For once, it sorta is rocket science!
So recently a friend and I were talking about rotary engines and the incredible inefficiency of piston engines as we know them today. Now it's true that rotary engines have the benefit of not having moving parts stop, start, stop again, and restart in the opposite direction. This is where more engines lose out in the efficiency war. (In most racecars, pistons are made from lighter materials to help them in the process of changing direction and losing inertia.
I think most impressive is this following fact:
A piston in an F1 car does 0-60mph in 0.0005 seconds experiencing 8600Gs & a weight of 6 tonnes.
That's right, the speeds it reaches are incredible and the connecting rod (the thing that holds the piston up as well as keeps it from flying off) has to bear the weight of over 12 000 lbs! (that's both 12 000 downward and 12 000 negative pounds!)
So next time you hear a high-reving engine, try to think of the pistons inside bouncing away an causing some mad numbers to dance in physic geeks' heads!
Cheers to mad-science and engineering. It's amazing that this sort of thing is common place in today's world!
-D-
I think most impressive is this following fact:
A piston in an F1 car does 0-60mph in 0.0005 seconds experiencing 8600Gs & a weight of 6 tonnes.
That's right, the speeds it reaches are incredible and the connecting rod (the thing that holds the piston up as well as keeps it from flying off) has to bear the weight of over 12 000 lbs! (that's both 12 000 downward and 12 000 negative pounds!)
So next time you hear a high-reving engine, try to think of the pistons inside bouncing away an causing some mad numbers to dance in physic geeks' heads!
Cheers to mad-science and engineering. It's amazing that this sort of thing is common place in today's world!
-D-
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