Re: Drafting in Bicycle Races

[Chuck Britton <britton@ODIE.NCSSM.EDU>]

At 11:16 AM -0400 9/15/99, Lois Breur Krause wrote:
> OK, I'm gonna jump off a limb again, but wouldn't the second car reduce the
> drag on the first car by mostly eliminating the turbulence at the rear of
> the first car?
> -lois


I think that the 'pedantically correct' response is that the
'turbulence' behind a moving object can EITHER aid its forward motion
OR hinder it.

Guys with pick-up trucks (gals too, my wife drives the truck in OUR
family!) sometimes wonder if removing the tail gate will improve gas
mileage. Sometimes Yes, sometimes No.

If you watch pickups with mesh (fabric) nets instead of a solid
tailgate, you will notice that some truck sizes/designs cause the
netting to be 'blown' outwards and some will show the net being
'sucked' into the bed.

My take on this is that if a mesh net is sucked into the bed area,
then a solid tailgate would help 'push' the truck along the road.
(but then, I make NO claims about theories behind such phenomena, cuz
I can't solve the appropriate Navier-Stokes equations in closed form.)

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Chuck Britton                                   Education is what is left when
britton@odie.ncssm.edu                          you have forgotten everything
North Carolina School of Science & Math         you learned in school.
(919) 286-3366  x224                            Albert Einstein,        1936