Hi everyone, we’re here in the new week and therefore have a new lesson on some of the things we learn that help us go racing.
This week’s very special guest is Marianne, she’s head of the aerodynamics department, one of the most crucial within Formula 1.
They help us corner well, but also help us go in a straight line as quickly as possible
and add all these little winglets and gadgets that we have on the outside of the car.
So without further ado, over to you Marianne.
Welcome to the wind tunnel at the world-famous McLaren Technology Centre.
As you can see, it’s absolute huge.
So last week you learned a few things about probabilities with Randy,
and I hope you’ve had a chance to try the cups challenge at home.
So why are we here in the wind tunnel this week?
Well, we’re here to answer one simple question…
To answer that question we’re going to need to learn a bit about basic aerodynamics.
So, what is aerodynamics?
Well, let’s do a bit of a thought experiment. Please don’t try this in real life.
What happens if when you’re driving along the motorway, you wind down the window of your car and you put your hand out into the air?
What’s going to happen if you tip your hand a little bit up or a little bit downwards? Or turn it like that?
You can feel a force on your hands, that comes from the air flowing over your hand and pushing on it,
and depending on which way you turn your hand, the force will push in different directions.
So, let’s have a look at these forces in action.
I’ve brought my hairdryer with me, and a ping pong ball. Let’s see if I can get this to work
There we go.
So, let’s take an aeroplane wing.
As you can see, when the air flows around it, due to the shape of the wing the air flows faster around one side of the wing, and slower around the other.
Where there is a faster air flow, we get a lower pressure acting on the wing, and where is a slower air flow we get a higher pressure.
That results in an upward force on the wing.
This is an aeroplane wing, so it’s lifting, but on a Formula 1 car, we put the wings upside down to generate downforce.
Well, it depends on the speed.
The downforce comes from the front wing, the rear wing,
and part of the floor called the diffuser.
At top speed, which is well over 300 kph, a Formula 1 car can generate more than 30,000 newtons of downforce.
That’s the equivalent of over three tonnes, or to put it another way, about five cow's worth.
How does a Formula 1 car go through Maggots and Becketts at Silverstone so fast?
Thank you so much Evie, that’s a great question.
Maggots and Becketts are very famous corners at Silverstone, they’re high-speed esses.
The cars go through them at nearly 300 km/h.
How can Formula 1 car go round corners so quickly? Well, we need lots of downforce.
Downforce pushes the car onto the road, and that squashes the tyres onto the tarmac.
When the tyre’s squashed onto the tarmac, they grip better, and that helps them go round the corners more quickly.
So, what is the answer to our question? Could a Formula 1 car drive upside down on the ceiling?
Well, the mass of a Formula 1 is 800 kilos. And our maximum downforce is about 30,000 newtons.
That’s the equivalent of about 3,000 kg. So yes, in terms of pure forces,
the downforce is more than enough to counter the weight of the car several times over,
and stick the car to the ceiling.
However, in practice there would be some other issues. For example, the fluids in the car
– fuel, oil, and hydraulics – would all drain down to the wrong places, so the engine would stop.
The challenge for this week is to make the ultimate paper aeroplane from a single sheet of A4
and see how far it will fly. Here’s my attempt!
Post a picture of your design and how far it flew to Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #McLarenSubstituteTeacher
for the chance to win a Dell XPS laptop.
We’ll see you again next week for another McLaren Substitute Teacher for another lesson. See ya!