The Isaac Newton school of driving: physics and your car

259 Pages·2003·1.64 MB·English

by  Barry Parker

The Isaac Newton
School of Driving
THE ISAAC NEWTON
SCHOOL OF DRIVING
Physics & Your Car
Barry Parker
The Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore & London
© 2003 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2003
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Parker, Barry, 1935–
The Isaac Newton school of driving : physics and your car /
Barry Parker.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8018-7417-3 (alk. paper)
1. Mechanics. 2.Elasticity. 3.Motion. 4.Thermodynamics.
I.Title: Physics and your car. II.Title.
QC125.2.P37 2003
531—dc21 2003047527
A catalog record for this book is available from the British
Library.
Figures 5–89, 96–101 by Lori Scoffield-Beer
To Charles and Olive Vizer
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1
CHAPTER 2 The Open Road: Basic Physics of Driving 12
CHAPTER 3 All Revved Up: The Internal Combustion Engine 32
CHAPTER 4 When Sparks Fly: The Electrical System 62
CHAPTER 5 “Give ‘em a Brake”: Slowing Down 88
CHAPTER 6 Springs and Gears: The Suspension System and
the Transmission 111
CHAPTER 7 What a Drag: Aerodynamic Design 137
CHAPTER 8 A Crash Course:The Physics of Collisions 159
CHAPTER 9 Checkered Flags: The Physics of Auto Racing 179
CHAPTER 10 Rush Hour: Traffic and Chaos 199
CHAPTER 11 The Road Ahead: Cars of the Future 219
CHAPTER 12 Epilogue:The Final Flag 239
Bibliography 243
Index 245
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Trevor Lipscombe for his many sugges-
tions and help in preparing this volume. Furthermore, I
would like to thank Pat Negyesi for his help in obtain-
ing photographs. And finally, I thank Alice Calaprice for
her careful editing of the manuscript, and the staff of the
Johns Hopkins University Press for their assistance in
bringing this project to completion.
The Isaac Newton
School of Driving
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
New cars, with their sleek, shiny, curved lines, are
objects of intrigue, elegance, grace, and beauty. They
are exciting, and they can be a lot of fun. The thrill of
the first drive in your new car is something you remem-
ber for a long time. The science of physics also has a
certain beauty and elegance. With a few simple princi-
ples and the enormous power of mathematics, you can
make amazingly accurate predictions about everything
from atomic interactions to the expansion of the uni-
verse. And you can also make important predictions
about cars.
In this book I bring cars and physics together. At first
you might not think they have a lot in common, but they
do. It’s easy to show that every branch of physics is rep-
resented somewhere within an automobile. Mechanics,
the branch of physics that deals with motion, is partic-
ularly applicable. After all, cars move, and if they are
moving they have a certain velocity, and to set them in
motion you have to accelerate them. Furthermore, to
accelerate them you have to apply a force, and this force
comes from a source of energy. Physics is at the basis
of all of this. Indeed, two of the main terms that are used
in relation to cars are horsepower and torque, both of
which are important terms in mechanics.