Anyone have 800 Lbs of clay handy? New mythbusters episode

Uh...Matt, don't get upset, I think rrolff's just teasing you.

 

Arrrgggg - what tipped it off? Was it the wind tunnel? The driving a car from Kuala Lumpor (Malaysia) to the US, or saving 3.14% so a trucker could buy Pi(e)... Guess fishing season is closed.

 

Wait! What? I was writing a paper based on your research? Now what am I going to do? I may lose my government funding.

Tom

 

rrolff, did you test vanity plates?
for the record, I'd think that the presence of 8's and 0's on the plate are kind of creating their own dimples.

 

I smile more when I drive my Prius than I did when I drove my previous vehicle, and my Prius gets more MPGs than my previous vehicle. Therefore dimples obviously improve fuel economy in cars.

 

This is a really lame running joke he has going. Basically anything with apparently substance from rrolf you can just ignore as troll

 

In your backyard? Yeah, that was it. Plus the windspeed of 72 point something something something.

I suppose some people have a better sense of humour than others.

On a more serious note, Scientific American published plans for a scale wind tunnel many years ago. With a fan, a big box, lotsa tape, some mutilated golf balls, and a few WeePris, we could test this out for ourselves.

 

Are you referring to this most interesting thread http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ifications/67338-2010-prius-mud-flaps-14.html ?

Yes - I may have a strange sense of humor... But I do believe the majority of my posts are very spot on - and somewhat informative (or inquisitive).

No - I don't add the or for random crazy posts - I tend to hope our society will weed out the meek........ Or accept the joke.......

I also hope some day we will all accept the MPG our cars get is not affected by a license plate - or a shark fin antenna - or mud flaps......

Now the (3) bee splats I found on my front bumper did cause a 1.6% drop in efficiency - as measured in my time machine (measured actual mileage through 20 tanks - then went back in time, and measured it again) - but that is another story...

 

Hey, that could really come in handy. You'd never have to wash the car again, or do any maintenance...it is big enough to put the car in, right? Heck, never mind the car, you could be 18 forever.

 

No - unfortunately:
1. It does not clean your car - your car looks the same regardless of time frame - and in fact ages as it moves through time. As an example - if you go back 10 days, then move forward to the "present (meaning time you headed backwards)", your car is actually 10 days older, and has xxx more bugs and stuff on it from your 10 day journey.
2. You cannot use it as a "fountain of youth [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_of_Youth]Fountain of Youth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] " to stay 18 - or for that matter any age. The same principle applies. Unfortunately, you continue to age for each day you live. You can live 10 days in 1876, and watch Alexander Graham Bell introduce his patent for the telephone, but when you go back to the same time you left, you are now 10 days older - but holding a better appreciation for a small appliance the world uses daily to stay in touch.

 

Darn. Too bad you can't set the wayback controls to the day you bought the car, and never have to suffer that first ding for longer than the time it takes to drive it in the time machine.

Better yet, my wife could be 18 forever. Sigh.

 

Re-read the last post, doesn't work that way, if you could make it work that is

 

They do! Shark skin is quite rough.

 

Doh!

:doh:

Tom

 

You need to consider that some trucks already have California licence plates, that will reduce the impact of the change. Also the fines you will get for having unassigned plates will no doubt offset the fuel savings!

 

R

Given that these are basically pedal-powered dragsters, it would seem the higher the power-to weight ratio, the better. Turning radius is not a concern, though comfort may influence the power output.

Conditions like...the size of the person to be squeezed inside? Which would dictate the width, and thus influence the length? Or do you mean something else?

There are two distinct schools of thought here. One is to use extensive computer modelling and highly sophisticated mouldiing techniques. The other is to wing it, which I think has some merit. (The designer and builder of the fastest craft to date is a sculptor. And the world's most beautiful car was designed nearly 50 years ago without benefit of either a wind tunnel or a computer.) I'm tempted to just assemble the innards, assume the position, shrink wrap myself, and have a buddy spray it with foam. Of course, I'd have to figure a way out before I could sand the outside smooth.

Yeah, I don't think fish-scale carbon pre-preg is available yet. And drilling all those tiny holes is gonna take awhile.

 

Re: R

Exactly. Given the required width and height, the NACA sections will specify the length and curve for lowest drag. This essentially eliminates the modeling, or at least minimizes it. A non-technical person can use the curve offsets to wing it with fairly good results. Obviously, if you have the time and resources, you can do better with specific modeling and wind tunnel testing.

Tom

 

I've seen more than a few very colourful pressure diagrams, and some exquisitely built bikes that...oops, the rider doesn't quite fit. Can we just add some bubbles for his knees?

Is a scale model with a strain gauge in a large-carboard-box-wind-tunnel likely to be instructive? Still, I'd love to see the effect onscreen of the zillion-holes suction idea. Methinks I should go find a university HPV team to play with.

 

To my knowledge, this was the only time it was ever done. One of those works on paper, but is just too hard to implement. Northrop X-21 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Don't forget the Germans in 1940 with suction at the knee flap, the U.S. L-1 liason plane with suction flaps in 1944, the U.S. F-86F with leading edge suction in 1953, the U.S. XC-123D in 1955, and the French Breguet Vultur in 1956, and lastly the F-16XL:

General Dynamics F-16XL - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There might be more, but those are the ones I know about off the top of my head.

Tom