With Halloween upon us, we at
Solid Solutions have donned our
witches hats and decided to get
technical about broomstick
design. The most efficient form
of transport for witches and
wizards has always been the
humble broomstick.
I mean, why pay for fuel or
suffer on cramped public
transport when you can just use
magic?
However, a standard old witches
broom won't be very fast or
powerful at all.
For that, you need to leave it
up to the professionals.
Within the Wizarding World of
the Harry Potter universe, there
are entire companies dedicated
to creating the fastest racing
brooms possible,
that are used in Quidditch
matches all across the world.
But how do these brooms size up
against each other?
We can use the power of
SOLIDWORKS, to find out.
So, where better place to start
than Harry's first-ever broom.
The Nimbus 2000.
Gifted to him
after joining Gryffindor's
Quidditch team as a seeker,
the Nimbus 2000 was the fastest
Broom of its time, and Harry
rode it to victory in his
first-ever Quidditch match
against Slytherin.
But, how good actually is the
Nimbus 2000?
The best way to find out is with
SOLIDWORKS Flow Simulation.
The Nimbus 2000 is quoted as having
a top speed of around 125 miles
an hour.
So, to reduce drag as much as
possible, aerodynamics must have
been a top priority.
Using Flow Simulation we can set
the speed of the broom, visually
see how well the air flows
around it and plot data such as
the drag force to aid in our
calculations.
Using the data we've gathered we
can see that the Nimbus
absolutely knocks it out of the
park. Its tail of neatly bundled
twigs allows the air to hug the
profile of the broom well,
creating an impressively small
drag coefficient of 0.135. For
reference,
one of the most aerodynamic cars
on the market right now is the
Tesla Model 3, which only manages
a drag coefficient of 0.23.
Now for a slightly cheaper model
of broom to compare it to. The
CleanSweep 11 is gifted to Ron
after he also joins the
Gryffindor Quidditch team as a
keeper.
However, it pales in comparison
to the Nimbus 2000.
The top
speed of the CleanSweep 11 is 70
miles an hour, which is still
quite impressive considering
most brooms don't fly at all.
But, it doesn't get anywhere
near the speed of the Nimbus
2000s 125.
The aerodynamics also
seem to have taken a backseat as
rather than looking like a
racing broom,
it just looks like a regular old
broom.
The handle is crooked in
all sorts of places and the
Bristles in the back are unkempt
and rough, creating a lot of
turbulence and drag. The final
drag coefficient was 0.32, well
over double that of the Nimbus
but, I suppose it's to be
expected from a cheaper model.
After Harry's Nimbus 2000 was
destroyed in the third movie,
harry was gifted yet another
broom, this time from his
godfather.
A newer model called
the firebolt.
This newer model
is faster than both the
CleanSweep 11 and the Nimbus
2000.
But how much faster?
Well, see for yourself.
150 miles per hour in 10
seconds, with an even higher top
speed.
It's that fast.
But, how does it fare in the
aerodynamics department?
Well compared to the Nimbus, the
Fireball isn't quite as smooth
and neat.
The bristles are
slightly dishevelled and the
handle has knots and
imperfections all over.
The result of this can be seen very
easily using flow simulation.
By using this cut plot, we can
see that there's a lot of
turbulence around the back of
the bristles, which increases
the drag force of the broom.
This results in the drag
coefficient being 0.18, a hefty
nought 0.45 higher than the
Nimbus.
So, what gives?
How does the Fireball go so much
faster with far worse
aerodynamics than the Nimbus?
Well, we're forgetting one
simple ingredient.