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This website is for serious Pinewood Racers. We are currently working on our new video -----------------Pinewood Racer Speed Secrets 3 |
| HOME | BODY DESIGN | Weight Placement | Friction Reduction | Axel Modification | Wheel Prep - Tuning |
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What do You Think ? what if you dropped a 1 pound weight from a height of 1 foot and then dropped the 1 pound weight from a tall building... Which would make the biggest crater ? |
Designing your Pinewood Body should take into account Science and Physics rather than just Style.. Sure a cool looking pinewood racer will make all the other racers look at your car and say.. Wow! Thats a COOL Pinewood car!.. But, After the Pinewood Race, you probably will be taking your car home and no trophy IF you dont take the principals of Science and Physics and incorporate them into your Pinewood Car. But the Pinewood Professor says "No problem!" We can still make a real cool looking pinewood racer AND make it Fly right by the rest of the other cars. All you have to do is think about a few main ideas while designing your car.. So.. what do you think about the One Pound Weight ?? Science and physics tells us that the Longer that Gravity has a chance to influence a Weight, the BIGGER the Crater.. Every time.. |
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The Design of your pinewood derby car body, that's right, Your Pinewood BODY is super important. You may be thinking aerodynamics or wind resistance - the smoother the better, and while that's true to some extent, It's not what we are really talking about here.. We are talking about the ratio between the amount of Pinewood and Lead Weight as well as the Position of it’s Center of Mass.
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Well, science doesnt actually "SAY" that, It says
(in simplified form) Potential Energy = Mass (weight of your car) x Height (how high your center of mass is on the track) x Gravity Well Let's apply some of that "Science" to Pinewood Racing.. First, we need to talk about Potential energy |
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| Have you ever heard someone (probably one of the adults at your race) say, “I could just take a block of wood and make it run as fast as all those cars out there?” Are you kidding me, no chance ! And I’ll explain why. When your car is on the starting line, it has a limited amount of potential energy. I say limited, because the energy is limited by two factors. 1.) the weight of your car. 2.) How high that weight is up one the track. Most pinewood racing rules allow the car to weigh up to 5 ounces (141.5 grams). If you use less than the allowed 5 ounces, you are shorting yourself potential energy. This would be bad. | |||
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When your Pinewood racer on the starting line it is Full of Potential energy - Or at least as much energy as you have allowed it to have (hopefully very close to 5 ounces). Gravity is the FORCE that is pulling down on it.
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It can be a little confusing.. That's why we try to help Pinewood racers such as yourself with our new DVD Pinewood Speed Secrets 3 - The Science of Speed which not only makes complicated principals of science- easy to understand, but also provides you with the best learning tool ever invented - the opportunity to SEE exactly how to do it! Now we now know for sure that we MUST take Full advantage of Gravity (which is the only, I repeat -ONLY-- positive force you have Pulling you down the Slope of the Race Track. You MUST take extra time and thought designing your pinewood derby body to take advantage of Every Ounce of potential energy available to you. Other Pinewood Racers are trying to squeeze every bit of performance out of their cars and they will leave you in the dust and they will walk away with the trophy if you don’t fully explore this critical aspect of Pinewood Body design fully. | ||
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And More power from Gravity than the other Pinewood Racers in your heat, means YOU have the advantage! In Essence, All other things equal, YOUR pinewood racer will "WEIGH MORE" than all the other cars on the track at the Transfer ZONE.. And if your car weighs MORE than the other pinewood cars, YOUR CAR WILL BE FASTER! Remember what I said about the 1 pound weight.. Now at the transfer zone, the other cars will weigh zero (no effective potential energy). Your Car, If you follow our Easy to build procedures will weigh MORE than zero (your car will STILL have potential energy LEFT!).. |
This transfer zone, slope track to flat track is THE critical area, which separates the winners from all the rest. When you look at the transfer zone from a side view, it may not look like much. Just a small change in elevation between the slope track to flat track, but when your cars center of mass reaches the flat track Gravity can no longer help it. So you can see why it’s so important to have gravity act on the center of mass for as long as possible to squeeze out as much Positive energy as possible. That's Why in our New DVD Pinewood Speed Secrets 3 , The Science of Speed, we show you what other racers dont know. How to get MORE power out of the transfer zone than anyone else on the pinewood derby race track! |
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I beleive you will WIN this Year !! |
So when designing your pinewood derby car body for maximum potential energy we must: Design to maximize the Concentration of MASS (weight) taking into account the TRANSFER ZONE. We do this by optomizing the ratio of Pinewood to Lead Weight (or tungsten weight) as well as optomizing the Position of Center of Mass with regards to the TRANSFER ZONE. There you have it.. now you probably already know more than most of the pinewood racers you will be competing with but maybe not.. So Let's Keep Reading and Learning how Science and Physics applys to your pinewood car! Now on to Weight Placement!! ------>>>> |
Huh? what am
I talking about?? YOUR car! Of Course !!
