Re: wheels come off - speed doubles?

[Jerry Hester <jhester@MTU.EDU>]

I once upon a time lived in the middle of Kansas.  A farm truck
overloaded with grain was traveling down the highway at no more than 20
mph when a wheel came off.  The wheel rolled a good quarter mile through
a field and practically destroyed my car sitting in my driveway.  I
would assume that if the wheel comes off at the right point in it's
rotation, the weight of the truck could impart a very significant
rotational kinetic energy.
An aside: When I finally had my car repaired and returned.  The next day
I had people replacing the water heater.  They set it down on the porch,
it rolled off and into the driveway and smashed the heck out of my
fender.  That particular car was just not meant to be sitting in the
driveway.

Stefan Jeglinski wrote:

> An entertaining story, if nothing else:
>
> http://www.wral.com/news/1465614/detail.html
>
> I'm having a hard time figuring what physical mechanism might make
> the speed double. I want to say this is bogus, despite the highway
> patrol (see text and video) obviously taking it as fact... it if was
> true, there should be an obvious kinetic energy principle behind it,
> but I see none.
>
> Stefan Jeglinski

--
Jerry Hester
Jhester@mtu.edu
Laboratory/Lecture Demonstrations Coordinator
Department of Physics
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton, MI 49931-1295
Phone: (906) 487-2273
Fax: (906) 487-2933