[Land-speed] [BULK]Re: Polar Moment

[Ed Weldon]

Neil--
Water is mostly laminar flow.  Air is turbulent.  Big difference.
That said, it wouldn't be all that hard to pack a 1:25 model body with lead
wheel weights and mount the wheels on little free tunning bearings.
I think you'd want to close it up pretty tight so it wouldn't shed air
bubbles.  Maybe design the carriage with the wheels so the body can be
turned relative to direction of travel.  I'd look at using "G" scale model
train track (but cover the ties) and maybe cut up one of the trucks adding a
section between the axles to lengthen the wheelbase.  You have "sparky"
experience.   Can you contrive underwater sensors to signal the passing of
the model?  Otherwise refraction effects from ripples could upset the visual
ques for stopwatch work.
Ed
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <neil at dbelltech.com>
To: "'Ed Weldon'" <23.weldon at comcast.net>; "'Don McMeekin'"
<landspeed at columbus.rr.com>; "'Keith Turk'" <kturk at ala.net>
Cc: "'land-speedsubmit'" <land-speed at autox.team.net>; "'Elon'"
<saltfever at comcast.net>; <NT788 at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2008 9:51 AM
Subject: RE: [Land-speed] [BULK]Re: Polar Moment
> I've often wondered if I could investigate the aerodynamics of a design
by.....
> My idea is to do the drag measurements with a minimum of instrumentation.
> Simply build a smooth ramp and place it in a swimming pool at a known
angle
> and let the model roll down the ramp for a measured distance. ....
> Regards, Neil   Tucson, AZ