Re: Friction

[brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>]

At 17:15 10/30/98 -0500, you wrote:
....
> I don't remember specifically addressing the tire-width issue, but I'm
> sure we must have had tires of significantly different widths in our
> study.  If I am to believe our research, and vehicle weight and tire
> pressure being the same, a wider tire should produce a contact area having
> a different *shape* but no difference in *magnitude*.  Or am I missing
> something important here??? 
>
> Best wishes,
> ...
> Larry Cartwright

Racing cars fitted progressively wider tires to absorb increasing
propulsion power. The transmission then needed to be progressively beefed up.
 The rubber on track interface is not a good illustration of the physics
friction rule. One may consider that a soft rubber which conforms to a
corrugated road surface is subject to a macroscopic shearing force which
can sustain sidewards accelerations of 1.3 g or so.


brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK