[HN Gopher] Students break acceleration world record
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Students break acceleration world record
        
       Author : giuliomagnifico
       Score  : 210 points
       Date   : 2022-10-12 18:34 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.uni-stuttgart.de)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.uni-stuttgart.de)
        
       | jcmontx wrote:
       | Now take the tech and apply it to the next gen of Formula E!
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | What are those solder joints at 0:50 in the video?
        
       | nsxwolf wrote:
       | I'd love a straightforward view of what that really looks like,
       | instead of a bunch of fancy camera work.
        
       | Ralo wrote:
       | I've been a huge fan of drag racing, and the engineering behind
       | it. I've seen the influx of electric cars making their way into
       | the scene but they never seem to be competitive, and that comes
       | down to their top end.
       | 
       | The extreme end of combustion engines, you really got top fuel
       | dragsters. Not much faster land vehicles than those. The flaw
       | with those, they got about 2 uses tops before it needs to be
       | completely gutted and rebuilt, not great as a weekend track car.
       | As well, it's somewhere around $1000/second to drive it.
       | 
       | You can sit more in the middle with people getting 1000hp daily
       | drivers. With dynamic tuning, flex fuel, etc you can get the best
       | of both worlds. As well, DCT AWD transmissions make grip/shifting
       | issues a thing of the past.
       | 
       | However, these middle ground drag cars can still get eaten by a
       | $130k bone stock tesla*. The extra weight, infinite torque, and
       | zero shifting is a real advantage, even if their top end isn't as
       | strong as their ICE counterpart.
       | 
       | I've always dreamed of building a hybrid car with tiny tiny
       | battery packs. Maybe enough charge for 4-5 passes. Enough for a
       | day at the track. But have a fully built high revving ICE. You
       | get the launch in full electric, your ICE can be fully spooled,
       | and ready to switch over automatically. Perhaps the smaller
       | batteries couldn't put out enough power? Who knows.
       | 
       | *Plaid
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | > You can sit more in the middle with people getting 1000hp
         | daily drivers. With dynamic tuning, flex fuel, etc you can get
         | the best of both worlds. As well, DCT AWD transmissions make
         | grip/shifting issues a thing of the past.
         | 
         | > However, these middle ground drag cars can still get eaten by
         | a $100k bone stock tesla
         | 
         | A 1000HP drag car with AWD and a DCT shouldn't "get eaten by" a
         | $100K Tesla (unless you actually meant the $130K Tesla Model S
         | Plaid). Not unless someone is lying about their power numbers
         | or doesn't know how to set up a car.
         | 
         | The Tesla's drag mode is a neat party trick and perfect for
         | singular drag races, but spending 15 minutes preconditioning
         | your battery before you can launch is also kind of ridiculous
         | by ICE car standards.
        
           | Ralo wrote:
           | >unless you actually meant the $130K Tesla Model S Plaid
           | 
           | Rounding error to $100k. Yes I'm referring to the Plaid.
           | People have taken those cars and gutted the interiors on
           | them, and demolished drag races.
           | 
           | > spending 15 minutes preconditioning your battery before you
           | can launch is also kind of ridiculous by ICE car standards.
           | 
           | It's far from rare to see people setting up an array of box
           | fans, and bags of ice around their engines to cool it off
           | between passes. Many high high powered cars won't even have
           | full size radiators.
        
         | slowhand09 wrote:
         | Nope, your typical Tesla isn't the rocket you describe. Most
         | are quick, but not that quick. I frequently get challenged by
         | wannabes while commuting. I rarely take the bait, but I've yet
         | to have one live up to the hype.
        
           | gffrd wrote:
           | What are you driving that has Tesla drivers wanting to tangle
           | with you so often??
           | 
           | Muscle or German?
           | 
           | (Wondering whether the motivator is performance or ideology)
        
             | KindAndFriendly wrote:
             | slowhand09: "My daily driver is a Hellcat..."
        
           | Ralo wrote:
           | I should have specified, Tesla Plaid. Of course a Model X
           | isn't as quick as a fully built 1000hp AWD DCT GTR. Apples to
           | oranges.
        
         | masklinn wrote:
         | > Not much faster land vehicles than those.
         | 
         | Top fuels top out around 350 mph. The land speed record is 760
         | (manned, for unmanned it's a rocket sled exceeding mach 8).
         | 
         | The land speed record has been above 350 since 1938:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railton_Special
         | 
         | There are in fact a fair number of much faster land vehicles.
        
           | Ralo wrote:
           | Yes, their top speed is much much faster. But put that same
           | vehicle on a 1/4 mile race track, racing a top fuel dragster.
           | The top fuel dragster produces around 5g's at launch, the top
           | speed cars are very very slow to build up speed. So much so,
           | they usually require a pilot vehicle just to start them, like
           | you trying to start pedaling your bicycle in 5th gear. You'll
           | want a push. It's a different type of racing.
           | 
           | > Not much faster land vehicles than those.
           | 
           | Its a poor choice of words, perhaps 'quick' is a better word?
        
         | gorkish wrote:
         | > But have a fully built high revving ICE
         | 
         | Once you do this you are sunk due to weight. If you need
         | another torque band, far better to add a second electric motor
         | with a different gear ratio (Tesla already does this) or use
         | something like a DSG with the single motor.
        
       | jmpeax wrote:
       | What an incredibly frustrating video. Here is the actual run
       | without all the unnecessary fast-and-furious computer graphics
       | rubbish at the start:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDK0LhKkMs&t=76s
        
       | mattfrommars wrote:
       | The title should add for electric vehicles. Aren't top fuel
       | dragsters quicker?
        
         | semi-extrinsic wrote:
         | Yes, IIRC they're doing somewhere around 0.7s? There's even
         | been road legal tuned-up versions of the Nissan GT-R doing
         | around the 1.5s mark.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | topspin wrote:
         | Jalopnik claims 0-100 _MPH_ (161km /h) is 0.86 seconds.
        
       | ncmncm wrote:
       | I wonder if they are allowed to put a fan in to suck it down to
       | the road surface, offering better static friction to the tires.
       | You would of course start the fan before the wheels.
       | 
       | That would mean you could get by with lighter-weight tires, an
       | important concern.
        
         | ihunter2839 wrote:
         | Yes, this car uses powered ground effects (PGE) to achieve the
         | necessary downforce at low speeds (they mention this in an
         | instagram post)
         | 
         | In Formula SAE in the US, PGE systems are not allowed, but in
         | the European equivalent they are.
         | 
         | Take a look at the Speirling at Goodwood Festival of Speed for
         | an awfully mean fan car.
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtvT2XYlcOY
        
         | tshaddox wrote:
         | That's what this electric fan car does:
         | https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a40424619/watch-an-electri...
        
       | mburee wrote:
       | Why wouldn't they incorporate design from top fuel dragsters?
       | They reach 100mph (!!) in under a second.
        
         | sethgrisham wrote:
         | It's a track car designed for road races, not drag racing. This
         | car is essentially meant to be a jack of all trades, whereas
         | top fuel dragsters are probably the most purpose built car of
         | all time.
        
         | eenell wrote:
         | Why would an EV incorporate tech from top _fuel_ dragsters?
         | What tech besides tyres and aero would they adopt?
        
           | antonvs wrote:
           | Flames, smoke, and the occasional explosion perhaps?
        
           | m463 wrote:
           | I'm pretty sure top fuel dragsters are all about tires and
           | aero and only inconsequentially the power source.
           | 
           | It might be an easy problem to solve acceleration to 100km/hr
           | since you don't have to carry batteries to go an entire 1/4
           | mile
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | ominous_prime wrote:
           | not many other vehicles have the ability to transfer
           | >6000ft/lbs of torque down to the pavement to be able to
           | accelerate at 5gs
        
           | orangepurple wrote:
           | The clutch which fuses itself into a solid unit instantly
        
           | sbierwagen wrote:
           | The video shows it using kart tyres, and I would be
           | interested to see what it would do with proper drag radials,
           | since they change shape quite a lot during a launch: https://
           | www.caranddriver.com/features/columns/a26089565/drag...
           | 
           | >The massive torque channeled through the rear axle shifts
           | the load of the car rearward and tries to twist the tire on
           | its 16-inch beadlock rim. The sidewalls wrinkle as the tire--
           | generally running between 6.0 and 10.0 psi of pressure--
           | shrinks in radius by more than six inches and the tread
           | effectively balls up at the front of the contact patch. That
           | compression of the tire expands the contact patch to almost
           | 250 square inches--larger than two side-by-side sheets of
           | 8.5-by-11-inch paper. The compression of the tire also means
           | that the final-drive ratio is effectively shortened for a
           | harder launch. By the time the tire has released the torque
           | stored in its wrinkled sidewalls and tread and grown back to
           | its original size, the Top Fueler is already pulling more
           | than 4.00 g's of acceleration.
           | 
           | >After the car launches, inertia grows the tire to as much as
           | 38 inches in diameter, simultaneously lengthening and
           | narrowing the contact patch. This effectively lets the final-
           | drive ratio grow taller for higher speeds and reduces rolling
           | resistance as the vehicle hits terminal velocity.
           | 
           | Effectively a big CVT with no moving parts.
        
           | Animats wrote:
           | Wheel spinning and burning rubber?
           | 
           | Electrics going for maximum acceleration usually don't do
           | that, because once the wheel is spinning relative to the
           | pavement, friction is reduced and there's less acceleration.
           | Watch videos of Teslas in launch mode.
        
       | 1970-01-01 wrote:
       | FFS. The run is about 82 seconds into the video. In the amount of
       | garbage time leading up to it, they could have shown it 56 times.
       | https://youtu.be/xjDK0LhKkMs?t=82
        
         | thomastjeffery wrote:
         | By putting 4 spaces in front of your link, HN has formatted it
         | as a code block instead of a clickable link.
        
           | raydiatian wrote:
           | For the amount of spaces he put in front of his link slowing
           | me down on my way to YouTube, I could have watched the car
           | accelerate to 100 two or three times.
        
         | ivanjermakov wrote:
         | More than that, the actual record part haven't delivered a good
         | sense of acceleration
        
       | lowestprimate wrote:
       | The acceleration record is probably the manhole cover launched
       | via nuclear explosion. Accelerated to 125,000 mph in a
       | millisecond. https://www.businessinsider.com/fastest-object-
       | robert-brownl...
        
       | NaturalPhallacy wrote:
       | 100 km/h is 62 mph
        
         | whycombinetor wrote:
         | Yes, zero-to-60 (in mph) or zero-to-100 (in km/h) is the
         | standard acceleration measure for cars across the world.
        
           | aidenn0 wrote:
           | Not for drag racers though, which are usually measured in
           | speed attained from a standstill over 1/4 mile.
        
             | squeaky-clean wrote:
             | Dragsters definitely measure their acceleration for
             | bragging rights, it's usually a 0-100mph metric though. And
             | of course bragging rights mean nothing if your car doesn't
             | win the actual race. Top-Fuel dragsters race only 1000ft
             | because they're so insanely fast it's dangerous to let them
             | go farther and build up even more speed.
        
               | unwind wrote:
               | I extend the award of most confusing expression to you,
               | for "0-100 mph metric".
               | 
               | I _know_ that  "a metric" is not the same as "the metric
               | (system)", but I really had to stop all neurons and think
               | a little.
               | 
               | Also, are 1000 ft a quarter mile? I have _no idea_ , so I
               | had to Google and it's not, that'd be 1,320 ft.
        
               | squeaky-clean wrote:
               | Haha upon reading it, that is a bad phrasing. My American
               | is showing. Funny because I usually watch European racing
               | series which use km, but dragsters are fun to keep track
               | of and those are imperial.
               | 
               | Also you can be sure 1000ft isn't a quarter mile because
               | that's far too evenly divisible.
        
             | elif wrote:
             | Do you mean duration and not speed?
             | 
             | Sure the readout gives a max speed reached but the numbers
             | they compete over, and the numbers which establish car
             | classes, are the time duration for the 1/4mi run.
        
       | megraf wrote:
       | Call me old fashion, but I'd really gain more out of the
       | demonstration videos if they linked to the time the record (or
       | whatever content) started.
       | 
       | Yes, it's a beautiful video.
        
       | LeifCarrotson wrote:
       | Students break acceleration world record...for _electric_
       | vehicles.
       | 
       | This isn't close to the record for dragsters; if they can
       | increase the energy density per unit mass there are traction and
       | downforce improvements that can be used to improve this. It's
       | very hard to beat chemical energy like detonating gasoline or
       | nitromethane - you're looking at roughly a factor of 100, with
       | ~40 MJ/kg for gasoline and 0.4 MJ/kg for a lithium ion battery -
       | especially if you're racing through a 15 PSI gas that you can use
       | in your chemical reaction without having to accelerate it
       | onboard.
       | 
       | I suspect that traction control for an electric motor may someday
       | allow electric vehicles to exceed the records held by internal
       | (well, mostly internal) combustion engines. You could keep the
       | tire at exactly the right amount of slip for maximum
       | acceleration, rather than trying to balance centrifugal clutches
       | to get just the right amount of power at the right time.
       | 
       | I wonder what the record is for a vehicle that can pick up
       | electric energy from a tether/rail/overhead wire...though cables
       | that can carry megawatts of energy are probably pretty heavy.
       | 
       | Edit: I think the most interesting category here is the typical
       | friction-propelled, human-carrying vehicle of either chemical or
       | electric power sources. Railguns, rockets, fan cars (using active
       | downforce), and vehicles which engage the ground by rack and
       | pinion are qualitatively different. When the question is
       | accelerating your own mass forwards using the friction developed
       | by your own mass being pulled down by gravity, there's an
       | interesting optimization problem trading off weight and power.
        
         | MontyCarloHall wrote:
         | >cables that can carry megawatts of energy are probably pretty
         | heavy
         | 
         | Required cable thickness (and thus weight) is proportional to
         | current, not voltage. Conductors to carry megawatts of
         | electricity could be fairly light as long as the voltage is
         | extremely high and the amperage relatively low.
        
           | jvanderbot wrote:
           | And magnetic force is a function of current, and magnetic
           | force is what drives wheels. Technically you are correct, but
           | thick cables are actually needed to do lots of translation
           | from electricity to movement.
        
             | willmadden wrote:
             | I don't think there's a problem with cable weight with
             | electric motors. Production EV's today have ridiculous
             | amounts of torque and don't require prohibitively heavy
             | cables.
             | 
             | The issue with acceleration using wheels is gravity. You
             | are limited to 1g, the downforce on the wheels, which you
             | use for traction to push the vehicle forward. Spoilers
             | increase the downforce on the vehicle beyond 1g, but the
             | energy required to do that is proportional to the drag on
             | the spoiler.
             | 
             | Short of a rocket engine, the way to accelerate beyond 1g
             | with a wheeled vehicle is to have a downforce fan. That can
             | be powered by combustion or by electricity. I don't know
             | which would offer the highest power to weight ratio.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | lazide wrote:
               | I'm not sure having a 'reverse Helicopter' on the back of
               | your vehicle really qualifies as 'ground vehicle' at that
               | point. Especially if it's providing enough force to
               | literally drive upside down on a ceiling somewhere.
        
               | stefs wrote:
               | it's as ground as can be, short of a tunneling machine
               | maybe.
        
               | solidr53 wrote:
               | BEV used to have around 80kg of copper [1], nowadays,
               | manufacturers are moving towards 800V architecture
               | attempting to cut the weight in half.
               | 
               | I also feel like 800V cars also maintain their maximum
               | power better on lower SoC than 400V systems.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.copper.org/publications/pub_list/pdf/A619
               | 2_Elect...
        
             | kroeckx wrote:
             | For the torque, you can use a low current using more
             | windings, which has the same effect of having a higher
             | current with less windings.
             | 
             | The acceleration you can reach is mostly limited by the
             | peak current and the force constant, but the maximum speed
             | you can reach at that acceleration is mostly limited by the
             | voltage you have available because of the back-EMF. A
             | simplified formula is that the voltage you need is R * I +
             | v * BEMF. The higher the voltage is, the better the
             | insulation between the windings needs to be. You need to
             | find a balance between the different properties.
        
               | happyopossum wrote:
               | More windings = more weight - you're gonna pay for it
               | somewhere.
        
               | sudosysgen wrote:
               | Sure but the wiring is thinner, thereby somewhat
               | equalising.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | MichaelZuo wrote:
         | It does seem like a clickbait title.
        
         | isoprophlex wrote:
         | > I wonder what the record is for a vehicle that can pick up
         | electric energy from a tether/rail/overhead wire...
         | 
         | Getting dangerously close to "car launched by a railgun"
         | territory, hehehe
        
           | tshaddox wrote:
           | Yep, it very quickly becomes a question of what exactly
           | you're trying to test. If you take energy and power density
           | out of the equation by allowing unrestricted access to
           | external fixed energy delivery infrastructure, the only thing
           | left to test is traction management (assuming you're not
           | allowing things like adhesive tires, cog rails, active
           | downforce, etc.). If you _do_ start to allow those post-
           | traction things, you are as the stage where you might as well
           | build a railgun.
        
         | dheera wrote:
         | > though cables that can carry megawatts of energy
         | 
         | Not really, high speed train lines do it all the time. They
         | usually operate at 25 kV or 50 kV and often consume a few
         | megawatts per train.
         | 
         | (At 50 kV, one megawatt is only 20 amps, which you can deliver
         | on 12 AWG wire, theoretically.)
        
           | titzer wrote:
           | Uh no, do not put 50,000 volts through 12 AWG wire.
        
             | the_third_wave wrote:
             | When I went to high school the teacher told about a science
             | fair where someone had put a sign next to his project
             | reading:                     WARNING        2 million Ohms
             | 
             | (or something like that, I don't remember the actual number
             | of Ohms for this specific project)
             | 
             | A remarkable number of people kept their distance from this
             | obviously dangerous experiment.
             | 
             | The chemistry-equivalent of this joke is to warn everyone
             | around you of the presence of dangerous _di-Hydrogen Oxide_
             | which kills hundreds of thousands of people every year.
        
               | elliottkember wrote:
               | 2 million ohms? Not bad, not terrible. Vasily, get the
               | good Ohmmeter from the safe.
        
               | rascul wrote:
               | > The chemistry-equivalent of this joke is to warn
               | everyone around you of the presence of dangerous di-
               | Hydrogen Oxide which kills hundreds of thousands of
               | people every year.
               | 
               | https://dhmo.org/facts.html
        
               | comboy wrote:
               | In their defense, maybe those people didn't know if it's
               | a project by a very clever student or by the one who
               | mixes up units ;)
        
             | quickthrowman wrote:
             | Why not? You obviously wouldn't do it to a THHN conductor
             | that is rated for 600v, but there are certainly #12 AWG
             | conductors rated for higher voltages. They have a whole lot
             | more insulation/layers than a regular 600v rated conductor,
             | see: https://www.powerandcables.com/wp-
             | content/uploads/2019/10/Fi...
             | 
             | High voltage utility distribution lines aren't insulated by
             | anything other than porcelain bushings and air.
        
               | gooseyman wrote:
               | Came here to say this. Romex/THHN might be a bad idea,
               | but that's because they weren't insulated for this
               | purpose. 12 AWG would work.
        
             | jefftk wrote:
             | What goes wrong?
        
               | WJW wrote:
               | Most store-bought wires won't have sufficient covering to
               | prevent arcing, so you might get a short circuit
               | somewhere. If you insulate the wires sufficiently
               | however, any wire will take almost any voltage. It's the
               | current you should worry about, as other commenters have
               | already mentioned.
        
             | cesaref wrote:
             | As has been stated, voltage isn't a limitation, its the
             | current that. Go and look at the HT wiring used in a
             | cathode ray tube display, and you'll see it's a lot less
             | that 12 AWG, and happily carries 10-20kV.
        
             | josephcsible wrote:
             | The term "12 AWG" only specifies conductor thickness.
             | Voltage is limited by insulation and current is limited by
             | conductor thickness. Assuming sufficient insulation, it's
             | safe to run arbitrarily high voltages through any
             | conductor, since it doesn't even "see" the voltage.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | spinningslate wrote:
           | yes, but:
           | 
           | 1. You need a _lot_ of insulation at 50kV 2. I'm no expert
           | but I very much doubt you could run a motor at anything
           | approaching that voltage. Current electric cars, for example,
           | run c400V as the main motor supply. So there would need to be
           | voltage conversion, which adds weight and bulk.
        
             | tomek_ycomb wrote:
             | There already is conversion. The motors are inductors and
             | phase current can be much higher than battery current
        
             | quickthrowman wrote:
             | I know for certain there are 13.8 kV motors, I don't see
             | any reason why higher voltages aren't possible for motors.
        
               | bobthepanda wrote:
               | Usually you need to transform power anyways on a train,
               | because
               | 
               | * lights, plug sockets, etc. are all at normal household
               | voltages
               | 
               | * often trains will run on multiple voltages, so a
               | transformer needs to be involved anyways
               | 
               | * lower voltages let you have thinner insulation, so
               | thinner wires let you save space for things that matter
               | more like a bigger passenger cabin
        
             | kwhitefoot wrote:
             | Quite a few of the newer EVs have 800 V batteries to make
             | fast charging more practical with cables light enough to be
             | handled by ordinary humans.
             | 
             | You can make an electric motor run on pretty much any
             | combination of voltage and current. You just have to make
             | the appropriate trade-offs in insulation, conductor cross
             | section, etc.
             | 
             | ABB (my former employer) makes motors that run on 13.8 kV
             | with a power of up to 29 MW. See
             | https://new.abb.com/motors-generators/high-voltage-
             | induction...
        
         | jackmott wrote:
        
         | whartung wrote:
         | As a visceral experience, there are few things that top a Top
         | Fuel drag race. They're really something worth experiencing at
         | least once personally. You really just have to be there.
        
           | naikrovek wrote:
           | yeah the real "all I hear is ringing" experience can't be
           | beaten.
           | 
           | I've been to two Top Fuel drag races and I left feeling like
           | I was surrounded by people who have just enough
           | sophistication to know that they like to play with fire
           | whenever possible.
           | 
           | they are not like that, of course, but they were definitely
           | caught up in the visceral feeling of watching a race and I
           | was caught up in the idea that I'd never be able to hear
           | again.
           | 
           | I do not recommend races, myself.
        
             | alfalfasprout wrote:
             | Bad take. Wear ear protection. Problem solved.
        
             | karamanolev wrote:
             | Earmuffs? Isn't it worth seeing (maybe just once) even if
             | you do wear hearing protection?
        
               | naikrovek wrote:
               | I was wearing hearing protection. have you ever been to
               | one of these? or maybe a concert? hearing protection does
               | not block incoming sound, hearing protection attenuates
               | incoming sound. after hearing protection it's all still
               | very, very loud. loud enough to cause ringing immediately
               | and for days afterwards.
        
               | yamazakiwi wrote:
               | Worth seeing to whom? I'm not trying to be contrarian but
               | none of that seems enjoyable or a Top 3 visceral
               | experience when I'm not actually involved with the
               | action.
               | 
               | It's weird to hear someone say something is in general a
               | Top Experience.
        
               | whartung wrote:
               | Even in todays world of crazy sound systems and 8K video,
               | some things are simply worth experiencing live. "You have
               | to be there."
               | 
               | Like live music, like going to a playoff game, watching a
               | rocket launch. Even if you don't care about the race, the
               | game, or the music. The energy of being in these places,
               | experiencing it, feeling it, the spontaneous giggles, the
               | sense of awe being caught in the middle of it, has a
               | value all its own. You can watch the race on TV, catch
               | the game in a pub, listen to the live recording over, and
               | over, and over again.
               | 
               | But it's not the same as being there.
        
               | yamazakiwi wrote:
               | Oh, I don't have interest in seeing a drag race in video
               | either which is what is leading me to believe it wouldn't
               | be that exciting.
               | 
               | I agree with what you're saying about live events vs
               | video.
        
               | samatman wrote:
               | Some of us like very loud sounds punching us right in the
               | chest.
               | 
               | Video is completely useless for this. Drag racing is not.
        
               | WalterBright wrote:
               | Wearing top quality ear protection is a requirement. They
               | work, and do not subtract from the enjoyment.
        
           | sixQuarks wrote:
           | I went for the first time couple of weeks ago. Standing right
           | by the starting line, when the top fuel funny cars take off,
           | they get engulfed in a bubble of blurriness, caused by the
           | burning nitro, coupled with the tremendous rumbling which
           | causes your eyes to shake, it's impossible to get a clear
           | view of the cars on takeoff. It's insane.
        
           | WalterBright wrote:
           | There are some things that audio recordings simply cannot
           | capture. Top Fuel is one of them. When I go, I wear ear muffs
           | that are made for target shooting.
           | 
           | The pulses are so loud it is like being punched in the chest.
           | Sometimes the engines explode which is also fun as the
           | smoking parts fly around.
           | 
           | Once, the Top Fuel driver had the silly thing in reverse. The
           | christmas tree turned green, and he launched backwards. He
           | had lightning reflexes, chopping the power incredibly fast.
           | The thing still flew back nearly 100 feet, and if it had
           | continued would have climbed up the grandstand behind it.
           | 
           | I never, ever, ever stand in front or in back of a dragster
           | when its engine is running. I also do not stand radially to
           | the engine (when they blow, the parts fly out radially).
           | 
           | Other than that, it is great fun to go to a race in person.
           | It's the only motor sport left where the attendees can go
           | into the pits and watch the mechanics at work. Watching a
           | team rebuild a V8 engine in minutes is amazing. Then they'll
           | fire it up to test it. Blipping the throttle produces shock
           | waves that you can see hitting the bystanders.
           | 
           | The barely restrained violence of those machines is just
           | crazy mad fun you'll never get from watching it on TV.
        
             | rootusrootus wrote:
             | > It's the only motor sport left where the attendees can go
             | into the pits and watch the mechanics at work.
             | 
             | Definitely not true. We walk the pits every time we go to
             | an IndyCar race. And of course we do the same at the lower
             | level SCCA-level stuff. Trying to think the last time we
             | couldn't get a pit pass and coming up blank.
        
               | WalterBright wrote:
               | I've bought a "pit pass" at several motor sport events,
               | and there remained a fence separating the public from the
               | pits.
        
             | VBprogrammer wrote:
             | > It's the only motor sport left where the attendees can go
             | into the pits and watch the mechanics at work.
             | 
             | It's almost certainly not useful for you but one other
             | motorsport which is comparable in this way is the IOM TT.
             | You can walk around and speak to the guys on the pit crews
             | as they work.
             | 
             | It also offers some visceral experiences, like standing 2ft
             | from the bikes passing you doing the best part of 200mph.
             | In fact when I went a couple of years ago selfie sticks
             | were banned, as you are so close to the action that there
             | is a real danger of hitting a rider with one.
        
             | skewbone wrote:
             | Rocket launches feel the same way. I got to see STS121
             | launch from the VIP area at Kennedy Space Center a couple
             | of years back, and it felt like a continuous pressure wave
             | pounding on my chest until the rocket was above the clouds.
             | Crazy feeling.
        
               | eterm wrote:
               | > a couple of years back
               | 
               | Sure feels like it; don't dare look at a calendar.
        
             | dylan604 wrote:
             | I know a camera guy* that decided he wanted to get footage
             | he'd never seen anyone else get. He got permission, but
             | everyone just shook their head and suggested it not being a
             | good idea (yes, please read foreshadowing there). This was
             | back in the day of using a BCSP over the shoulder camcorder
             | that brand new easily cost $75k with the particular lens
             | being used. He was behind both cars standing between them,
             | and when they took off, the forces were so violent it
             | caused the spinning heads in the camera to stutter so badly
             | the footage was unusable. Viewing the footage, the image is
             | fine right up to the point of start, then the image goes
             | crazy in the way only an analog system can do, then
             | stabilizes again when everything calms down. Not only was
             | it not usable footage, but he spent hours peeling/scraping
             | melted rubber off of everything. IIRC, the driver of one of
             | the cars was legendary John Force.
             | 
             | * I swears it that it wasn't me in the "asking for a
             | friend" manner
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | Does the engine weight count in that MJ/kg?
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | No, I suppose not, but neither does the electric motor count
           | towards battery density.
           | 
           | In top fuel events, they're burning roughly 20 kg of fuel per
           | second, so a 200kg engine still doesn't equalize the density
           | of that chemical fuel.
        
         | tim333 wrote:
         | I think probably the fastest accelerating ever car with a
         | driver was the Vanishing Point drag racer which did 0-60 in
         | about 0.25 secs using a peroxide rocket. Not very practical for
         | everyday transport though https://youtu.be/7QC6tymIvKA?t=209
        
           | karamanolev wrote:
           | The differences are massive between road-going (on an asphalt
           | surface, ~1 friction coefficient), drag racing type (on a
           | drag strip, which has massively more grip, ~4) and rocket
           | driven (no friction at all, just the thrust/mass ratio)
           | vehicles. It should be clear they are in totally different
           | classes and advances in any of those classes are exciting and
           | worth mentioning, I feel.
        
         | Sharlin wrote:
         | Well, dragsters are laughably slow to accelerate if we're just
         | talking about "acceleration world record" without qualifiers.
         | (Assuming that "acceleration" here means "acceleration of a
         | ground vehicle with a human driver" is just as arbitrary as
         | "...of an electric ground vehicle...", after all. Actual
         | acceleration world records of macroscopic objects are in the
         | 10,000s of _g_ s...)
        
           | andbberger wrote:
           | i have an ultracentrifuge in lab that can do 100,000gs
           | sustained for hours
        
             | colordrops wrote:
             | What is it used for?
        
               | throwaway4PP wrote:
               | Centrifuges are used for separation. An ultra is usually
               | used for separating nominally-stable colloids (such as
               | fine nanoparticle colloids), and miscible liquids where
               | such high centrifugal force causes them to density
               | separate.
        
               | thelittleone wrote:
               | I was also curious and found this youtube [1]:
               | 
               | Summary (found in video at 10:48)
               | 
               | 1) separation of subcellular organelle (DNA/RNA) 2)
               | extract solutions in biological fluids from aqueous to
               | organic solvents 3) seperate lipid components 4)
               | pelleting of ribosomes 5) pelleting of macromolecules
               | 
               | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRT_8nFc2Tk
        
               | HeyLaughingBoy wrote:
               | Ha. On a hunch I watched that video and hunch confirmed
               | in the first second: I used to work for those guys, but
               | not in the Centrifugation division :-)
        
           | jeffbee wrote:
           | Military-funded experimental railguns are in the 10s of 1000s
           | of gs. Are these the record-holders of whom you speak?
        
             | kragen wrote:
             | I'm thinking probably alpha-particle decay exceeds that by
             | a lot.
        
               | jeffbee wrote:
               | I imagine that's why the other person qualified their
               | remark as referring to "macroscopic" objects.
        
               | kragen wrote:
               | Hmm, good point. Maybe small objects not quite close
               | enough to a hydrogen bomb to be vaporized by the flash,
               | then?
        
               | Sharlin wrote:
               | Related: the "nuclear manhole cover" [1] (actually a 900
               | kg piece of armor plate) which may have accelerated to
               | several times Earth's escape velocity over the course of
               | a few meters (tens of millions of g's which is
               | _definitely_ impressive for such a heavy object). It was
               | likely vaporized due to compressive heating before
               | escaping Earth 's atmosphere, however.
               | 
               | (I'm rather amused by the idea that some manager type
               | evidently thought that a hunk of steel might contain a
               | _nuclear explosion_ in what was in essence a very large
               | cannon!)
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob#Miss
               | ing_ste...
        
               | kragen wrote:
               | A big enough hunk of steel can certainly contain a
               | nuclear explosion.
        
               | Sharlin wrote:
               | At 900 kg, we're talking about a fairly small hunk.
        
               | vizzier wrote:
               | Like the borehole cap on
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob Pascal-B
        
               | dtgriscom wrote:
               | If you can only accurately know the position OR the
               | momentum, is acceleration well-defined?
        
               | ben_w wrote:
               | Sure, ignore the position, just focus on the rate of
               | change of momentum with respect to time.
        
               | labcomputer wrote:
               | Well, that doesn't quite work either. Energy and time are
               | also conjugate variables, so there exists an uncertainty
               | relationship between them.
               | 
               | And since you can relate energy to momentum in a well
               | defined way...
        
             | Sharlin wrote:
             | I think my "10,000s of gs" was maybe a slight
             | underestimate. A light-gas gun [1] can accelerate a
             | projectile to velocities of several km/s over a distance on
             | the order of a meter, giving an acceleration on the order
             | of 1,000,000 g by a quick calculation.
             | 
             | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-gas_gun
        
               | lazide wrote:
               | Don't forget explosively formed penetrators!
        
               | Sharlin wrote:
               | Good point!
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | WalterBright wrote:
         | Top fuel drag racers already have traction control. The slip is
         | adjustable and getting it right is a big factor in winning.
        
           | jcampbell1 wrote:
           | The clutch slips for about 2/3 of the 1/4 mile. It is a huge
           | factor.
           | 
           | My college motorsports team got to meet with John Force, and
           | someone suggested a flexible rear spoiler for variable
           | downforce. He was quick to note it likely would be faster but
           | would almost certainly get you killed.
        
           | jcims wrote:
           | I just saw a breakdown of a crash where the engine shut down,
           | allowing the clutch to stop slipping. That final clamp dumped
           | a huge impulse into the drivetrain and ripped the tires off
           | the wheels. (At least that's the way I understood it).
           | 
           | Clay Millican has an amazing YouTube channel that brings you
           | behind the scenes of an NHRA top fuel team - https://www.yout
           | ube.com/channel/UClT3GT7hxLbNnypukfyxelQ/vid...
        
           | abfan1127 wrote:
           | its my understanding that the clutch designers are the
           | highest paid crew members. Choosing how the clutch performs
           | is the critical piece to winning, based on track
           | temperatures, weather conditions, engine performance, etc.
        
         | twobitshifter wrote:
         | Think like a purpose built dragster. You only need enough
         | energy for 1.5 seconds and that's as long as the wiring needs
         | to take the current for. I think a purpose built electric
         | dragster might be lighter just because of the parts you don't
         | need. The motors may reverse the energy weight savings
        
           | lazide wrote:
           | As long as the copper doesn't vaporize until the end, we're
           | all good?
        
         | bumby wrote:
         | Small nit:
         | 
         | > _detonating_
         | 
         | Should be deflagrating because the ICE flame is designed to be
         | subsonic.
        
           | slowhand09 wrote:
           | Not sure this applies here Top Fuel engines are nearly
           | burning a liquid rather than a gas. And yes I know you can't
           | really compress a liquid. The typical ratio is 1.7 pounds of
           | air to burn 1 pound of Nitromethane. It burns slower than
           | gasoline tho. And normal gas engine runs in the vicinity of
           | 14.5:1 air to fuel.
        
             | bumby wrote:
             | > _And yes I know you can 't really compress a liquid._
             | 
             | Sure you can, it's what the bulk modulus measures.
             | 
             | You may be right. My assumption is that, by definition, a
             | detonation is an uncontrolled pressure wave and controlling
             | the pressure in an ICE cylinder is a big deal that a lot of
             | engineering goes into. As you point out, the major benefit
             | to nitromethane is that is requires less air because it
             | brings it's own oxygen. So the size of the combustion
             | chamber isn't as much as a limiting factor. I don't think
             | it's intent is to change the flame regime, though. It just
             | crams more energy into the cylinder.
        
               | lazide wrote:
               | Keep in mind, there is a very common type of ICE that is
               | really a IDE (internal detonation engine) - diesels.
               | 
               | With strong enough engines, detonation isn't ruled out.
        
         | Someone wrote:
         | > I wonder what the record is for a vehicle that can pick up
         | electric energy from a tether/rail/overhead wire...though
         | cables that can carry megawatts of energy are probably pretty
         | heavy.
         | 
         | For a one-off design, those cables could be very short. You
         | could even have a very small pantograph
         | (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantograph_(transport))
         | 
         | I am not sure the end result would be faster, though. You'll
         | need grip to get up to speed, and starting from a standstill,
         | you won't get that from aerodynamics. you'll need mass. Take
         | away the batteries, and you may have to add a similar mass in
         | dead weight (could be used to add a good Faraday cage to
         | protect the driver from mishaps with the electricity supply)
        
           | karamanolev wrote:
           | I think what you care about is to have enough power to be at
           | the limit of the grip of (all) your tires. If you are
           | heavier, you need more power to reach at point. If you do
           | have enough power, then it's all about maximizing grip -
           | tires, surface, downforce and so on.
           | 
           | More mass and more power are roughly equivalent to less mass
           | and less power, if the above holds. Maybe even with less mass
           | it's easier, since you can produce significant downforce with
           | smaller wings.
        
         | rainbowzootsuit wrote:
         | A cable that can carry 1.21GW is only about the diameter of
         | your finger.
        
           | 3000000001 wrote:
           | Great Scott! That's surprisingly small. In all seriousness
           | though, that's probably not at useable voltage, you might end
           | up with a 5 ton transformer on the car if you delivered 33kV
           | in such a small cable.
        
         | mrb wrote:
         | << _~40 MJ /kg for gasoline and 0.4 MJ/kg for a lithium ion
         | battery_>>
         | 
         | That is correct. Out of curiosity, I looked it up and for the
         | Tesla Plaid that's 0.65 MJ/kg (or 181.5 watt*hours per
         | kilogram)
         | 
         | But my follow-up question is: if gasoline has an energy density
         | about 100 times higher (well, 60 times) why are dragsters not
         | even faster? This Stuttgart EV does 0-100 km/h in 1.461 seconds
         | (1.87g), and dragsters do it in 0.8 seconds (3.42g). It sounds
         | like with such a phenomenal energy density, gasoline-powered
         | dragsters should be able to accelerate at much more than 3.42g,
         | maybe 10g, or more. Intuitively this indicates that the
         | bottleneck isn't energy density, but mechanical factors (gears,
         | traction, etc). Therefore if battery energy density can
         | increase just a little more, maybe to 2 or 5 MJ/kg, this may be
         | sufficient for EV to be able to beat dragsters.
        
         | dreamcompiler wrote:
         | > you're looking at roughly a factor of 100, with ~40 MJ/kg for
         | gasoline and 0.4 MJ/kg for a lithium ion battery
         | 
         | If you only care about acceleration, energy density doesn't
         | matter very much. What matters is _power_ : The rate at which
         | you can move energy from the storage medium to the wheels. In
         | that respect a capacitor-powered dragster could probably smoke
         | a top fuel dragster, even though the energy density of
         | capacitors is pretty lousy. No idea if anybody has tried to
         | build a full-size capacitor-powered dragster. Or if any human
         | would be brave enough to drive one.
        
           | LeifCarrotson wrote:
           | Having investigated some of these questions with respect to
           | quadcopters and micro-mouse 'bots, the power density (both in
           | mass and volume) of capacitors is pretty terrible. Whether
           | you're talking about aluminum electrolytic traditional
           | capacitors or double-layer supercapacitors, they're inferior
           | in most cases to a lipo. That's especially true if you're
           | open to high-discharge 50C or 75C lipos, which can dump their
           | entire energy capacity in ~60 seconds.
           | 
           | If you only need a few milliseconds of 'zap', yeah, a
           | capacitor bank is great. It's the only option if you need to
           | do that more than a couple hundred times in the life of the
           | battery; a chemical battery will wear out but a capacitor can
           | last for millions or billions of charge/discharge cycles.
           | 
           | But even a time as short as 1.461 seconds is probably on the
           | far side of the inflection point where capacitors make sense.
           | 
           | If you like, run through the options on Digikey:
           | 
           | https://www.digikey.com/en/products/filter/electric-
           | double-l...
           | 
           | ex:
           | 
           | https://www.eaton.com/content/dam/eaton/products/electronic-.
           | ..
           | 
           | Also remember that an ultracapacitor is about as far in
           | behavior from a physicist's ideal plate capacitor as you can
           | get - they're not linear, they have highly significant
           | internal series resistance...
        
             | TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
             | Also remember that top fuel dragster engines only run for a
             | handful of seconds before they need to be rebuilt, and will
             | be destroyed in a non-recoverable way after more than a few
             | handful of seconds of run time.
             | 
             | I'm not sure if anyone is building electric dragsters with
             | run-once components, or how that might change assumptions?
        
             | dreamcompiler wrote:
             | I was thinking more in terms of ordinary capacitors than
             | supercapacitors because the former are vastly superior in
             | terms of power density. However, ordinary caps are so poor
             | in energy density that it just might matter, even for a
             | very short duration energy dump application.
             | 
             | IOW I'm not sure there's enough volume in a dragster to
             | meaningfully power it with ordinary caps. But if there is,
             | it would be a very quick car.
        
           | greggsy wrote:
           | > Or if any human would be brave enough to drive one.
           | 
           | From the perspective of being that close to being fried, or
           | with respect to the acceleration?
           | 
           | To be honest though, I still think it's amazing that people
           | casually handle extremely flammable and volatile hydrocarbons
           | whenever they visit the gas station. The safety ecosystem is
           | very well tuned, albeit after a hundred+ years of accidents
           | and research.
        
             | dreamcompiler wrote:
             | > From the perspective of being that close to being fried,
             | or with respect to the acceleration?
             | 
             | I was thinking the former. One does not casually fuck
             | around with big capacitor banks and live to talk about it.
        
       | ccn0p wrote:
       | anybody else let down from the video? there was no just simple
       | observer perspective in real time. maybe because it would have
       | been funny going really fast for 20 meters.
        
       | kleiba wrote:
       | Amazing: there's one girl on the team!
        
       | moritonal wrote:
       | That video was brutally edited. I guess it's marketing but it
       | somehow manged to be two minutes long and reduced the actual
       | content to look like a toy car slowly launching without any frame
       | of reference before quickly cutting to a bird?
       | 
       | Like, watch Mythbusters or Slow-mo guys and try again.
        
         | renewiltord wrote:
         | https://youtu.be/xjDK0LhKkMs?t=85 to cut to the chase. It's
         | hard to discern from a routine Tesla with the pedal down
         | perhaps because we're bad at telling small amounts of time
         | apart.
        
           | kube-system wrote:
           | And it's hard to judge speed from a video anyway.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/54Oy75Bnu_Q
        
             | renewiltord wrote:
             | Good one. The static camera shots from distance with human
             | references are probably better on this video anyway
             | https://youtu.be/bO7HlsAbhQk?t=50
        
             | Nition wrote:
             | Video games use this trick all the time. When the player
             | sprints or gets a speed boost, give them some actual boost,
             | but also increase the FOV.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | Krasnol wrote:
         | My thought exactly.
         | 
         | There is not a single normal shot of that car accelerating from
         | outside the car so you can actually see it accelerating fast.
         | It's infuriating.
         | 
         | I guess the marketing department of the university did the
         | video editing...
        
         | spinningslate wrote:
         | came here to say this. I mean, if the car actually did break a
         | record - and I'm not questioning that - then _actually showing
         | it happen_ , in a visually recognisable way, might be, you
         | know, a good idea?!?
         | 
         | Dubious video aside, congratulations to the students. It would
         | be great to see/hear what they did to achieve it. For example:
         | I'd imagine traction off the line would be a big challenge for
         | something so small (and presumably light). They did warm the
         | tyres (video at least showed that) but what else? Traction
         | control? Most likely yes. Anything novel in its implementation?
         | 
         | Be good to get some detail behind the result.
        
         | LeoPanthera wrote:
         | Mythbusters isn't a great example, to the point that there are
         | re-edited episodes floating around that remove all the
         | superfluous teasers, "coming up"s, and unnecessary repeated
         | shots.
         | 
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/smyths/comments/8gix4w/streamlined_...
        
         | topspin wrote:
         | This is why I, and you, read the comments first.
        
         | marginalia_nu wrote:
         | Maybe I'm misremembering, wasn't Mythbusters like
         | 
         | https://tenor.com/view/truck-speed-loop-gif-17654345
        
           | Confiks wrote:
           | Zeno's Truck.
        
           | Dylan16807 wrote:
           | That wasn't mythbusters.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JtZDDQga4o&t=85s This
           | example seems just fine.
        
           | mwint wrote:
           | Usually they would do that, cut to commercials, and then show
           | the full thing in slow motion. Irritating, but not quite the
           | same.
        
           | incahoots wrote:
           | I hate you for this but this gif will never not be
           | entertaining
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | Yes. There's so much slow motion and fast motion there's no
         | sense of how fast the thing accelerated.
         | 
         | Admittedly they're trying to dramatize something that took 1.2
         | seconds, which is hard. But still.
        
       | jws wrote:
       | That's an average acceleration around 2g. This seems beyond the
       | limits of tires and friction. Do aerodynamic down forces kick in
       | fast enough to make more force usable against the road at these
       | relatively low speeds? Do the tires have more than static
       | friction going for them (say, fine scale interlocking with the
       | pavement)?
       | 
       | Drag racers can do 3gs, but that's at higher average speed.
        
         | agloeregrets wrote:
         | Aero might play in a tiny way at the 40-60 MPH space, not
         | meaningfully enough.
         | 
         | As for tires, no actually you can go much further than this.
         | The big detail is wear and heat caused by tire softness and
         | pressure. Road car tires can't enable 0-100KPH much faster than
         | 1.9s or so purely because they can't be so soft as crusing on
         | the highway would cause excess wear(practicality), heat
         | (Danger), and friction(Range).
         | 
         | Drag Racers can accelerate way faster, 0-60MPH in .8s.
        
           | ihunter2839 wrote:
           | The aero packages for these vehicles create a pretty
           | significant amount of downforce at relatively low speeds -
           | for example, our car last season produced ~140 lbs of
           | downforce at 35 mph.
           | 
           | Edit - A lot of that comes from the rear wing though, which
           | the green team didnt run for this particular event.
        
         | Karstographer wrote:
         | These formula student/fsae cars have aero packages which tend
         | to be designed around 30mph average track speeds, so they will
         | get contribution from that, especially in the latter half of
         | the run. Even so, the tire friction involves both physical
         | interlocking due to deformation and chemical adhesion.
         | 
         | You can see the tire warmers in the video being removed in
         | addition to their approach burnout which imparts additional
         | heat into the tires, so that the tires more effectively stick
         | to the ground.
         | 
         | For all of the questions about why they don't compete with
         | dragster techniques, the student race series they participate
         | in has very strict regulations regarding vehicle layout which
         | forces them to be more of an autocross car, these kinds of
         | (heavily couched) records being produced are really somewhat
         | incidental.
        
         | ihunter2839 wrote:
         | Although the other comments are correct about the 30mph
         | optimization for the aero package, this car uses active
         | underbody aero (aka, fans) to create additional downforce even
         | when at a standstill. See the recent runs of the Speirling at
         | Goodwood festival of speed to see a purpose built "fan car" in
         | action.
         | 
         | Interestingly, this setup wouldn't be allowed due to rules in
         | Formula SAE in the US but is legal in the german competition
         | cause those teams are just built different.
         | 
         | Edit - Quick plug! If anyone is interested in supporting FSAE
         | and the awesome engineering that goes into these cars, I am a
         | member of the San Jose State team and our aero team is in need
         | of HPC access to run their CFD simulations. My email is in my
         | profile. Cheers.
        
       | raydiatian wrote:
       | Ohhh, it's 100 kmh
        
       | notum wrote:
       | 257HP on a vehicle that weights less than some people.
       | Exceptional! Congratulations to the team.
        
       | slowhand09 wrote:
       | I'm surprised you had to dig a bit to see it is in KM. A US
       | audience might assume MPH.
        
       | zwieback wrote:
       | Yay, my Alma Mater - the city of Mercedes, Bosch and Porsche.
       | You'd expect some cool car stuff coming from there.
        
       | js2 wrote:
       | 0-100 kmh (~ 62 mph) in 1.461 seconds exposes the driver to ~
       | 1.94 g.
       | 
       | For reference, a top-fuel dragster can do 0-100 mph (~ 161 kmh)
       | in about 0.86 seconds, exposing the driver to nearly 5g.
       | 
       | https://jalopnik.com/the-fastest-0-60-time-a-person-could-ac...
       | 
       | http://www.procato.com/convert/
        
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