Line," that a driver can lose a shocking amount of time by taking a bad line in a corner. With a six-foot-wide car on a ten-foot-wide course, one can lose... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/125/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-8-Simulating-Car-Dynamics-with-a-Computer-Program/Page1.html This month, we begin writing a computer program to simulate the physics of racing. Such a program is quite an ambitious one. A simple racing video game, such as "Pole Position," probably took an expert programmer several months to write. A big, realistic game like "Hard Drivin'" probably took three to five people more than a year to create. The point is that the topic of writing a racing simulation is... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/124/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-7-The-Traction-Budget/Page1.html This month, we introduce the traction budget. This is a way of thinking about the traction available for car control under various conditions. It can help you make decisions about driving style, the right line around a course, and diagnosing handling problems. We introduce a diagramming technique for visualizing the traction budget and combine this with a well-known visualization tool, the "circle of traction," also known as the circle of friction. So this month's article is about tools, conceptual and visual, for thinking about some aspects of the physics of racing... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/123/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-6-Speed--Horsepower/Page1.html The title of this month's article consists of two words dear to every racer's heart. This month, we do some "back of the envelope" calculations to investigate the basic physics of speed and horsepower (the "back of the envelope" style of calculating was covered in part 3 of this series). How much horsepower does it take to go a certain speed? info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/122/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-5-Introduction-to-the-Racing-Line/Page1.html This month, we analyse the best way to go through a corner. "Best" means in the least time, at the greatest average speed. We ask "what is the shape of the driving line through the corner that gives the best time?" and "what are the times for some other lines, say hugging the outside or the inside of the corner?" Given the answers to these questions, we go on to ask "what shape does a corner have to be before the driving line I choose doesn't make any time difference?" The answer is... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://reviews.hspn.com/articles/121/1/The-Physics-of-Racing-Part-4-There-Is-No-Such-Thing-as-Centrifugal-Force/Page1.html One often hears of "centrifugal force." This is the apparent force that throws you to the outside of a turn during cornering. If there is anything loose in the car, it will immediately slide to the right in a left hand turn, and vice versa. Perhaps you have experienced what happened to me once. I had omitted to remove... info@hspn.com (Brian Beckman) Mon, 29 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700