Driving Project:
The purpose of this project was to improve our question crafting skills. We needed to make our question specific, answerable, and clear. For my question I asked, "What effect does downforce have on a cars cornering ability. From here I created a mathematical framework, then used the equation I found to solve my problem.
Results: With every 100 pounds of downforce you can corner .94 mph quicker.
Reflection:
After solving this problem I was able to fully understand the importance of downforce. I had always known that it helps keep the car planted around corners yet I did not think it had such a prominent affect. The information I gathered from asking this question is incredibly relevant in the world of cars, whether we are talking about race cars or your average road legal car handling is one of the most sought after factors. Using processes similar to mine car manufactures try to figure out how their cars will handle. This downforce problem is incredibly complicated. It has many layers and I just scratched the surface. For my question I made some assumptions that aren't entirely applicable in the real world. In my question I assumed the downforce was spread evenly over the wheels (25% on each) and that the amount of downforce would stay the same at any speed. If I wanted to continue this research I would need to come up with a way incorporate those two extra variables into my framework.
Reflection:
After solving this problem I was able to fully understand the importance of downforce. I had always known that it helps keep the car planted around corners yet I did not think it had such a prominent affect. The information I gathered from asking this question is incredibly relevant in the world of cars, whether we are talking about race cars or your average road legal car handling is one of the most sought after factors. Using processes similar to mine car manufactures try to figure out how their cars will handle. This downforce problem is incredibly complicated. It has many layers and I just scratched the surface. For my question I made some assumptions that aren't entirely applicable in the real world. In my question I assumed the downforce was spread evenly over the wheels (25% on each) and that the amount of downforce would stay the same at any speed. If I wanted to continue this research I would need to come up with a way incorporate those two extra variables into my framework.