Racing car example to do with coefficient of friction

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on calculating the minimum coefficient of friction required to prevent a racing car from slipping while navigating a banked corner at a 30-degree angle, with a radius of 20 meters and a speed of 30 m/s. Participants emphasize the importance of using a free body diagram (FBD) to analyze the forces acting on the car, which include weight, static friction, and normal force. The mass of the car can be assumed as a variable (M) since it cancels out in the calculations. Air resistance is not included in this analysis.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of centripetal acceleration and forces
  • Familiarity with Newton's second law of motion
  • Ability to create and interpret free body diagrams (FBD)
  • Basic knowledge of friction and its coefficients
NEXT STEPS
  • Learn how to construct and analyze free body diagrams for circular motion
  • Study the derivation of the centripetal force formula
  • Explore the relationship between banking angle and friction in circular motion
  • Investigate the effects of air resistance on vehicle dynamics
USEFUL FOR

Physics students, automotive engineers, and anyone interested in the dynamics of vehicles on curved paths will benefit from this discussion.

dopey9
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A racing track has a corner which is banked at an angle of 30 degrees
cars passing round the corner travel in an acr of a circle of radius 20 metres.
car is traveling at 30 m/s and using g as 10 instead of 9.81

I need to find the smallest value of the coeffiecent of friction needed to prevent the from slipping sideways...but i don't know what forces that i need to use...they haven't give the mass the car so I am not to sure about the reaction...also air resistance do i include?

Is there anyone that can show how to do it the steps and the forces i need to resolve...thankz
 
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dopey9 said:
A racing track has a corner which is banked at an angle of 30 degrees
cars passing round the corner travel in an acr of a circle of radius 20 metres.
car is traveling at 30 m/s and using g as 10 instead of 9.81

I need to find the smallest value of the coeffiecent of friction needed to prevent the from slipping sideways...but i don't know what forces that i need to use...they haven't give the mass the car so I am not to sure about the reaction...also air resistance do i include?
When an object moves in a circular path, what force must be acting on it?
AM
 
Andrew Mason said:
When an object moves in a circular path, what force must be acting on it?
AM

Centripetal force is acting on it...is there a formula for this?
 
dopey9 said:
Centripetal force is acting on it...is there a formula for this?
Try using Newton's second law radially. :wink:
 
"Centripetal force" is IMHO a confusing phrase, generally to be avoided.

It's probably less confusing to say that an object moving in a circular path is has centripetal acceleration. (That is, it must be accelerating towards the center of the curve.)

The usual method for doing this problem is to assume that the car has some unknown mass, say M, and then to draw a FBD of the car on the banked curve, with the understanding that there is some net centripetal acceleration (a function of the car's speed and the radius of curvature).
 
dopey9 said:
A racing track has a corner which is banked at an angle of 30 degrees
cars passing round the corner travel in an acr of a circle of radius 20 metres.
car is traveling at 30 m/s and using g as 10 instead of 9.81

I need to find the smallest value of the coeffiecent of friction needed to prevent the from slipping sideways...but i don't know what forces that i need to use...they haven't give the mass the car so I am not to sure about the reaction...also air resistance do i include?

Is there anyone that can show how to do it the steps and the forces i need to resolve...thankz
Hi,

as NateG said, the mass actually drops out at the end of the calculation. So just assume a mass M and work through the problem

It's really hard to explain without a blackboard to draw on. First you really should start with a free body diagram. Let's say one that shows the car heading directly toward you. So that will show the car on an inclined surface. It's heading directly toward you (toward the z axis).
What are the forces? There's the weight, the static friction force and the normal force. That's it! No other forces. Now draw the three forces on the diagram. The static friction force has to be parallel to the surface. But it could go upward or downward, depending on the situation.

I am confused by the question "to prevent from slipping sideways"...Sideway upward or sideway downward?

Patrick
 

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