Manatee School For the Arts

 

The Pedal to the Metal Physics Class

Click Here  for the News Channel 8 report on this class - Sept. 2011
 
No, it is not a Go Kart class, it is a Physics Class with all the rigor of an academic class but with The Physics of Motorsports as the theme.  Once you are a member of the class, it qualifies you to join the Extracurricular MSA Racing Team [Not a course requirement].  Since the course meets one of the three science class requirements needed to graduate High School it is a serious physics course and will involve work.  Members of the class will also have some serious fun and excitement.

Approximately every other week we will have a lab experience at Anderson Race Park 

Anderson

It will provide an easy answer to the perennial question, “When am I ever going to use this?” by showing you how the concepts we are learning have applications in racing motor vehicles.  The content includes, but is not limited to:

• The nature of science     
• Laboratory and paddock safety  
• Race and test vehicle operation and safety, rules of track
• The physics of hearing, measuring sound, sound meters, decibels, noise reduction rating/ratio
• Energy and safety, collision forces, peak force, energy barrier design
• Force sensors, dynamometers, flow benches, tachometers, computer data acquisition
• The relationship between power and torque, adjusting the shape of horsepower and torque curves
• Calculating G forces, laws of motion, load distribution
• Centripetal motion, turning on a flat track, turning force, banking, friction, grip
• Fuel economics, propulsion and fuel alternatives
• Gear ratios, converting linear motion into rotational motion,  tire size


• ENERGY •  Units, physical, potential, elastic potential, kinetic, rotational kinetic, heat, density, storage, in atomic bonds

Lab fees: $20 standard science lab fee plus $45 for fuel, tires, transportation to and from the Race Park = $75

Course prerequisites:  Algebra I, and GPA 2.5+

Last Modified on January 26, 2013