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Physics, Technology and Engineering in Automobile Racing

Physics, Technology and Engineering in Automobile Racing

INTRODUCTION

The NHRA Motorsports Museum celebrates the American hot rod story. The museum’s collections follow hot rodding and racing in America from its earliest forms to the sophisticated machines of today. Long before Wally Parks, the founder of the National Hot Rod Association, first set foot in a hot rod, the history of automobile racing had been set into motion. Impressive feats of skill, daring, and technology have been performed throughout the history of automobile racing: early race required a driver and a mechanic on board and a race was often won by the automobile that simply finished the course; today, racing often involves teams of engineers, scientists, and experts in a variety of fields whose combined efforts result in highly advanced machines piloted by drivers who themselves are mentally and physically trained to be at the top of their game.

A visit to the NHRA Motorsports Museum provides students with exciting examples of STEaM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) principles. These are the signatures of the American hot rod story of innovation, invention, risk taking, design and artistic expression.

Physics, Technology and Engineering in Automobile Racing Visit the NHRA Motorsports Museum, Hall of Champions for several activities that illustrate elements of Physics, Technology and Engineering in Motorsports. Use these activities to explore with your students the question, what concepts can be learned by analyzing motorsports? Automobile racing is a vivid and exciting means of introducing physics concepts, including Newton’s three laws of motion, in straight lines and circles, motion, distance, displacement, , , and .

During your visit: Guide students through one or more of these activities in the Hall of Champions: What A Drag: Parachutes and Experience the principle of DRAG with these wearable parachutes. Our facilitators will provide you with two wearable parachutes for your students. Using the course adjacent to the museum building have students’ ‘race’ and deploy their parachutes at the marked positions on the course.  Ask students to compare the effort needed to run without the parachute and with the parachute deployed.  Compare their experience with the video in the Hall of Champions that shows dragsters deploying their parachute to assist in slowing down after a race.  Discuss the principle of drag and how the parachute works to induce drag on an object in motion.

Gravity Racers Assist students in this demonstration of Potential Energy and as well as principals of relative motion and momentum. Using the model of a dragstrip, students can ‘race’ model cars and use the results to discuss how changes in the might change their performance.  Ask students to compare shape, , and other attributes of each and reason how changes in these variables will impact the vehicles performance.  Students can select different vehicles and attempt to predict their performance based on their attributes and what they experience with other vehicles on the course.  Try an experiment by taping a coin to the roof of a racer to increase its weight. See how this change alters the ’s performance. Using materials provided have students try other modifications such as the addition of a or streamlining.

Model T Fords Henry Ford’s Model T revolutionized the automobile industry. With more than 15 Million cars produced, the Model T became an inexpensive vehicle, form which hot rodders, racers, and customizers created many one-of-a-kind vehicles for a wide variety of purposes. The NHRA Motorsports Museum has selected several Model Ts from the collection so that you and your students may compare and contrast these modified vehicles.  Viewing the group of Model T Fords, identify those modifications and attributes that contribute to their specialized use.  Ask students why they think the Model T remains in use as the starting point for modified designs.  What elements of each car help identify its specific use or the intent of its creator?

This year, a visit to the NHRA Motorsports Museum is the perfect compliment to the County Fair’s theme of Route 66, the “Mother Road.” Route 66 is an icon of the car culture in and the American hot rod story.

Route 66 The history of motoring and hot rodding in the American West would not be complete without the history, culture, and geography of the Route 66. The NHRA Motorsports Museum collections and exhibits include direct references to Route 66, as well as many iconic automobiles that relate to the history and culture of the automobile in California and the RT66 experience.

Exhibit: Working : The Vehicles of the Auto Club, 1909-1957 This special exhibition explores the many special vehicles the Auto Club has operated to serve unique purposes, including trucks used to install street signs, cars used to survey Southern California terrain for maps, and service trucks that provided roadside assistance to members in need. Several key elements of this exhibit relate to student’s exploration of Route 66:

Prior to your visit: In addition to familiarizing students with RT66, introduce them to Henry Ford’s Model T. Between 1908 and 1927 over 15 million Model Ts were made. Now that’s production! The Henry Ford Museum and the History Channel have excellent resources available including video and classroom activities.

During your visit: Guide students through the “Working Wheels” exhibit. Elements of the exhibit expand upon the RT66 story experienced at the LA County Fair:

The Background Map Auto Club cartographers drew this map around 1914 as part of the efforts to create the National Old Trails Road, the first east-west transcontinental highway. The portions of the Old Trails Road depicted here travel through Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California and would become part of Route 66. Auto Club crews posted signs along the right-of-way to encourage local governments to upgrade the route. The original map is ink on coated linen and just under ten-feet long.

Although the western half of the road was signed by the Automobile Club of Southern California in mid- 1914, the routing remained under much discussion until 1917. The western alignment was debated, with an early proposed routing going through Phoenix, Arizona, and San Diego, California, up to San Francisco, California. Eventually, however, the alignment as drawn here was agreed upon, which followed earlier Indian trails, preexisting railroad tracks and, in some cases, new construction.

Throughout its life, the road was upgraded and realigned to improve the route. But, by 1926, significant portions in the west remained difficult to drive on, and much remained unpaved. Only 800 miles (1,300 km) were paved in 1927. Most of the road that traversed the California desert was widened and paved (or "oiled") by the late '20s, reportedly by a process pioneered by a local road superintendent, and some of this blacktop still can be found to this day.

In 1926, the section west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California, was certified as U.S. Highway 66, (now better known as Route 66) by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), as was a section in the St. Louis, Missouri area (Manchester Road).

Activities:  Have students identify the states and capitals where the iconic stops along Route 66 are located. Discuss how this early map that pre-dates RT66 is different from later maps of the “Mother Road”.  Maps are the primary tools by which spatial relationships are visualized. Identify common features of most maps: o Legend - What is the information contained in the map). o Title - The title is important because it instantly gives the viewer a succinct description of the subject matter of the map. o North arrow - The purpose of the north arrow is for orientation. This allows the viewer to determine the direction of the map as it relates to due north. o Scale - The scale explains the relationship of the map to the real world. The description is a ratio. This can be shown either as a unit to unit or as one measurement to another measurement. Therefore, a scale showing a 1:10,000 scale means that every one paper map unit represents 10,000 real world units. For example, 1:10,000 in inches means that a measurement of one inch on the map equals 10,000 inches in real life. The second method of depicting scale is a comparison with different unit types. For example, 1″:100′ means that every inch measure on the paper map represents 100 feet in the real world. This ratio is the same as 1:1200 (1 foot = 12 inches). In addition to text representation as described above, the ratio can be shown graphically in the form of a scale bar. Maps that are not to scale tend have have a “N.T.S” notation which stands for “Not to scale.” o Citation - The citation tells the source and date of the data contained in the map. Citations help the viewer determine the use of the map for their own purposes as well as the currency and accuracy of the information contained within.  Observe and discuss how maps change based on their use and common conventions. The map contains an inset that defies common convention by rotating the north arrow 90 degrees. Ask students if they can spot the inset, what makes it different, how it relates to the rest of the map, and why it is oriented this way.

Vehicles in the Auto Club Exhibit 1926 “Broken Glass” Truck The glass used in early automobiles was easily broken by stones ‘kicked up’ from the roadway by other vehicles and even jarring from bumps and uneven road surfaces. In an accident the glass would break into sharp pieces or ‘shards’ endangering the and occupants of nearby vehicles. Prior to the 1930s automobiles did not come equipped with ‘safety glass’, a form of glass designed to prevent these flying shards of glass. The Automobile Club of Southern California had a fleet of vehicles assigned to remove broken glass from the roadway and scenes of accidents. This Model T Ford is an example of one of the Auto Club’s ‘Broken Glass” trucks which were equipped with all that was needed to keep the streets and highways free of broken glass.

1957 Cameo ACSC Service Patrol Truck In 1957 the Auto Club purchased a dozen Chevrolet Cameo pickup trucks to replace most of the in the Club’s Service Patrol. The new vehicle afforded greater protection for the driver and would be easier to use on the region’s growing freeway network. By selecting the Cameo the Club brought panache to the fleet through the innovations of renowned GM designer Chuck Jordan, whose Cameo design applied car-like styling cues to pickups for the first time. The fiberglass rear- panels were fabricated by Molded Fiber Glass Company, of Ashtabula, Ohio, the supplier of Corvette bodies. Club modifications included the addition of a tonneau cover over the bed, emergency lights, and a high- visibility color scheme. This 1957 model, one of only 2,240 built, was restored to match the original Club Cameos.

Activities:  Ask students to look at the photographs in the exhibit and find those that relate to the stories of the two vehicles on display.  Identify the Model T trucks in the photographs and compare them with the Model T truck on display making note of how the Auto Club adapted the Model T for different purposes.  Look for other Ford Model T vehicles throughout the museum collection and discuss how they have been modified or adapted for different purposes (see list of Model T’s below). With more than 15 million Model Ts being produced, why were these cars so popular for use as hot rods?

After your visit:  Look for other examples of trails or pathways of migration (Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail) that later became roads or highways such as the Lincoln Highway.  Find historic maps and other primary source materials and compare these routes and highways over time.  Using a common vehicle from today, have students draw and describe how that vehicle could be adapted for different purposes; to help solve problems; or as a unique expression of themselves (custom paint, wheels, etc.).

Ford Model T examples in the NHRA Museum collections:

The Bug, c1950 Veteran racer Dick Kraft began racing his Ford “Model T” at the Santa Ana drag strip (now Orange County Airport) in 1950. He reasoned that removing weight from the car would improve acceleration. As he took off more and more of the original car his reasoning was confirmed. Eventually all that was left is what you see in this example. Onlookers dubbed the car a “rail job” (an early term for dragster) in reference to the exposed remaining frame rails.  What remains of the original Model T in this early example of a dragster?  Why does the removing of parts make the car accelerate faster?

Kookie’s T, 1923 Ford Model T Roadster Pickup c1957 This example of a modified Model T roadster co-starred in the 1950s television series “77 Sunset Strip.” In the television series, the car was driven by star Edd “Kookie” Byrnes. Appearing on television and in dozens of magazines at the time, the car was the inspiration for the popular “Fad T” style hot rod.  What would inspire someone to create such a colorful car for television?  Compare this Model T ‘pickup’ with the Model T ‘Broken Glass Car’ in the Working Wheels exhibit and see how many modifications students can identify on the ‘Kookie T’.

Hot Rod Vocabulary The following images illustrate common Hot Rod terms that describe attributes of vehicles in the NHRA Motorsports Museum collection.  Using the illustrations, have students identify these terms when they observe them in the museum collection. For example, identify a ‘’ in the museum collection.  Identify a feature based upon the vocabulary and use it in a written explanation of the vehicle they observed.

Glossary

Acceleration: The rate at which an object’s velocity changes; a = Δ v/ Δ t.

Acceleration due to gravity: The downward acceleration of an object due to the gravitational attraction between the object and the earth or other large body.

Aerodynamics: The way the shape of an object affects the flow of air over, under or around it.

Airfoil: A wing shaped device on a race car that creates a directional as the air flows over it.

Air resistance: The force pushing on an object created by air when that object is in motion; air resistance in motorsports is also called drag.

Bernoulli’s principle: An increase in the speed of a occurs simultaneously with a decrease in or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy. Air (which is a liquid) moving faster over the longer path on a wing causes a decrease in pressure, resulting in a force in the direction of the decrease.

Centripetal force: The force that acts on a body moving in a circular path and is directed toward the center around which the body is moving. In motorsports, the force required to keep a vehicle on a curved path.

Conversion: Changing from one set of units to another, such as from miles per hour to meters per second.

Displacement: The distance and direction that an object moves from its origin.

Distance: The change of position from one point to another.

Downforce: The force on a vehicle that pushes it downward, often resulting in better traction.

Electrical energy: Energy derived from electricity

Force: Any form of pushing or pulling

Frame of reference: The coordinate system for specifying the precise location of an object, or the point or frame to which motion is compared.

Friction: The opposing force between two objects that are in contact with and moving against each other.

Gravity: The natural pull of the Earth on an object

Ground effects: The effects from aerodynamic designs on the underside of a race car, which creates a directional force.

Horsepower: Horsepower is a unit of measurement of (the rate at which can be done). For automotive purposes we look at mechanical horsepower (there being other types of horsepower expressions for different purposes). One horsepower =33,000 ft lbf/min. That is, one horsepower is needed to one pound the equivlant of 33,000 ft in one minute or, = 550 ft⋅lbf/second. The term was adopted in the late 18th century by Scottish engineer James Watt to compare the output of steam with the power of draft horses. It was later expanded to include the output power of other types of engines, as well as turbines, electric motors and other machinery.

Inertia: The resistance of an object to any change in its position and state of motion. This includes changes to the object's speed, direction, or state of rest.

Joule: The unit of measurement for energy; 1 joule = 1 kilogram-meter² / second²

Kinetic energy: Energy of motion; kinetic energy = ½ mass * velocity², or KE = ½ m v².

Mass The amount of matter in an object.

Momentum: The combined mass and velocity of an object. Momentum = mass * velocity, or p = m v.

Potential energy: Energy due to position; stored energy, or the ability to do work.

Power: Rate of doing work, or work divided by the time.

Pressure Force divided by area.

Relative motion: The comparison of the movement of one object with the movement of another object.

Revolution: The motion of one object as it another object.

Roll bar: A strong metal tube structure over the driver in a race car; the roll bar prevents the driver from being crushed during a rollover.

Rotational motion: The motion of an object turning on an axis.

Safety features: In an automobile, those things that protect the occupants or others making the car, or race car, safer.

Speed: The distance an object travels divided by the time it takes to travel the distance.

Thermal energy: Heat energy

Trade-off: A term that describes how an improvement made in one area might decrease effectiveness in another area.

Velocity: The speed of an object, including its direction. Velocity = change in distance over time, or v = Δ d/ Δ t.

Venturi effect: The effect produced by narrowing a passage through which air travels, causing an increase in the speed of the air, a drop in pressure and a force in the direction of the air’s travel.

Watt: A measurement of power. One watt is 1 Joule of work per 1 second.

Weight: The force of gravity pulling on an object, weight equals mass times the acceleration due to gravity.

Work: The force of an object times the distance through which the object moves as the work is converted either potential energy or kinetic energy; work = force * distance, or W = F d.

Timelines

NHRA Motorsports Museum Collection 1914 First Land Speed Record set at Bonneville Salt Flats. 1935 First person to break 300 mph barrier at Bonneville. Britain’s Sir Malcolm Campbell at 301 mph. 1947 First person to break 400 mph barrier at Bonneville. Britain’s John Cobb at 403 mph one-way. 1949 First Bonneville National Speed Trials sanctioned by the Southern California Timing Association. 1951 The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is founded by Wally Parks. 1952 NHRA sanctions Pomona Dragstrip at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. 1952 Beast III becomes fastest single- car in America setting one-way record of 238 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats. 1955 NHRA holds its first National Championship Drag Race at Great Bend, Kansas. 1960 Mickey Thompson is first American to break the 400 mph barrier at Bonneville at 406mph. 1965 American Craig Breedlove breaks 600 mph barrier at Bonneville. 1997 Britain’s Andy Green sets current Land Speed Record at 763 mph at Black Rock Desert, NV.

National and World Events 1885 Carl Benz creates first automobile. 1893 Frank Duryea builds first American car. 1895 First auto race in America. 1899 The Boer War begins in South Africa. 1902 The first speed trials are held on the beach at Daytona, Florida. 1903 The Wright Brothers make their first successful . 1903 Ford Motor Co. sells its first car. 1906 San Francisco experiences the great earthquake. 1908 the first Ford Model T is produced. 1909 Robert Peary and Matthew Henson reach the North Pole. 1910 The first high-banked wooden speedway is built at Playa Del Ray in Southern California. 1911 The first Indianapolis 500 race is held. 1914 World War I begins in Europe. 1917 The United States enters World War I. 1918 World War I ends. 1917 Lenin leads the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, laying the groundwork for the Soviet Union. 1919 The 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote. 1926 Route 66 is established, primarily over existing roads, as part of the “Interstate Highway System.” 1929 The U.S. stock market crashes; the Great Depression begins. 1939 World War II begins. 1941 The United States enters WWII. 1945 World War II ends. 1947 Bill France organizes the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, called NASCAR. 1948 An assassin kills India’s Mahatma Gandhi. 1951 The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is founded by Wally Parks. 1952 NHRA sanctions Pomona Dragstrip at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. 1955 NHRA holds its first National Championship Drag Race at Great Bend, Kansas. 1955-1975 The Vietnam War. 1969 Neil Armstrong sets foot on the Moon. 1971 First car on the Moon, the Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV). 1982 Honda begins car production in the U.S. 1994 Nelson Mandela is elected the first black South African president, apartheid ends. 2001 Terrorists hijack passenger planes, crashing them in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. 2002 The Euro becomes the cash currency for the European Union of 12 nations.