The
Physics behind Turning
The
physics behind sports car racing are partially determined by their engines and
aerodynamics, but just because they can move, doesn’t mean they’ll finish the
race!
There are many other forces and
variables that are involved in the physics of racing. If a car turns to sharp
on a flat turn, what will happen? What if a super (a super being an inward or
outward sloping turn) was banked in such a way the driver could crash? What
precautions would the driver have to take? How fast can he go in a turn? Can he
speed on in the middle of turn and be safe? All these questions can be answered
by physics!
(A freed body diagram for a car
making a turn on a sloped bank)
When a car takes a banked turn, we
can obtain a lot of information from it. Such as centripetal force, as it is
taking a turn on a somewhat circular part of the track. If a car is traveling
too fast, now we will take into account some friction, is applying a force greater
than the frictional constant, the car can skid off the track.
Equation for Centripetal force
F = mass * (velocity ^2 / radius)
Now from the previous statement, we
can conclude two things.
1. The
car can go a maximum speed where its centripetal force is not greater than the
frictional constant of friction.
2. The
maximum speed is determined by the angle of the bank.
We
know now that the driver can only go a maximum speed in a sloped turn, that
would mean the driver would have to decelerate as he or she is going into the
turn and then speed up again going out of it. Also note, that once
the driver comes
out of the turn, centripetal force is zero, because they aren’t following a
circular motion (the radius is zero). So the car can speed up without worry
through the straight away.
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