Thames & Kosmos Kinetic Machines: (Engineering Makerspace) handleiding

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The Physics of Cars

POWER

Why is it harder to carry a heavy box while you

are running up a flight of stairs than it is while

you are walking up the same flight of stairs? It is

because it requires more power to move the box

when you are running. Power in physics means

the amount of work that is done over time.

You may have heard the term horsepower used to

describe a car. In the late 1700s, the Scottish

engineer James Watt wanted a way to compare

the amount of power that a steam engine could

produce with that of a draft horse. Watt found

that a horse could lift about 33,000 pounds of

coal a distance of one foot in one minute. Thus,

Watt set one horsepower equal to 33,000 foot-

pounds per minute. An average person can

produce about 0.1 horsepower, while a car can

produce 120 or more horsepower.

VELOCITY

AND SPEED

Speed and velocity

are often used

interchangeably, but

in physics they mean

different things. Speed

is just how fast

something is going, while

velocity is both how fast and

in what direction.

For example, if you are moving 30 miles per hour,

then that is your speed. But, if you are moving 30

miles per hour north, then that is your velocity.

The speed of a car is shown by the speedometer

in miles per hour or kilometers per hour.

ACCELERATION

Acceleration is a change in the velocity of an

object. That means that the object could be

speeding up, slowing down, or changing direction

and it would be accelerating. The time it takes for

a car to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour is a

common measure of a car’s ability to accelerate.

WORK

The way that physicists define work is different

from the common usage of the word. Work is

when a force causes a displacement in the same

direction as the motion of an object. For

example, if you were walking around at a

steady velocity with a box in your arms you

would not be performing work. This is because

the force required to hold up the box points in

the upward direction, while the displacement

from your walking around is in the horizontal

direction. However, if you were to push a box

along the floor or lift a box up, you would be

performing work.

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