Re: A cultural illusion

[John Mallinckrodt <ajmallinckro@CSUPomona.Edu>]

On Tue, 5 Nov 1996, Leigh Palmer wrote:

> In cartoons
> speeding automobiles are frequently portrayed as having
> oval, forward-leaning wheels, and hard-braking autos as
> having oval wheels leaning backwards. Has it occurred to
> anyone else in the group why this should be? Hint: it has
> nothing to do with relativity. I think I know the answer,
> and it is a useful piece of technical information to use
> in courses where geometrical optics is taught. 

Hmm, I confess that I never *consciously* thought about it, but my
*immediate* reaction is that it is perfectly consistent with the
anthropomorphization (?) of the car and our everyday experience that we
have to lean forward or backward respectively when accelerating from or
decelerating to rest especially when the acceleration is large.  I'm
struggling to see the relation to geometric optics, however.  Maybe you
had some other explanation in mind? 

John
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