illuminating science

19/12/2005

Driving upside down

Filed under: — Joel @ 3:46 pm

You know that scene in Men in Black, where they push the Red Button in their very cool car, accelerate to high speeds into the tunnel then end up driving on the roof to avoid the traffic? I thought it was a clever use of alien technology - but, it seems like it’s nothing that your ordinary sports car couldn’t do! According to this and many other sites, a Formula-1 racing car, which drives at speeds of up to 360km/hour (!), uses aerodynamics to generate a downwards force of 2.5 times its own weight. The air rushing across the top also pushes down, which means that there’s more friction so they can take corners at higher speeds without sliding off the track.

But the upshot of this is that they’re generating more than their own weight - so if they were to drive upside, the air is pushing it into the roof more than gravity is pulling it towards they ground. They could drive upside down! Of course, this is theoretical, and I don’t think that anyone’s actually tried it - but that’s not the point, is it? MIB might not be sci-fi after all…

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