Well, last week I was lamenting that we haven't seen the Alameda Naval Yards much lately on the show, and this week both myths were tested there!
Reverse engineering: I heard about this a long time ago, the idea that many car designs were more aerodymic in reverse. I read about it in Discover Magazine, so I figured it was true. Also, it was in reference to '80s cars, not '70s. Basically it was a claim made by a car designer who complained that good engineering was being ignored in favor of marketing -- designing cars that looked streamlined as opposed to ones that actually were.
The idea was that you compare it to an airplane wing, which is widest near the front and narrows toward the back. Cars tend to be the opposite of that, and the car they're using in this episode (they aren't naming it, but is that some kind of Corvette?) certainly looks that way in broad strokes. Although the wind tunnel tests showed it's more complicated; that dip created by the front windshield created a vortex in reverse much the same as the one behind the car going forward.
I'm not sure the speed and acceleration tests really showed anything definitive about the air resistance. I mean, for one thing, how do you know the accelerator is applying the same force, that all else is equal? In particular, with Adam in that much more hunched and uncomfortable position in the reversed car, how can they be sure that it wasn't his performance as a driver that was affected rather than the car's performance? Maybe his leverage on the gas pedal was less effective, his reaction time was slowed, etc. I would've thought the fuel efficiency was the most reliable measure, but apparently that's not necessarily the case.
The final test was the most credible -- just letting the two cars coast side by side so that drag was the only variable in play (assuming identical weight and identically low friction on the axles). The result seemed pretty clear, but I would've liked more analysis of why it worked out that way, why that shape produced those aerodynamic results.
It bugged me that Adam wasn't wearing a helmet in the reverse car. I guess he couldn't fit one in with the windshield being where it was. I suppose altering the shape of the windshield would've thrown off the aerodynamic comparison. Still, it seems unwise to drive at 100 MPH without a helmet.
Surf & turf: It was pretty obvious going in that the "surfboard as deadly weapon" thing from the movie was implausible. I'd imagine a surfboard is pretty lightweight and doesn't have a lot of momentum. Although it turns out the aerodynamics are more of a dealbreaker. Interesting that they're not designed to fly stably through a fluid, given that they operate in water. I know they're supposed to float atop it, but what about cutting through a wave, or whatever you'd call it?
Why did they even think that crashing an SUV into a smaller car would possibly bring it to a complete stop? They know enough physics to know that wouldn't work; they must've just been doing it pro forma to test the scenario shown in the film. But they should've pointed out that that busted it right there, because the larger vehicle wouldn't be completely stopped. They're just not talking about the scientific principles anymore.
Poor Tory. He built that whole really long track thing for the surfboard slingshot, and he only needed five feet!
Interesting result with the 85-MPH surfboard, though. When it hit the windshield, the nose angled up because of the slant of the windshield, and the back of the board had so much kinetic energy pushing it forward that it snapped the board like a toothpick. The slower board had time to change direction as a unit, for the transfer of momentum to be "communicated" from the front to the back of the board, but the faster board didn't, so the front and the back behaved separately and ended up going their separate ways.
They didn't mention it, but it looked to me like that "human-analogue neck" on the dummy was like "Meat Man" from a while back, stitched together from pig parts to accurately represent human tissue/bone/etc. I guess they've done all the basic things so often that they don't feel a need to show the setup anymore -- which is a problem because it doesn't consider the needs of new viewers. There is an increasing lack of attention to the basics on the show these days.
Reverse engineering: I heard about this a long time ago, the idea that many car designs were more aerodymic in reverse. I read about it in Discover Magazine, so I figured it was true. Also, it was in reference to '80s cars, not '70s. Basically it was a claim made by a car designer who complained that good engineering was being ignored in favor of marketing -- designing cars that looked streamlined as opposed to ones that actually were.
The idea was that you compare it to an airplane wing, which is widest near the front and narrows toward the back. Cars tend to be the opposite of that, and the car they're using in this episode (they aren't naming it, but is that some kind of Corvette?) certainly looks that way in broad strokes. Although the wind tunnel tests showed it's more complicated; that dip created by the front windshield created a vortex in reverse much the same as the one behind the car going forward.
I'm not sure the speed and acceleration tests really showed anything definitive about the air resistance. I mean, for one thing, how do you know the accelerator is applying the same force, that all else is equal? In particular, with Adam in that much more hunched and uncomfortable position in the reversed car, how can they be sure that it wasn't his performance as a driver that was affected rather than the car's performance? Maybe his leverage on the gas pedal was less effective, his reaction time was slowed, etc. I would've thought the fuel efficiency was the most reliable measure, but apparently that's not necessarily the case.
The final test was the most credible -- just letting the two cars coast side by side so that drag was the only variable in play (assuming identical weight and identically low friction on the axles). The result seemed pretty clear, but I would've liked more analysis of why it worked out that way, why that shape produced those aerodynamic results.
It bugged me that Adam wasn't wearing a helmet in the reverse car. I guess he couldn't fit one in with the windshield being where it was. I suppose altering the shape of the windshield would've thrown off the aerodynamic comparison. Still, it seems unwise to drive at 100 MPH without a helmet.
Surf & turf: It was pretty obvious going in that the "surfboard as deadly weapon" thing from the movie was implausible. I'd imagine a surfboard is pretty lightweight and doesn't have a lot of momentum. Although it turns out the aerodynamics are more of a dealbreaker. Interesting that they're not designed to fly stably through a fluid, given that they operate in water. I know they're supposed to float atop it, but what about cutting through a wave, or whatever you'd call it?
Why did they even think that crashing an SUV into a smaller car would possibly bring it to a complete stop? They know enough physics to know that wouldn't work; they must've just been doing it pro forma to test the scenario shown in the film. But they should've pointed out that that busted it right there, because the larger vehicle wouldn't be completely stopped. They're just not talking about the scientific principles anymore.
Poor Tory. He built that whole really long track thing for the surfboard slingshot, and he only needed five feet!
Interesting result with the 85-MPH surfboard, though. When it hit the windshield, the nose angled up because of the slant of the windshield, and the back of the board had so much kinetic energy pushing it forward that it snapped the board like a toothpick. The slower board had time to change direction as a unit, for the transfer of momentum to be "communicated" from the front to the back of the board, but the faster board didn't, so the front and the back behaved separately and ended up going their separate ways.
They didn't mention it, but it looked to me like that "human-analogue neck" on the dummy was like "Meat Man" from a while back, stitched together from pig parts to accurately represent human tissue/bone/etc. I guess they've done all the basic things so often that they don't feel a need to show the setup anymore -- which is a problem because it doesn't consider the needs of new viewers. There is an increasing lack of attention to the basics on the show these days.
How can one person have a collective anything? Are you a hive consciousness occupying multiple bodies? 
), so different owners.
