Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Automotive Science'.
Found 2 results
-
I was pondering Newton's Three Laws of Motion (particularly the second), and an idea popped into my head. In an emergency automotive braking situation, why can't a car shoot out grappling hooks - from the front of the car, or the back, or even both - which will dig like wedges into the road ahead, and come as close as possible to being a direct counter-force to the auto's forward motion? Disk brakes are fine, too, but they only stop the wheels from turning; I'm talking about a life-threatening situation where the entire vehicle needs to stop ASAP. Even if they don't go into the road, front-shooting, 45-degree-angle, non-jointed "rods" (resistant to snapping) would perhaps apply the maximum stopping pressure. Picture a car extending rods forward-and-down like this: oo^oo\\\ It does sound like Batman, and admittedly, I can visualize this causing the car to flip over the rods, but has anyone at least thought about this? If you're about to ski off a cliff, wouldn't you stick your poles out, forward, into the snow, even if it meant breaking your elbows? Or maybe there's some sort of "tire-retraction" mechanism, that would make all four tires retract into the chassis, allowing the entire bottom of the car to make contact with the ground and skid, maximizing friction? Expensive, but in certain situations, worth it. Think about an airplane landing, and about to roll off the end of the runway - better to have the wheels instantly retract and have the entire plane slide along the ground on its belly, no? Back to the skiing analogy: If you're about to ride a bicycle off a cliff, wouldn't you hit the deck, and take your chances with a few broken bones, rather than continue to roll forward?
-
Off topic, but that is definitely not a bonus for the vast majority of people like me, who don't enjoy being subjected to the "growls" of overly loud cars
