There are many skill areas within professional motorsports. To design, manufacture and race a car or motorcycle requires many of these skills. Followers of racing will build knowledge of not just who won or lost a race, but how the race engineer decided the car needed to pit on lap 22, for instance. Having this knowledge will help the student to produce a valuable homework project.
Math and Art
Typically, skill areas within motorsports fall into two main categories: math and art. The mathematics required in motorsport span from the basic (area and volume, for instance) to the scientific (analysis of the physics related to a new carbon-fiber component).
Art plays a large part in motorsport; from graphical design (stickers on the cars or transporters, for instance) to in-car camera footage for TV broadcasts.
School Projects, Homework
Deciding on a suitable school (or college) project will depend on the teacher’s homework criteria, but students should work toward their specialist knowledge area. For instance, if a student has to complete a homework project related to art, he or she may decide to redesign the logo for the new General Motors®; does the current logo project the image the new company wants to portray? Can a subtle change make all the difference?
For a math homework project, motorsport have many possibilities. A project may be as simple as calculating the rotational speed of an F1 car’s rear wheel at 200 mph (miles per hour), to its slip resistance during braking of the front tires.
For the artistic student, the following areas of motorsport can offer endless possibilities for projects:
- Car colors (examine a current NASCAR or F1 car); redesign the color scheme to make it stand out from other cars
- Select a logo and modify it to present a greener image
- Design a futuristic car or motorcycle
- Redesign an electric car’s profile to make it look fast
- Research why track-side signs are so located – could driver safety be improved by changing the position/color/graphic?
As mathematics is involved in almost every aspect of motorsport, finding a suitable project is relatively easy; the following suggestions will help a student focus onto an area of interest/knowledge (the suggestions are split into simple and more complex calculations):
Simple:
- Calculate the weight of fuel in a car (6.75 lb.’s per gallon, a 20-gallon tank)
- If the weight distribution is 55% front and 45% rear, calculate the weight distribution of the above fuel tank
- On a 1.75 mile circuit, and with a car achieving 6 miles to the gallon, when would the driver need to pit for more fuel
- How big would a fuel tank need to be to carry 20 gallons of fuel if each gallon displaces 231 cubic inches?
More Complex:
- What distance does a single piston travel during a race if: stroke = 2 inches, the average RPM (revolutions per minute of the crank) = 10,500, and the race lasts for two hours
- How big would the space need to be to carry a 20-gallon fuel tank if: each gallon needs 231 cubic inches, the fuel tank is 0.060 inches thick, and the tank may swell by 18% in hot conditions
- If a car’s weight distribution is 52% toward the rear, where would the center of pressure be on a car weighing 1472 lb.’s if the total aero down-force was 998 lb.’s and the distance between front and rear wheels was 102 inches - show answers in metric units (i.e., mm’s and kg’s)
Although art and math projects are the most obvious subjects to choose for a homework project, motorsport offers many possibilities (perhaps rewriting this article for an English paper) and with lateral thinking a student will be able to use his knowledge of the sport to produce excellent homework.
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