How to Win a Hot Wheels Derby on a Moving Treadmill

If the drive on the remaining wheel is better than the ideal, this will create a net torque that will rotate the car to the ideal. However, for some turning cars and trucks this just isn’t a difficulty. Let’s say a car turned to the remaining and is relocating down the track in a diagonal route (not straight down). Now there will be a sideways drive on the wheels. This will push a wheel on 1 aspect of the car into the axle and pull the other wheel away from the axle. It’s attainable that this pushing and pulling of wheels can change the successful coefficient of kinetic friction these that the differential friction forces cause it to flip the other way and head directly back again down the incline. These are the blessed cars and trucks that are additional possible to acquire.

What About the Wall?

Let’s say a car turns remaining and moves to the remaining aspect of the treadmill until it arrives in make contact with with the aspect wall. It are unable to hold relocating to the remaining given that you can find a barrier there. If it hits at a shallow angle, the wall can exert a sideways drive to flip it back again “downhill.” However, if it keeps pushing in opposition to the sidewall, there will be a friction drive amongst the aspect of the car and the wall. This frictional drive will push up the incline and reduce the net drive down the incline. If this wall frictional drive is just the ideal volume, the net drive will be zero and the car will not likely speed up. It will just continue to be in the exact same placement.

Does the Speed of the Treadmill Even Make any difference?

In the evaluation over, none of the forces depend on the velocity of the treadmill. And if a car is relocating straight down the track, then the treadmill velocity isn’t going to matter. But what about a car relocating down at an angle? Plainly, in a real-lifetime race with cars and trucks that can move in any course, the track velocity does matter. Ok, so just suppose we have two cars and trucks with the exact same velocity (v) relocating on a track. What takes place when a car turns?

Illustration: Rhett Allain

What are these labels on the velocities? It turns out that velocities are relative to our frame of reference. The two cars and trucks have velocities relative to the track. So, A-T is the velocity of car A with respect to the track. What about the velocity of the track? That is measured with respect to the reference frame of the floor (T-G). But what we want is the velocity of the cars and trucks with respect to the floor. For that, we can use the pursuing velocity transformation. (Here is a additional in depth rationalization.)