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The Science Behind Making A Pinewood Derby Car Go Really Fast
In the U.S. Pinewood Derby is a popular event involving cars. This is not a motorsports event thought and are organised for children (Cub Scouts) to compete against each other.
The cars are built by the children and are bare basic. Simple blocks of pinewood for the body, fitted with plastic wheels and metal axles complete the cars. These then race against each other down a ramp, powered solely by gravity. Well, at least, that's the basic principle.
You see, Pinewood Derby is a lot more competitive than it actually sounds. That's because working behind the scenes are the parents. So, in the end, these cars tend to be not so basic. Teams do all they can to make their pinewood car go faster.
No matter what though, fitting lightweight wheels with polished axles to an aerodynamic body will only make the cars go so fast. What you need then, to build a superior Pinewood Derby car, is some advice from an expert.
An expert who is an ex-NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer named Mark Rober. Turns out, you can actually make these simple gravity powered cars go as fast as 60 km/h (thought that would be illegal in a Pinewood Derby race). Nevertheless, it is fascinating to know the science behind making the fastest, most basic toy car.
Watch the Facebook video of the day below.
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